Boys in Afghanistan Sold Into Prostitution, Sexual Slavery

Wealthy former warlords in Baghlan, a northern province of Afghanistan, recruit adolescent boys for sex and entertainment, while local authorities remain powerless in stopping the practice.
A ‘bacha bereesh’ is a boy without a beard, and in several circles a beardless boy is most desired by rich, powerful male patrons. Grown men become involved in ‘bacha bazi’— which literally translates into ‘boy-play’. This is a time-honored tradition, condemned by human rights activists and Muslim clerics, but it is seeing a revival in the north province of Afghanistan. It is by no means restricted to the north of Afghanistan only, but has virtually faded in the south, where the Taliban’s strict moral code act as a deterrent.

The bacha bereesh, between the ages of 14 to 18 (though 14 seems to be the preferred age), are dressed in special women’s clothing, with bells tied to their feet, and paraded out to dance at parties and weddings. In general, the practice of men dancing at parties is relatively common in Afghanistan, where the sexes are strictly segregated and women unallowed to partake in such activity. However, in Baghlan, the former warlords and mujahideen commanders are resurrecting bacha bazi, and holding dance competitions between the boys.

Allah Daad, once a mujahedin commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, explains how the boys are enticed into the arrangement: “First we select boys in the village and later on we try to trick them into coming with us,” he said. “Some of them stay with us for money; they get a monthly allowance, and in return we can have them any time we want. They don’t stay with us all the time - they can do their own jobs and then just come to parties with us.”

Large halls provide the venues for the weekly parties where the boys’ owners, invite their friends to watch them dancing. Several different types of dances are popular, Daad says, and if the boy refuses to dance or performs badly, his master beats him with a long stick.

"We have to do that,” explains Daad. “We spend money on these boys, so they have to dance.”

Later into the night, once the dancing is over, the boys are frequently shared with close friends, for sexual favors. And by the end of the evening it is not at all uncommon for the boy to have a new owner, as the parties often provide the opportunity for buying and selling.

Both prestige as well as poverty are the main motivators for the revival of bacha bazi.

A beautiful boy who is also the best dancer becomes a status symbol for his master. A man going by the name of Nasro Bay explains how the public ostentation of bacha bazi is a sign of prestige:

“I am not really rich, but I am just as good as the wealthy. I want as many bacha bereesh as possible, so that when I go to parties I am no worse than anybody else.”

He insists that the dancing boy tradition is a good one.

“It’s a good thing,” he said. “We have our own culture. In foreign countries, the women dance. We have our own dances which don’t exist anywhere else in the world.”

The men are said to lavish money and gifts on their boys. Many claim to love them, and there are cases of boys who are not so dissatisfied with their lifestyle, demeaning as it may seem.

"I was only 14-years-old when a former Uzbek commander forced me to have sex with him," says Shir Mohammad. "Later, I quit my family and became his secretary. I have been with him for 10 years, I am now grown up, but he still loves me and I sleep with him."
But at 24, he is getting far too old to remain a dancing boy.
"I am grown up now and do not have the beauty of former years. So, I proposed to marry my lord's daughter and he has agreed to it."

Ahmad Jawad, 17, has been with a wealthy landowner for the past two years.

"I am used to it. I love my lord. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner," he says. When asked what he would do when he got older, Ahmad says he will be an owner and will have many of his own boys.

Some of the men say they are not interested in women.

“We know it is immoral and unIslamic, but how can we quit?” asks 35 year-old Chaman Gul. “We do not like women, we just want boys.”

But poverty tells a less sentimental story, and remains a huge motivating factor in the boy’s lives. It’s often desperation which drives them into the lifestyle.

“I was dancing last night,” one exhausted-looking 14 year-old boy said, when his owner forced him to speak. “I have been doing this for the past year. I have no choice - I’m poor. My father is dead, and this is the only source of income for me and my family. I try to dance well, especially at huge parties. The men throw money at me, and then I gather it up. Sometimes they take me to the market and buy me nice clothes.”

Mohammad Zaher Zafari, head of the northern branch of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, bemoans the government’s inability to take action.

“Unfortunately I have to say that this type of dancing, sexual abuse and even the sale of boys has been going on for years,” he says. “It is a despicable culture. The boys involved are usually poor, underage or orphans, and they are forced into it by their economic circumstances.

Indeed, the government has failed to do much about the practice of bacha bazi, and police force do little to encourage public confidence. Local officials do admit the practice is prevalent but seem at a loss as to how to combat it.

“Yes, bacha baazi is practiced a great deal, especially in the Khost-o-Fering and Andarab districts,” says Hafizullah Khaliqyar, head of the prosecutor’s office for Baghlan province. “Boys are forced to dance, they are sexually abused, and they are even bought and sold. Fights take place over these bacha bereesh. It’s increasing day by day, and it’s catastrophic.”

Khaliqyar says there is little that prosecutors could do. “The police and district heads won’t cooperate with us,” he complains. “They don’t send us their files, so we can’t take action.”

He says the paramilitary commanders involved are powerful- so powerful that no one, not even the police, is able to rise against them.

But Baghlan chief prosecutor Hafizullah Khaliqyar has more hope, and says those found guilty of abuse would be jailed for at least 15 years.

"We have 25 cases of such immoral acts. They are being processed and we are trying our utmost to tackle the problem," he says.

enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUxq8rI6lM

You guys truly are a great and powerful race.

Anyways how's the little cave you live in these days

ha ha u loser, pretending to be me
get a life

Pashtun Power... pashtun WARRIOR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rFOgR0sIiE&feature=fvsr

IGNORANT Idiot BACHA BAZI ... THATS IN NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN, lol ther are HAZARA... NOT PASHTUN lol

SELF OWNAGE!!

Thats right brother.
what do these infidels know about our proud Pathan culture.

http://www.globalgayz.com/country/Afghanistan/view/AFG/gay-afghanistan-homoeroticism-among-kabul-s-warriors

Gay Afghanistan

To be gay and to practice homosexuality are two different things. One is an act, one is an identity. Sometimes, the two cross. The idea that Afghanistan can be gay is somewhat of a strange notion. Still, that the punishment for homosexuality was a partial reason for the Taliban's rise to power indicates something is going on.

Since 9-11, I had a tremendous curiosity in visiting Afghanistan, largely because I am a New Yorker and feel that Afghanistan and New York are forever linked in history. As I read on Afghanistan, I came across numerous references to homosexuality in the country. Some were by journalists who were surprised to have passes made at them, others were soldiers who were repulsed. Still, other accounts were by women who could ask questions but only go so far.

My name is Michael Luongo, and I decided, as a gay journalist, to visit Afghanistan and better understand this phenomena. I found Afghanistan to be a very safe place to visit, in spite of what you read in the papers. The people are also the most warm and welcoming of any in the world. I also found the homosocial culture was gay friendly in its own weird way. I have been to Kabul where men ask you to have sex with them directly on the street, visited seeming cruising areas in Kandahar near temples as well as the walls which the Taliban murdered homosexuals. In Mazar and the surroundings, there is a history of men dressing as women to dance at weddings, and the videos of the dances are for sale in shops.

I recommend Afghanistan as a destination gay men should consider visiting. We can drink overpriced cosmos only for so long until it gets boring. Visiting Afghanistan puts a real twist into the definition of gay travel. Look for an upcoming book by me called "Men with Guns and Smiles" about my adventures in the near future.

No one is toppling walls on homosexuals anymore, but by going, you'll certainly be breaking walls of misunderstanding down between Afghanistan and the West.

Visit www.kabulguide.net for the best in Afghan tourist advice and ideas. www.globalgayz.com also has a comprehensive survey of articles on homosexuality on Afghanistan. Please also visit my main website www.michaelluongo.com for information on all of my work.

Below are some links to work I have done on Afghanistan, gay and non-gay. Click on the link or paste into your browser and look for fequent updates:

Gay City News: Afghanistan

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_318/eroticismamong.html

FilmMaker Magazine: Filmmaking in Afghanistan

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/spring2004/line_items/apocalypse.html

The Villager – Afghan War Rugs

some more shuja biradar.
An excerpt:



When American and British marines started returning from the war in Afghanistan in early 2002, they brought along with them curious stories about Afghanistan’s peasants who put on make-up and consistently followed them around or even sexually abused them. This was a very shocking experience for the soldiers.

- They were more terrifying than the al-Qaeda. One bloke who had painted toenails was offering to paint ours. They go about hand in hand, mincing around the village – a terrified marine, James Fletcher, told the Scotsman upon returning from Afghanistan.

- We were pretty shocked. We discovered from the Afghan soldiers we had with us that a lot of men in this country have the same philosophy as ancient Greeks: ‘a woman for babies, a man for pleasure’ – Fletcher continued recounting his experience.

For every Pashtun there is an Ashna

After the fall of the repressive Taliban regime in which homosexuality, sodomy and generally any kind of relations outside of marriage between a man and a woman were punishable by death, Afghans have finally become free to enjoy homosexual relationships that have been an integral part of their culture for several centuries.

In the city of Kandahar, which is considered the gay capital of Southern Asia, there is an ancient custom among the ethnic Pashtun people. An adult man picks a young boy, a teenager, called an “ashna” and gives him money and presents in turn for sexual favours. This Pashtun tradition is even represented in their poetry, in odes written about the beauty of young “ashnas”. This is a tradition that is present in all facets of society, practiced by the rich and poor alike. The parents of young boys who are sex slaves are usually aware of their sons’ relations with their “sugar daddies”. And although their parents keep this a secret from others, they do not contest the custom. Especially if the Pashtun is rich.

You can see some Afghanistan male couples HERE.

Traditional dancing in women’s clothing

Such a form of prostitution has been quite widespread in recent years due to poverty among teenagers and the strict rules that forbid any contact among singles of the opposite sex. American Fox writes that in 1994 two Afghanistan officers got into a fight over a boy they both took a liking to. The government even had to pass a law forbidding Afghan soldiers from living with their “ashnas”. After the Taliban regime, the Afghanistan Supreme Court ruled homosexuality illegal and sodomy punishable by death. But in reality, nobody will lose their life because of homosexual relations. Rather, they will be given long-term prison sentences or just get away with a fine, which is a very lenient punishment in this Islamic country.

The British wrote about gay love in Kabul as far as a century and a half back, which is proof that homosexuality was pretty widespread even back then. Some gay tourist guides claim that there used to be stores in Kandahar which held pets that were considered gay symbols, quails, for example. There are even customs in which, during wedding ceremonies, entertainers dress up in women’s clothing and dance traditional dances. The local population says that birds fly above the city using only one wing. They use other wing to cover their derrieres. Taliban leader Mullah Omar curried favour with Taliban officers by offering them young boys.

Contact with a woman is taboo; contact with a man is not

There are no organised gay associations in Afghanistan, but contrary to many Western countries, men can freely walk the streets holding hands. This was especially shocking for foreign troops who became fascinating for the Afghan men. Armed and ready to engage in conflicts with Al-Qaeda, the only conflicts the foreign troops had were with local men who only wanted to stroke their hair.

- It was hell. Every village we went into we got a group of men wearing make-up coming up, stroking our hair and cheeks and making kissing noises – 20-year-old Corporal Paul Richard uttered.

One can only speculate about the roots of sodomy and homosexuality in Afghanistan because the fact is that a long-standing tradition is always the result of various factors. Some claim that the main reason for this is the ban of any contact between men and women who are not married, while men constantly spend time together.

Most indigent boys do not even know what a woman’s body looks like until they are married. And marriage is a very expensive endeavour in Afghanistan – the dowry usually consists of several average Afghanistan salaries, which only a few can afford.

Taking into consideration the reports of Western marines, much is forbidden in Afghanistan. But it would not be surprising if in a few years’ time Kandahar throws its first gay parade.
http://www.javno.com/en-world/video--gay-is-ok-in-afghanistan_130563

enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYR4j-CzXpk

Btw Kandahar is in the south.
Pathan territory brother.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandahar

I guess u indians wud all be ashnas!! since you have no manhood and use minute condoms, lol

Are you one lol since its prevalent in Pathan/Afghan culture?

Must be hard on you.