The future looks bleak for girls in Afghanistan — even those living as boys

For a select few girls in Afghanistan, there has historically been a temporary reprieve from some aspects of girlhood. Now, "bacha posh," a tradition in which a family designates a girl to live as a boy before puberty, may be threatened.

As a report from the Congressional Research Service put it, "Taliban prohibited women from working, attending school after age 8, and appearing in public without a male blood relative and without wearing a burqa. Women accused of breaking these or other restrictions suffered severe corporal or capital punishment, often publicly." Afghanistan routinely edges toward tops lists of the worst places in the world for women and girls, but some things had improved after the United States invaded in 2001. The maternal mortality rate decreased (though it is still alarmingly high). More women held jobs like doctors, politicians and journalists. And more girls were educated: The World Bank showed almost no girls receiving a primary education in 2000, but more than 85% going to school by 2012. Some even got to be on a robotics team.