I'm halfway to my 2022 #FReadom goal of reading 20 books challenged/threatened in Texas libraries & schools. Book 10 was The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg, a journalistic exploration of girls in Afghanistan who are raised/presented as boys. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213715/the-underground-girls-of-kabul-by-jenny-nordberg

When we frame identity formation as "nature vs nurture," we overlook many factors that are neither natural nor nurturing: power, inequality, violence. Nordberg's reporting shows that expression of gender can be expression of resistance, of self-determination, of freedom.