Bacha bazi

Dance of bacha,Samarkand,1905–1915, photo byProkudin-Gorsky

"Portrait of bacha", byVasily Vereshchagin(1867–1868)

Bacha bāzī(Persian:بچه بازی,lit. 'boy play')is a practice in which men (sometimes calledbacha baz) buy and keep adolescent boys (sometimes calleddancing boys) for entertainment and sex.It is a custom inAfghanistanand in historicalTurkestanand often involvessexual slaveryandchild prostitutionby older men of young adolescent males.

According to German ethnographic research, the phenomenon is up to a thousand years old. As far back as the 9th or 10th century, the mountainous regions that are now northern Afghanistan were known for this practice.

Bacha baziwas outlawed during theIslamic Republic of Afghanistanperiod.Nevertheless, it was widely practiced. Force and coercion were common, and security officials of theIslamic Republic of Afghanistanstated they were unable to end such practices and that many of the men involved inbacha baziwere powerful and well-armed warlords.

During the time of Taliban rule currently and previously,bacha bazicarries thedeath penaltyunderTalibanlaw.Under theIslamic Republicgovernment, the practice of dancing boys was illegal underAfghan law,but the laws were seldom enforced against powerful offenders, andpolicehad reportedly been complicit in related crimes.The practice ofbacha bazihad increased under the rule of the Islamic Republic government.On 23 September 2016, the Taliban militants in northern Baghlan province executed a man and a boy on charges of “bacha bazi” (pederasty).

U.S. government forces in Afghanistan after theinvasion of the countryreportedly deliberately ignoredbacha baziabuse by Afghan allies.This caused controversy. The U.S. military responded by claiming the abuse was largely the responsibility of the "local Afghan government".

History

A study published in 2014 reported that 78% of Afghan men who keepbacha baziboys are married to a woman.Some Afghans believe thatbacha baziviolatesIslamic lawon grounds that it is homosexual in nature; others believe that Islam only forbids a man to sexually engage with another man, but not with a boy.

One of the original factors mobilizing the rise of theTalibanwas their opposition to the bacha bazi.After the Taliban came to power in 1996,bacha baziwas bannedalong with homosexuality.The Taliban considered it incompatible withSharia law.Bothbacha baziand homosexuality carried the death penalty,with the boys sometimes being charged rather than the perpetrators.Often, boys are selected because they are poor and vulnerable.Men who have beenbachaboys face social stigma and struggle with the psychological effects of their abuse.

In 2011, in an agreement between theUnited Nationsand Afghanistan,Radhika Coomaraswamyand Afghan officials signed an action plan promising to end the practice, along with enforcing other protections for children.In 2014, Suraya Subhrang, child rights commissioner at the nationalAfghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission,stated that the areas practicingbacha bazihad increased.

In 2022, after theTaliban's return to powerfollowing the United States' militarydisengagement from Afghanistan,it was reported that the abuse persisted in the reinstated Islamic Emirate, with Taliban officials broadly engaging in bacha bazi.

Formation of the Taliban

The practice of bacha bazi by warlords was one of the key factors inMullah Omarmobilizing the Taliban.Reportedly, in early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two young girls who had been kidnapped and raped by a warlord, hanging him from a tank gun barrel.Another instance arose when in 1994, a few months before the Taliban took control of Kandahar, two militia commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both wanted tosodomize.In the ensuing fight, Omar's group freed the boy; appeals soon flooded in for Omar to intercede in other disputes. His movement gained momentum through the year and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools totaling 12,000 by the year's end with some Pakistani volunteers. While initially remaining quiet and focused on continuing his studies during theAfghan Civil War,Omar became increasingly discontent with what he perceived asfasādin the country, including the practice ofbacha bazi,ultimately prompting him to return to fighting in the Civil War. In 1994, Omar, along with religious students in Kandahar, formed the Taliban, which emerged victorious against other Afghan factions by 1996. Omar led the Taliban to form aSunni Islamic theocracyheaded by theSupreme Council,known as theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan,which strictly enforcedsharia. AfterDr Najibullah'sstepped down, the country fell into chaos as variousAfghan Mujahideenfactions fought for total control ofAfghanistan.Omar had a dream in 1994 in which a woman told him: "We need your help; you must rise. You must end the chaos. God will help you."Omar started his movement with less than 50 armedmadrassahstudents who were simply known as the Taliban (Pashtun for 'students'). His recruits came from madrassas located in Afghanistan and theAfghan refugeecamps which were located across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption which had emerged during thecivil warperiod and were initially welcomed by Afghans who were weary ofwarlordrule. Apparently, Omar became sickened by the abusive raping of children by warlords and turned against their authority in the mountainous country of Afghanistan from 1994 onwards. Bacha bazi,a form ofpederasticsexual slaveryandpedophiliawhich is a trend practiced in various provinces of Afghanistan, was also forbidden under the six-year rule of the Taliban regime.Under the rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,bacha bazi,a form ofchild sexual abusebetween older men and young adolescent "dancing boys", has carried thedeath penalty.

Modern examples

Clover Filmsand AfghanjournalistNajibullah Quraishimade a documentary film titledThe Dancing Boys of Afghanistanabout the practice, which was shown in the UK in March 2010and aired in the US the following month.Journalist Nicholas Graham ofThe Huffington Postlauded the documentary as "both fascinating and horrifying".The film won the 2011 Documentary award in theAmnesty International UK Media Awards.

The practice ofbacha baziprompted theUnited States Department of Defenseto hire social scientistAnnaMaria Cardinallito investigate the problem, asISAFsoldiers on patrol often passed older men walking hand-in-hand with young boys. Coalition soldiers often found that young Afghan men were trying to "touch and fondle them", which the soldiers did not understand.

In December 2010, aleaked diplomatic cablerevealed that foreign contractors hired by the American military contractorDynCorphad spent money onbacha baziin northern Afghanistan.Afghan Interior MinisterMohammad Hanif Atmarrequested that the U.S. military assume control over DynCorp training centres in response, but theU.S. embassyclaimed that this was not "legally possible under the DynCorp contract".

In 2011, an Afghan mother inKunduz Provincereported that her 12-year-old son had been chained to a bed and raped for two weeks by anAfghan Local Police(ALP) commander named Abdul Rahman. When confronted, Rahman laughed and confessed. He was subsequently severely beaten by two U.S.Special Forcessoldiers and thrown off the base.The soldiers were involuntarily separated from the military, but later reinstated after a lengthy legal case.As a direct result of this incident, legislation was created called the "Mandating America's Responsibility to Limit Abuse, Negligence and Depravity", or "Martland Act" named after Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland.

In December 2012, a teenage victim of sexual exploitation and abuse by a commander of theAfghan Border Policekilled eight guards. He made a drugged meal for the guards and then, with the help of two friends, attacked them, after which they fled to neighbouring Pakistan.

In a 2013 documentary byVice MediatitledThis Is What Winning Looks Like,British independent film-makerBen Andersondescribes the systematic kidnapping, sexual enslavement and murder of young men and boys by local security forces in the Afghan city ofSangin.The film depicts several scenes of Anderson along with American military personnel describing how difficult it is to work with theAfghan policeconsidering the blatant molestation and rape of local youth. The documentary also contains footage of an American military advisor confronting the then-acting police chief about the abuse after a young boy is shot in the leg after trying to escape a police barracks. When the Marine suggests that the barracks be searched for children, and that any policeman found to be engaged in pedophilia be arrested and jailed, the high-ranking officer insists what occurs between the security forces and the boys is consensual, saying "[the boys] like being there and giving their asses at night". He went on to claim that this practice was historic and necessary, rhetorically asking: "If [my commanders] don't fuck the asses of those boys, what should they fuck? The pussies of their own grandmothers?"

In 2015,The New York Timesreported that U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan were instructed by their commanders to ignore child sexual abuse being carried out byAfghan security forces,except "when rape is being used as a weapon of war". American soldiers have been instructed not to intervene—in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records. But the U.S. soldiers have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the U.S. military was arming them against the Taliban and placing them as the police commanders of villages—and doing little when they began abusing children.

According to a report published in June 2017 by theSpecial Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction,the DOD had received 5,753 vetting requests of Afghan security forces, some of which related to sexual abuse. The DOD was investigating 75 reports of gross human rights violations, including 7 involving child sexual assault.According toThe New York Times,discussing that report, American law required military aid to be cut off to the offending unit, but that never happened.US Special Forcesofficer, Capt. Dan Quinn, was relieved of his command in Afghanistan after fighting an Afghan militia commander who had been responsible for keeping a boy as a sex slave.

In fiction

The musicalThe Boy Who Danced on Airby Rosser & Sohne premieredoff-off-Broadwayin 2017.Inspired byThe Dancing Boys of Afghanistandocumentary,it follows Paiman, abacha baziwho is growing older and will be released from slavery soon. He meets Feda, a fellowbacha bazi,and the two consider running away as they fall in love. In the background, Paiman and Feda's masters, Jahander and Zemar, reckon with America's influence on Afghanistan's society.

The production received positive to mixed reviews. Jesse Green, writing forThe New York Times,said the work "[took] the challenge of difficult source material too far... The ick factor here is dangerously high, a problem that the production... labors hard to mitigate through aesthetics," and appreciated the romance but wished it had not attempted "a stab at political relevance."Jonathan Mandell, writing forNew York Theater,said that the Jahander subplot was "one of the ways [Rosser and Sohne] are trying to compensate for their Western perspective and the show's focus on the fictional romance. But their efforts at filling in the background don't strike me as sufficient."TheaterMania's review called it "both emotionally and intellectually stirring. Anyone who cares about the future of the American musical should run out and see it now—as should anyone who cares about the country in which the United States is presently fighting the longest war in our history."

After an online stream of the original production was released in July 2020,the work received significant backlash from Afghans,particularlyLGBTAfghans, who perceived it as romanticizing child sexual abuse and criticized the white American writers fororientalismand misrepresentingbacha bazias an accepted "tradition" in Afghanistan. The backlash led many to apologize for their involvement with the production and stream; the stream was removed ahead of schedule. After consulting with members of the Afghan community, creators Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne acknowledged in a statement that "no Afghan voices were empowered in the creation of the show," and chose to end all distribution of the music and donate previous proceeds to Afghan charities.

See also

• Child sexual abuse
• Human rights in Afghanistan
• Bacha posh,cross-dressing a daughter as a boy for increased social freedom in Afghanistan
• The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan(2010 documentary)
• Khawal,cross-dressed male dancers in pre-20th century Egypt
• Köçek,cross-dressed male dancers inOttoman Turkey
• Ubayd Zakani,a 14th-century Persian poet
• Anti-Afghan sentiment
• Pederasty

References

• Londoño, Ernesto."Afghanistan sees rise in 'dancing boys' exploitation".Washington Post.Archivedfrom the original on 25 September 2015.Retrieved24 September2015.

Further reading

• Abdi, Ali (2022). "Bachah-bāzī: A Socio-Erotic Tradition".Afghanistan.5(2): 153–171.doi:10.3366/afg.2022.0091.S2CID252611948.
• Abdi, Ali (2022)."The Afghan Bachah and its Discontents: An Introductory History".Iranian Studies.56:161–180.doi:10.1017/irn.2022.42.S2CID250567083.
• I. Baldauf (1990): "Bacabozlik: boylove, folksong and literature in Central Asia", Paidika: The Journal of Pædophilia 12:2.6, pp. 12-31.

External links

• Joseph Goldstein, U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Afghan Allies' Abuse of Boys,The New York Times(September 2015)
• Confessions of an Afghan Boy Sex Slave,Newsweek(May 2015)
• Forgotten No More: Male Child Trafficking in Afghanistan,Hagar International(April 2014)
• Kandahar Journal; Shh, It's an Open Secret: Warlords and Pedophilia,The New York Times(February 2002)
• This is What Winning Looks Like
• PBS Frontline: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
• "The Documentary: Afghanistan's Dancing Boys".BBC World Service.March 23, 2011.