A Second Birth.

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the play A Second Birth performed by the Brigham Young University Department of Theatre and Media Arts. The play is set in present day Afghanistan and the main character is a young lady named Nasim/Nasima. The reason for both names is that she was a daughter of poor Afghani parents and was raised as a boy since age five to improve her family's economic and social standing in the community. As it says in the program, “If there is a man’s job that a man cannot perform, or a man is not available, sometimes a girl will become a bacha posh—literally dressed like a boy. The earliest documented example of this is a picture of women dressed and armed like a man in order to guard the king’s harem. A man’s job, but no man can be trusted with it, so it is given to women dressed as a man.” I realize that the play wasn’t an exact replica of what it would be like to actually be living in that situation, but it was very eye opening. Nasima had to be raised as a boy so that she could attend school and get a job. She was top of her class which showed when she came out as a girl, that females were more than capable. One line that stuck out to me in particular was when Nasima said, “Why should gender decide your talents?” Growing up, both of my parents worked full time, which compared to my friends, was very peculiar. Ever since I was little I have realized that women are just as capable as men; Women make just as great CEOs and surgeons as men. I know that the women’s ultimate responsibility is to raise the children and make sure the home is always taken care of, but I don’t see why females can’t do that concurrently with achieving their fullest potential. Whenever I tell people that I want to become an orthopedic surgeon I get one of two responses; either congratulations for being ambitious or the classic “don’t you want to be a mom?” I’ll save my feminist rant for another day, but even though it is defying odds to be a duel career family in my community, after seeing this play I realize how fortunate I am that I can even imagine that. I’ve gone to school my whole life, I’ve had a job, I get to choose my own spouse, I get to wear what I want; all of these things that I’ve taken for granted. I hadn’t realized there are women in the world who aren’t even allowed to leave their house without an escort and their entire body covered.  The title of the play A Second Birth comes from the idea that Nasima is being given a second chance to live up to Allah’s expectations as a woman, since she was going against him by being a bacha posh. It was pointed out in the play that she had to drop her past life completely if she wants to have a successful new life fulfilling her actual role; which was where Nasima had the most difficulty because she was the top of her class but because of tradition she had to forget about all of her dreams of attending university. This play made me so grateful for the freedoms that I have been given and I hope that eventually all women will be able to have this great freedom.