something to read ig

"bacha bazi"

tw: sexual abuse of minor, child trafficking

In The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi (Behind Taliban Lines) returns to his native land to expose an ancient practice that has been brought back by powerful warlords, former military commanders and wealthy businessmen. Known as "bacha bazi" (literal translation: "boy play"), this illegal practice exploits street orphans and poor boys, some as young as 11, whose parents are paid to give over their sons to their new "masters." The men dress the boys in women's clothes and train them to sing and dance for the entertainment of themselves and their friends. According to experts, the dancing boys are used sexually by these powerful men.

In detailed conversations with several bacha bazi masters in northern Afghanistan and with the dancing boys they own, reporter Quraishi reveals a culture where wealthy Afghan men openly exploit some of the poorest, most vulnerable members of their society.

"What was so unnerving about the men I had met was not just their lack of concern for the damage their abuse was doing to the boys," Quraishi says. "It was also their casualness with which they operated and the pride with which they showed me their boys, their friends, their world. They clearly believed that nothing they were doing was wrong."

Under the guise of doing a documentary on similar practices in Europe, Quraishi gained the confidence of Dastager, a former mujahideen commander and wealthy businessman whose business interests include importing autos from the Far East. With Dastager as his guide, Quraishi takes viewers inside the world of bacha bazi, where prominent men compete to own and use the boys.

"I had a boy because every commander had a partner," says Mestary, a former senior commander who is well connected with major Afghan warlords. "Among the commanders there is competition, and if I didn't have one, then I could not compete with them."

"I go to every province to have happiness and pleasure with boys," says an Afghan man known as "The German," who acts as a bacha bazi pimp, supplying boys to the men. "Some boys are not good for dancing, and they will be used for other purposes. ... I mean for sodomy and other sexual activities."

Source: PBS https://share.google/Ie24HV9vGRdUGZDxH

[18 September 2013] -

Sexual exploitation of boys, in particular the practice of "bacha bazi" (literally boy play) in which boys are "owned" for dancing and sex, remains one of the least talked about abuses in Afghanistan.

It is an age-old custom, banned by the Taliban when they were in power, but now undergoing a resurgence.

"Before, bacha bazi was in some special areas, but now it is everywhere. It is happening in Takhar [province] and the rest of the north," the child rights commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Suraya Subhrang, told IRIN.

"When you don't have a strong central government or rule of law, and the culture of impunity exists and laws are not implemented, many things happen."

The influence of warlords, wealthy merchants and illegal armed groups supports demand, while poverty and the sheer number of displaced children drives the supply of exploitable boys. They are released when they are aged around 18, but their future is often bleak.

They are usually enticed or abducted when they are still children and held as property by an "owner".

Many "owners" vehemently deny they sexually abuse the boys, but after a bacha performance, the boys can end the evening being abused by a group of men.

A former commander in the Northern Alliance, opposed to the then Taliban government, who did not wish to be identified, told IRIN he had kept a 14-year-old bacha for two years. He had not given the boy a salary but paid all of his expenses, which amounted to US$300-400 a month. "There are two types of boys: those who can dance well and are kept for entertainment, and those who can't and are kept only for sexual purposes. I kept my boy for sex," he said.

Campaigners say they repeatedly come across cases of exploitation but the perpetrators have little awareness of child rights, or that they are involved in coercion and sexual violence.

DVDs of young boys dressed as women performing at weddings and other events are available on the streets of Kabul or via YouTube.

Source: CRIN - Child Rights International Network https://archive.crin.org/en/library/news-archive/afghanistan-depth-look-practice-bacha-bazi-dancing-boys.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi