She SHOULDN'T have been acting suspicious!!!

I really must agree. Girl or boy, she was kind of a wuss. Granted, I can see if she got spooked seeing the Taliban and ran, but even when she yelled for her mother she said something like "MAMA IF THEY FIND OUT I'M A GIRL THEY'LL KILL ME!" Well they WILL if you don't lower your voice! She also should have tried to be tougher. I would have kicked one of the smaller boys' asses just to prove I was a boy if I were her. Also, the thing you said about the tree. Even if she did get hurt, she could just act like it didn't hurt so much. I thought this was going to be a whole feminist, female empowerment movie, but it really did just make women look weak.

At first I was also thinking that she was attracting unwanted attention to herself and was acting like a "wuss" like you said, and I started kind of blaming her a little bit. BUT I thought about the reasons why she would act the way she did, and it makes sense. I was looking at the scenario from an American perspective and failed to remember how Taliban-ruled Afghanistan socialized and treated women and girls. Of course she was acting suspiciously. She was scared to death plus she did not know how to act like a boy bec. of the segregated nature of life under the Taliban rule. It's not a hopeful female empowerment movie. Instead, it captures the hopelessness of the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan during the Taliban period and today.

I got frustrated that she did not act the part more as well. Do not get me wrong I feel for her, but I wanted to yell at her and say stop being so girly! Talk with a lower voice or shut up, walk tougher, don't whine, climb the goddamned tree like a monkey if you have to!...it is better than being stoned to death,muster up the strength you puss! She also should have tried to play with the boys run and punch them on he arm or something as hard as she could when in recess. If she had not looked so worried all the time less attention would have been drawn to her. And when she was praying was the biggest or first major giveaway...she could have mimicked them faster...i been to churches and i had no idea what to do but i followed along quickly. She should have had her eyes open when bowing and peeked to see when people rose...she really sucked at it all.
Too bad she never saw "Just One of the Guys." Just kidding, but really, she stunk and the mother should have stopped it sooner because of it. I guess she had no choice though, damn I am so glad i was born here.