Bacha bazi

Bacha bāzī [1] (Pashto and Dari: بچه بازی, lit. 'boy play') is a pederasty practice in Afghanistan in which men exploit and enslave adolescent boys under the age of 18 for entertainment and/or sex.[2][3] [4] Pederasty involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males.[5][citation needed] The man exploiting the young boy is called a bacha baz (literally "boy player").[3] Typically, the bacha baz forces the bacha (or boy) to dress in women's clothing and dance with bells on his feet.[3] The bacha can also be rented out for male-only parties.[3]

Often, the boys come from an impoverished and vulnerable situation, mainly without relatives or abducted from their families.[3][6][7] In some cases, families on the brink of starvation may sell their young sons to a bacha baz or have him "adopted" for food and money. [3] Facing social stigma and sexual abuse, the young boys struggle with psychological effects from the abuse[8] and suffer from emotional trauma for life, including turning to drugs and alcohol.[3]

A study published by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission reported that 78% of Afghan men who keep bacha bazi boys are married to a woman.[4] Most bacha baz are married to women.[3] Some Afghans believe that bacha bazi violates Islamic law on 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.[3]

  1. ^ Nordland, Rod (January 23, 2018). "Afghan Pedophiles Get Free Pass From U.S. Military, Report Says". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jones, Samuel V. (2015-04-25). "Ending Bacha Bazi: Boy Sex Slavery and the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine". Indiana International & Comparative Law Review. 25 (1): 63. doi:10.18060/7909.0005. ISSN 2169-3226.
  4. ^ a b "Causes and Consequences of Bacha Bazi in Afghanistan". Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. August 18, 2014. Retrieved 2024-11-22.
  5. ^ "Boys in Afghanistan Sold Into Prostitution, Sexual Slavery" Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine, Digital Journal, Nov 20, 2007
  6. ^ Arni Snaevarr (March 19, 2014). "The dancing boys of Afghanistan". United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC). Archived from the original on April 8, 2019.
  7. ^ Qobil, Rustam (September 7, 2010). "The sexually abused dancing boys of Afghanistan". BBC News. Archived from the original on 18 August 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2016. I'm at a wedding party in a remote village in northern Afghanistan.
  8. ^ "Bacha bazi: the scandal of Afghanistan's abused boys". The Week. 29 January 2020. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2020.