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In certain parts of Afghanistan, the practice of Bacha Bazi--where a wealthy Afghan man takes a poor, attractive Afghan boy as a personal possession who dances for his friends, usually becomes the man's sexual slave, and often is forced to be a sexual object shared with the man's friends--is quite prevalent. The "prettier" and more sexually alluring the boy is, your social status increases. It is most common in the northern Afghan provinces and the southern Pashtun province (where President Karzai is from), but it also occurs in the capital of Kabul. In reality, it may exist almost everywhere in Afghanistan. Yes, we are talking about pedophilia and sexual slavery.
This is not a new practice. It has been happening for centuries. And once they reach a certain age, Bacha Bazi boys are usually discarded in favor of younger boys. Or they take up the practice themselves if they have sufficient resources. And the cycle continues. Some fall prey to drug or alcohol addiction because they are no longer wanted.
The background information that follows is disturbing.
The link to the short video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=wYwyYDPiEF0
The link to the full documentary, which aired on the BBC and PBS about 3 years ago, is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...LXgNUb4#t=3144
Additional background articles from Huffington and the Washington Post may be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/bacha-bazi and http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...fghans-pashtun.
What does this have to do with the global war on women, you ask? One of the reasons why this is considered acceptable in some circles is because a few religious leaders have endorsed it--because women menstruate, making them "unclean." It also is a common practice among young men who have not yet married, young pedophiles, and those whose orientation may be gay--but who are not free to openly live as gay men in Afghan society.
If I was not aware of it, I'm sure many of you are not aware of it as well.
This must be stopped. But local police, the Afghan government, and the international community have by and large turned a blind eye to the rape of Afghan boys under the bacha bazi practice. If you watch the full documentary, you'll understand why.
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