Chap­ter 6: In this chap­ter, the fam­i­ly comes togeth­er to devise a plan to dis­guise Par­vana as a boy so she can safe­ly nav­i­gate the mar­ket and buy nec­es­sary sup­plies while her father remains absent. The idea is enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly pre­sent­ed by both her moth­er and Mrs. Weera, though Par­vana feels uneasy about the impli­ca­tions of such a trans­for­ma­tion. Noo­ria sug­gests that Par­vana pre­tend to be their cousin from Jalal­abad, which ini­tial­ly con­fus­es Par­vana as she tries to under­stand the rea­son­ing behind the plan. As the dis­cus­sion pro­gress­es, Par­vana is struck by the harsh real­i­ty that her friends and rel­a­tives have scat­tered, leav­ing her feel­ing increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed. In an attempt to cre­ate a con­vinc­ing dis­guise, Moth­er decides that Par­vana should wear the clothes of her deceased broth­er Hos­sain, though Par­vana protests due to her long hair, fear­ing it will make her less believ­able as a boy.

Noo­ria, insis­tent on cut­ting Parvana’s hair to com­plete the dis­guise, is met with resis­tance from Par­vana, who tries to avoid respon­si­bil­i­ty by shift­ing the blame to her sis­ter. Despite her protests, Par­vana ulti­mate­ly agrees, under­stand­ing that in order to sur­vive in the increas­ing­ly hos­tile envi­ron­ment, she must accept the dis­guise. This real­iza­tion marks a turn­ing point for Par­vana, as she under­stands that the choice is hers alone, even though it comes with deep emo­tion­al con­flict. As the hair is cut, Par­vana feels a com­bi­na­tion of dread, uncer­tain­ty, and res­ig­na­tion, but also begins to sense a new­found sense of agency in mak­ing the deci­sion her­self. When the last strands fall, Par­vana begins to feel a trans­for­ma­tion take place, not just phys­i­cal­ly but men­tal­ly as well. After­ward, her moth­er urges her to change into Hossain’s clothes, which feel unfa­mil­iar and slight­ly awk­ward at first but also offer a sense of free­dom, a small but sig­nif­i­cant change in her life.

Once dressed, Par­vana expe­ri­ences a moment of dis­ori­en­ta­tion as she looks at her­self in the mir­ror, no longer rec­og­niz­ing the reflec­tion star­ing back at her. Nooria’s crit­i­cism of her appear­ance only deep­ens her sense of con­fu­sion, yet with a few encour­ag­ing words from her fam­i­ly, Par­vana begins to feel more con­fi­dent in her new dis­guise. As she steps out into the world for the first time, she is ini­tial­ly over­whelmed by the fear of being exposed. How­ev­er, as she walks through the streets, Par­vana finds com­fort in blend­ing in, real­iz­ing that she is just anoth­er boy among many on the bustling streets of Kab­ul. Suc­cess­ful­ly pur­chas­ing tea and rice with­out draw­ing atten­tion to her­self brings a sense of accom­plish­ment, boost­ing her con­fi­dence in the deci­sion she made. This small vic­to­ry helps Par­vana see that she can adapt to her new role, nav­i­gat­ing the world in a way that keeps her safe and pro­tect­ed.

Upon return­ing home, Par­vana eager­ly shares her suc­cess with her fam­i­ly, proud of her accom­plish­ment, but she soon notices that her moth­er reacts with vis­i­ble dis­tress when she sees Par­vana dressed in Hossain’s clothes. The sight of her daugh­ter in the deceased son’s clothes is a poignant reminder of the loss their fam­i­ly has endured. Noo­ria sug­gests that Par­vana wear the boy’s cloth­ing at home as well, a pro­pos­al that only adds to the already strained dynam­ics with­in the fam­i­ly. The chap­ter ends with a heart-wrench­ing moment when Moth­er, in an emo­tion­al slip, calls out to Par­vana as “Ali, my son,” under­scor­ing her inner tur­moil and emo­tion­al strug­gle with the changes they are all going through. This moment of con­fu­sion high­lights the emo­tion­al weight of the family’s trans­for­ma­tion, as they grap­ple with the loss of their for­mer lives and adapt to the harsh new real­i­ties they must face togeth­er.