How to Reintegrate the Afghan Boys Used as Sex Toys of Powerful Men?
Screenshot from video of Bachi Baza males dancing shot in hotel in Kabul. Video uploaded onto YouTube by the user Sofi on September 9, 2013. Face of dancer blurred to protect identity.
In Bacha Bazi, a sexual practice involving two males that has remained common in Afghanistan through many centuries, relations are far from equal.
Today, the practice, which translates roughly as “boy play” typically involves an older man (often a powerful military commander either on the government side or the militant Taliban) and a young boy, aged between 14 and 18.
The boys are bought or sometimes kidnapped from their families and retained by their well-armed patriarchs for dancing, games and sexual pleasure. They are treated as possessions to bolster a warlord's standing in front of his peers, and their reintegration into society often ends in tragedy.
According to Akhilesh Pillalamarri, writing in the Diplomat, the ongoing prevalence of Bacha Bazi highlights “the tragic situation where consensual homosexual relations are punishable by death [in Afghanistan], while exploitative relationships with boys are simply winked at.”
Historical origins
While the historical origins of Bacha Bazi are difficult to trace, the practice is well-noted in literature. Great Persian-speaking poets from the fourteenth century including Hafiz Shirazi and Jami Herati penned verses in praise of the handsomeness of their boys. In his book Shahed Bazi dar Adabiat Faris (Bacha Bazi in Persian literature) a professor of Persian literature at Tehran University, Sirus Shamisa, claims that the anonymous muses of Persian romantic poets were often males, rather than females.
Some speculate that Bacha Bazi has sustained its presence in Afghanistan due to the distance traditionally maintained between the sexes throughout childhood and into adolescence.
The practice undoubtedly boomed, however, during the war of resistance that followed the Soviet Union's invasion of the country in 1979. Mujaheedin fighting the invading force spent long periods away from home in remote mountainous regions where child soldiers would be among their companions.
More recently, in December, The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) warned that Bacha Bazi had surged again, following intense conflict in the northeast of the country. The commission called on the parliament to pass anti-Bacha Bazi laws.
Although the tradition is strongly associated with the northern regions of Afghanistan where resistance to the Soviet incursion for over a decade was concentrated, Taliban forces, whose sanctuaries are in southern and eastern Afghanistan, are now the biggest perpetrators.
This is in spite of the fact that, when in power prior to the US-led invasion of 2001, the group took steps to outlaw the practice and punish the older men involved in it.
Afghan social media users opposed to the Taliban strongly criticise the group for engaging in Bacha Bazi. But such criticisms often have the unfortunate side-effect of deepening the stigma surrounding the boys themselves.
لواطت و بچه بازی، لذت جنسی بردن از پسران جوان در بین طالبان مسلح افغانستان بیداد میکند.