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Afghan girl spends life disguised as 'son' her parents wanted

Afghan female laborer Sitara Wafadar, 18, who dresses as a male in order to support her family. [Photo by AFP] 

Sitara Wafadar yearns for long hair like other girls. Instead, the Afghan teenager has disguised herself as a boy for more than a decade, forced by her parents to be the "son" they never had.

With five sisters and no brothers, Sitara lives by the gender-twisting custom known as "bacha poshi", which in Dari refers to a girl "dressed as a boy", enabling her to safely perform the duties of a son in the patriarchal country.

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