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Written by Administrator
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Keeping boys as sex slaves and ‘dancing boys’ is on the rise in post-Taliban Afghanistan, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Washington Post journalist Ernesto Londono interviewed two 'owners' and their boys. One, Mirzahan, said his nine-year-old father-less charge was 'more handsome than anyone in the village'. Mirzahan said they hadn’t had sex, but that would happen in the next few years.
Another 'owner' told Londono that he preferred to have a boy than a wife because ‘you cannot take wives everywhere with you, you cannot take a wife with you to a party, but a boy you can take anywhere', suggesting the strict gender segregation in Afghanistan is partly fuelling the practice.
The boys are hired out as dancers at weddings. A Kabul wedding videographer Londono interviewed told him he estimated that one if five weddings he filmed featured ‘dancing boys’. Its even more common in conservative rural areas, like Pashtun in the south.
The practice was restricted and driven underground when the Taliban had control of the country, but since they lost power it’s on the rise, according to human rights researchers. One UN official describes it as ‘rampant in certain areas‘.
Afghani photojournalist Barat Ali Batoor photographed the lives of dancing boys in 2010. He was surprised at the lack of interest in the issue from non-governmental organisations, whom he assumed would want to raise awareness about the issue. ‘They said: “We don’t want to make enemies in Afghanistan,” ’he said.
Anna Leach (Gaystarnews.com) - 9 April 2012.
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/exploitation-%E2%80%98dancing-boys%E2%80%99-afghanistan-exposed090412
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