It was revealed a while back (and I think I posted on it here) that U.S. government money was used by one of our "contractors" in Afghanistan to buy young boys for the perverted (my Western perspective) men dress them as girls, who make them into "dancing boys," and sexually molest them.
As you read this, it sounds somewhat similar tot he Catholic Priest abuse issues - deny them women and the human sexual urge finds other outlets.
Here is a little background from the Raw Story article (linked to above):
Sadly, nothing surprises me anymore. But those DynCorp guys should be tried for child prostitution. What they did is horrible - no different than selling young girls into sex slavery - and you would have seen this reported by ALL the networks if it were girls and not boys.As Joel Brinkley reported for SFGate.com, many Afghan Pashtun tribal men take boys age 9 to 15 as lovers. The US State Department recently called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.
"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful.""Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover," wrote Brinkley. "Literally it means 'boy player.' The men like to boast about it."
"Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome and good-looking boy," a former mujahideen commander told Reuters in 2007. "Sometimes we gather and make our boys dance and whoever wins, his boy will be the best boy."
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun. Brinkley's sources say that one or two members of Karzai's family had taken boy lovers, but that was unconfirmed.
According to the newly leaked cable, the then-Ministor of Interior Hanif Atmar worried that if the story became public then lives would be in danger. Atmar also warned that a video of the incident might be released by the media, "On the Kunduz Regional Training Center (RTC) DynCorp event of April 11 (reftel), Atmar reiterated his insistence that the U.S. try to quash any news article on the incident or circulation of a video connected with it," the cable said.
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan exposes the horrific practice called Bacha Bazi, in which young Afghan boys are sold to warlords and powerful businessmen to be trained as dancers who perform for male audiences in women’s clothing and are then used and traded for sex. The practice is sadly making a comeback in that country.
As the West pours billions of dollars into the fight against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, an ancient tradition (banned when the Taliban were in power) has re-emerged across the rest of the country. Many hundreds of young boys living in extreme poverty are lured off the streets on the promise of a new life away from destitution, unaware their real fate is to be used for entertainment by the warlords and other powerful men of Afghanistan.
Having gained remarkable access inside a sexual exploitation ring, award-winning Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi investigates this illegal practice, the consequences of which are shrouded by a focus on the war. The film exposes the lack of support from those in authority and explores possible responses to the plight of children in this conflict zone.
Watch the full documentary now
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