Preference for male child is quite prevalent in Asian countries. Clinical abortions, sex-determination tests, etc are part of a normal life for people who favour a male child. Due to this, massive female foeticide and the resulting skewed sex ratio are among the challenges ahead.

This particular case from Afghanistan highlights the extent of setback across the world.

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.