The Bacha Bazi

The dancing boys of Afghanistan

One of my Substack friends

Ash 1952

brought this to my attention a little while ago. My first thought was ‘why the hell haven’t I heard about this?’ My second was that I need write about it — so here it is.

Now we are all aware of the abhorrent human rights abuses of women and girls in Afghanistan. Women are treated worse than animals. They are deprived of education, employment, autonomy and freedom. Women and girls are nothing more than sex slaves, baby incubators and servants. You would be hard pressed to find a worse example of Islamic patriarchal abuse in the history of civilisation.

The story of the Bachi Bazi just may be one.

An intimate photo from the Dancing Boys of Afghanistan series.(Supplied/ Barat Ali Batoor)

Bacha Bazi is a custom that has been around Afghan tradition for centuries. Bacha Bazi (translated as "boy play") is a practice, primarily reported in parts of Afghanistan and some areas of Central Asia, where young boys—often between the ages of 10 and 18—are forced to dress as girls, dance for older men, and are subjected to sexual abuse.

These preadolescent boys, are chosen for their feminine or good looks, and often from poor families, and serve as entertainers’ to influential Afghans. Dressed as girls and wearing makeup they dance for their masters who later take them in order to get involved in a sexual relationship. The boys are often offered up by their families as a way to provide for them.

According to military experts in Afghanistan, the lawlessness that followed the deposing of the Taliban’s in rural Pashtun and northern Afghanistan gave rise to violent expressions of pedophilia.¹

An adverse result of a patriarchal society where gender segregation is the norm and homosexuality is taboo, the perpetrators sexually exploit young boys and use them as sex slaves as some type of islamic loop hole.

The boys are used as substitutes for sexual gratification—not because it’s accepted or moral, but because it's easier to exploit them without facing the same level of social backlash.

One of the underground dance parties where young boys are trafficked for dancing and sex slavery.(Supplied/Barat Ali Batoor)

Farhad,19, and Jamel, 20, are two grown dancers who were forced into "bacha bazi" about five years ago.²

Farhad was 13 when his older neighbour tricked him into coming to his home. He was made to watch a sex tape and then raped. After the brutal assault, he was taken to another location where he was locked up and used as a sex slave for five months.

Homosexuality is forbidden in Islam, but those involved in Bacha Bazi justify their actions by saying that, since they are not in love with these boys, it doesn’t apply.

In Afghan society, victims of rape and assault are more often that not punished, so the shame and fear of persecution traps the boys into a lifestyle that they cannot escape.

Jamel, Farhad's friend and dance partner, is now married but he was the "bacha bereesh" — or "boy without a beard" — of a powerful warlord who has since left the country. He said the only reason he continues to dance is to provide for his younger brothers and sisters.

The boys said they are continuously threatened, beaten and raped by men who attend the parties they dance at — parties fuelled by alcohol and drugs.

When they reach adolescent age and once their beard starts growing, their service is no longer desired and they are discarded. This is where their tragic lives continue to worsen due to the psychological damage caused and due to very difficult reintegration into society.

The psychological trauma makes it very difficult for these boys to readjust to society. Some of the victims will themselves become powerful warlords or Bacha Baz (boy lovers), and continue to perpetuate the cycle of abuse. More however fail to reintegrate back into society, fail to find decent work and many of them turn to drugs or alcohol as coping mechanisms for their self-hate and low self esteem.

A young Afghani 'dancing boy' smokes heroin.(Supplied/ Barat Ali Batoor)

The victims not only face psychological trauma, but serious physical and health concerns such as, internal hemorrhaging, protrusion of intestines, throat injuries, heavy internal bleeding, broken limbs, fractures, broken teeth, strangulation, and in some cases, death.³

Demeaning and damaging, the widespread subculture of pedophilia in Afghanistan constitutes one of the most egregious ongoing violations of human rights in the world.⁴

Although the practice is illegal in Afghanistan, powerful men have no problem bypassing the law by paying huge amount of money. The boys themselves from poor families and shamed by the social stigma have no power while the perpetrators remain some of the most influential people in the community, who are often powerful warlords, former military commanders and wealthy businessmen, respected and powerful in their society.

"I go to every province to have happiness and pleasure with boys," says an Afghan man known as "The German," who acts as a bacha bazi pimp, supplying boys to the men. "Some boys are not good for dancing, and they will be used for other purposes. ... I mean for sodomy and other sexual activities."

I wish I could offer a neat conclusion to this article, but I can't. In societies that have remained stagnant for centuries—where equality is absent and human rights are routinely ignored—male dominance has manifested in especially disturbing ways. It's frightening to me to see the extent to which individuals can justify deviant behaviour, both to themselves and their communities, to satisfying their own sexual perversions.

The dancing boys of Afghanistan are just another human rights abuse tragedy that the world turns a blind eye to. Another grim heartbreaking reality in the Middle East that the free world glosses over in favour of supporting the ideologies that create such oppression. In a Godless land where ‘God is great.’

1. https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/shame-and-silence-bacha-bazi-in-afghanistan/

2. https://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/26/ctw.afghanistan.sex.trade/index.html

3. https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/shame-and-silence-bacha-bazi-in-afghanistan/

4. https://apnews.com/united-states-government-0f152eaad8134c5295da85988e7ff296