Greyson - thank go so much for posting about this especially here in this thread. Usually when I think of kids forced into gender roles, I think of people trying to force kids into gender roles that "match" assigned sex - but this is a great - and terrible - example of the opposite phenomenon.
Years ago, I saw this movie about a scenario like this.
I think the entire movie is on YouTube and also worth watching. It is not a happy movie but it is a movie about a young afghani girl who dresses as a boy to go to school. It came out not too long after 911.