In Afghanistan, as in many less-developed countries, boy babies are much preferred to girls for economic reasons and social status.
But some thus-unlucky Afghan parents have developed a workaround for “excess” girls: simply designate one a boy.
All references to her are male, and she dresses as a boy, plays “boy” games and does “boy” chores, at least until puberty, when many parents of the “bocha posh” convert her back.
In some tribal areas, according to a September New York Times dispatch, superstition holds that creation of a bocha posh even enhances prospects of the next child’s being a boy.
Maybe she
should have
fed the dog
herself 
Although India has forbidden discrimination against lower-caste “Dalits” — so-called “untouchables” — rampant oppression still exists, especially in rural areas.
In October, police were investigating reports that a higher-caste woman had disowned her dog after it had been touched by an “untouchable” woman.
A village council in the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh state had reportedly awarded the higher-caste woman the equivalent of $340 compensation after she witnessed the dog being given food scraps by the Dalit woman.
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