Before being raped, young boys are paraded in front of groups of strong men to dance while wearing vividly colored women’s attire and cosmetics.
This systematic sexual exploitation is the terrifying reality of Bacha Bazi for thousands of poor youngsters in Afghanistan.
For ages, boys have been used as sex slaves by the nation’s elite in this savage custom, which translates to “boy play.”
Bacha Bazi persists as an open secret despite the Taliban government of Afghanistan publicly claiming to be against the practice.
Survivors who have managed to flee describe being beaten, raped, and subjected to psychological suffering, only to be rejected once they develop facial hair and are no longer deemed attractive.
Unable to escape the pain they have experienced, many turn to prostitution, drug addiction, or suicide.
Following the Taliban’s restoration to power in 2021, much international help was suspended, leaving victims with little access to treatment and rehabilitation. Others encounter additional violence upon returning home.
All of this occurs in a nation where pederasty is purportedly punishable by long prison terms and homosexuality can result in the death penalty.
In a 2010 Frontline documentary, photographer Barat Ali Batoor spent months documenting the life of the Bacha Bazi boys.
In 2008, a young Afghan boy’s “owner” dresses him for a private gathering.
According to a recent article, the practice is still common despite the Taliban’s formal ban on it.
According to the US State Department’s most recent Trafficking in Persons report, human trafficking, Bacha Bazi, and child military recruiting are still occurring in Afghanistan.
According to the research, examples of Bacha Bazi involving Taliban leaders and other armed groups have been documented, and the Taliban recruits minors using compulsion and deception, including false promises.
Survivors informed investigators that although military commanders, police officers, and government officials were also implicated prior to the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, local commanders and powerful individuals are currently among the primary offenders.
Bacha Bazi’s origins date at least to the 13th century, and both local and international intellectuals, historians, and politicians who have visited the area have extensively chronicled the tradition.
However, its most notorious comeback occurred in the 1980s during the Mujahideen’s conflict with the Soviet Union.
Afghan commanders who participated in the resistance were infamous for treating young boys like personal property, abusing them, and using them as status symbols.
This “perversion” among the warlords was one of the Taliban’s main complaints when they initially came to power in the 1990s, and they banned the practice.
However, Bacha Bazi and the previous power structures reappeared once the Taliban were overthrown in 2001 as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan.
Many boys are sold into this life by their own poor families who are struggling to make ends meet, even if some are said to volunteer.
Others, including police officers who are meant to stop Bacha Bazi from reappearing, are simply kidnapped.
Once in the hands of their captors, the children are routinely sexually abused and made to wear women’s clothing.
Online images and videos depict boys at these events being made to perform in front of groups of men who then pass them around as objects of desire.
Some depict teens dancing to music while wearing skin-tight shirts or pink and red skirts.
Others feature what seem to be prepubescent boys who were taken out to perform in front of bearded spectators, many of whom recorded the footage for their own amusement.
According to a report by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), “victims of bacha bazi suffer from stress and a sort of distrust, hopelessness, and pessimistic feeling because they are frequently raped.” Children experience terror as a result of Bacha Bazi, and thoughts of retaliation and animosity grow in their minds.
“It’s difficult to know what happens to these children in the absence of any services to recover or rehabilitate boys who are caught in this horrendous abuse,” Charu Lata Hogg, a fellow at Chatham House in London, told the Daily Mail. “We have heard anecdotal reports that many grow up to keep their own bachas, perpetuating the revolving door of abuse.”
In the savage act of Bacha Bazi, a young boy dances for older guys while they record.
Despite being well aware of Bacha Bazi, the foreign troops in Afghanistan during the 2000s and 2010s were frequently unable to stop it since many of the Afghan leaders they supported were involved in the practice.
Additionally, Bacha Bazi is accepted in some conservative religious groups.
A 2009 research by the Human Terrain Team, a US army support group, found that Bacha Bazi is neither homosexual nor un-Islamic according to Pashtun societal norms.
The sexual act is significantly more morally acceptable than raping a lady if the male does not love the boy.
Additionally, it is viewed as more “masculine” and not homosexual because the males penetrate the boys.
“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” Quinn later stated. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban.” The horror of the situation was exposed when Dan Quinn, a former US Special Forces captain, was relieved of his command and removed from Afghanistan for attacking an American-backed Afghan militia commander who had kept a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave.
After American Marine Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley Jr. passed away in 2012, his father, Gregory Sr., disclosed that his son had told him that he could hear Afghan police officials sexually abusing juveniles they had taken to the military installation from his bunk in southern Afghanistan.
The marine’s father remembered his son telling him, “We can hear them screaming at night, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it.”
He told the New York Times, “My son said that his officers advised him to look the other way because it’s their “culture.”
Hundreds of teenage prostitutes were being recruited by the Taliban to work on American military facilities where Afghans were employed, and the troops who mistreated them were being killed.
The young guys infiltrated bases to serve as dancers and prostitutes after being pimped to the Taliban by local tribes.
Once inside, they either shot or poisoned their abusers or drugged the guards, allowing Taliban fighters who were waiting to enter.
Over the course of many months in 2016, dozens of troops and police officers were slain in this manner; in the southern province of Urozgan, these honeytrap operations were so successful that hundreds of personnel were fired.
At the time, Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewani, the previous chief of police in Urozgan, stated, “The Taliban have figured out the biggest weakness of the police and sent about 100 beardless boys to penetrate checkpoints and poison and kill policemen.”
Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi revealed how easily men obtain these children in the terrifying documentary The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan.
Many young boys are forced into harems and flogged by pimps and traffickers after being sold by their families or kidnapped.
Some boys are effectively maintained as personal property, and their owners are reluctant to let other males see them out of concern that they would try to take them.
Others, on the other hand, are freely exchanged as commodities.
Quraishi pursued Dastager, one of the most influential persons in the Takhar province of Afghanistan and a former member of the Northern Alliance resistance forces that battled the Soviets.
When asked what qualities he sought in a boy, Dastager expressed confidence in his preferences. He stated, “[He] should be attractive and good for dancing.” Around twelve or thirteen, very attractive. I promise to train them, I tell their parents.
“I’ll hire a dancer to teach him how to dance.” We give the family money and assure them that I would take care of him. I’ll buy him clothing and give him cash. I cover all of his costs. He has nothing to be concerned about.
In the documentary, Dastager claimed to have “taken in,” or sexually assaulted, over 2,000 youths.
The savage custom, which literally translates to “boy play,” has endured for generations and is firmly ingrained in the nation’s hierarchies.
Sedoff’s drawing of a dancing bacha (kid) and the guys who are admiring him is based on a picture by Vereshchagin from Journey through Central Asia, 1867–1868.
“Every military commander had a young companion as part of a sick game,” declared Mestary, another influential figure in northern Afghanistan. “I had a boy because every commander had one.” The commanders are in competition with one another. I couldn’t compete with the others without one.
A few lads, some of whom had been coerced into believing they were OK with their circumstances, were reached by Quraishi.
In 2007, a 17-year-old teenager named Ahmad told Reuters, “I love my lord.” I enjoy playing with my owner, dancing, and acting like a woman. I’ll be an owner and have my own guys when I’m older.
Even after the abuse eventually ceases, the tragedy persists. These guys are labeled as outcasts when they develop facial hair, and their only options are to become pimps or prostitutes. As a result, many people start using narcotics.
For the Frontline documentary, photographer Barat Ali Batoor spent months documenting their lives.
Batoor states: “I remember a specific boy who was taken and used in the parties; he was about 13 when I first met him.”
He began using heroin as a coping mechanism, yet he continued to be brought to the gatherings.
He eventually fled and traveled about a lot to avoid being discovered. He was begging on Kabul’s streets.
Journalist Christian Stephen claims that in addition to psychological trauma, Bacha Bazi victims suffer from severe physical traumas such as severe internal bleeding, fractures, broken limbs, shattered teeth, strangulation, and, in certain situations, death.
Millions of Afghan girls are sold into forced marriages by families in dire need, making them just as vulnerable to sexual abuse as many boys.
Unfortunately, selling children to older men in exchange for money has become a common response to Afghanistan’s growing poverty; this trend is predicted to increase as the country’s economic crisis gets worse.
Additionally, earlier this month, the Taliban officially recognized these underage weddings under a new law, further escalating their attack on women and girls.
According to the law, an arranged marriage involving a kid is lawful as long as the spouse is socially compatible and the dowry is suitable. The child may later request annulment after reaching puberty, but only with a court order.
Additionally, the document states that a “virgin girl’s” silence is considered consent to marriage, while a male or a woman who has already been married does not.
Additionally, the Taliban implemented a new penal law earlier this year that establishes a caste system that treats women like “slaves.”
As long as there is no significant physical harm, husbands are allowed to beat their spouses under the new rule.
According to Article 32, the husband will only be imprisoned for 15 days if he beats the lady with a stick and causes serious harm, such as “a wound or bodily bruising,” and the woman can demonstrate this to a judge.
