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Islam Reports 1998-2002 2 Stigma, Lack of Education, Prevention Efforts Fueling Spread of HIV in Afghanistan 3/07 3 A New Sorrow for Afghanistan: AIDS Joins List 3/07 4 Dancing Boys of the North--Adolescents for Status, Parties and Sex: Forbidden and Unstoppable 10/07 5 Dancing boys a mark of prestige in Afghanistan 10/07 6 Afghan boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords 11/07 (Re-hash of previous stories, this time by Reuters.) 7 U.S.-Britain gay-bashed Afghanistan 12/07
January 1, 2007 1 by Jamie Glazov Many of the instructions were to be expected: rule No. 25 commands the murder of teachers if a warning and a beating does not dissuade them from teaching. No. 26 outlines the exquisite delicacy of burning schools and destroying anything that aid organizations might undertake -- such as the building of a new road, school or clinic. The essence of the other rules are easily left to the imagination, basically involving what militant Islam is about: vile hate, death and destruction. But there is a curious rule that the Western media has typically ignored. Rule No. 19 instructs that Taliban fighters must not take young boys without facial hair into their private quarters. Right. (Cough and clearing of the throat). Aside from the question of what is permitted if a young boy does happen to have facial hair, this new Taliban commandment brings light to a taboo pathology that underlies the structures of militant Islam. And it is crucial to deconstruct the meaning of this rule -- and the horrid reality that it represents -- because it serves as a gateway to understanding the primary causes of Islamic rage and terror. Rule No. 19 obviously indicates that the sexual abuse of young boys is a prevalent and institutionalized phenomenon among the Taliban and that, for one reason or another, its widespread practice has become a problem. The fact that Taliban militants’ spare time involves sodomizing young boys should by no means be any kind of surprise or eyebrow raiser. That a mass pathology such as this occurs in a culture which demonizes the female and her sexuality -- and puts her out of mind and sight -- is only to be expected. To be sure, it is a simple given that the religious male fanatic who flies into a violent rage even at the thought of an exposed woman’s ankle will also be, in some other dysfunctional and dark secret compartment of his fractured life, the person who leads some poor helpless young boy into his private chambers. The key issue here is that the demented sickness that underlies Rule No. 19 is by no means exclusive to the Taliban; it is a widespread phenomenon throughout Islamic-Arab culture and it lies, among other factors, at the root of that culture’s addiction to rage and its lust for violence, terror and suicide. There is a basic and common sense empirical human reality: wherever humans construct and perpetuate an environment in which females and their sexuality are demonized and are pushed into invisibility, homosexual behaviour among men and the sexual abuse of young boys by older men always increases. Islamic-Arab culture serves as a perfect example of this paradigm, seeing that gender apartheid, fear of female sexuality and a vicious misogyny are the structures on which the whole society functions. It is no surprise that John Racy, a psychiatrist with much experience in Arab societies, has noted that homosexuality is “extremely common” in many parts of the Arab world. [1] Indeed, even though homosexuality is officially despised in this culture and strictly prohibited and punishable by imprisonment, incarceration and/or death, having sex with boys or effeminate men is actually a social norm. Males serve as available substitutes for unavailable women. The key is this: the male who does the penetrating is not considered to be homosexual or emasculated any more than if he were to have sex with his wife, while the male who is penetrated is emasculated. The boy, however, is not considered to be emasculated since he is not yet considered to be a man. A man who has sex with boys is simply doing what many men (especially unmarried ones) do. [2] And this reality is connected to the fact that, as scholar Bruce Dunne has demonstrated, sex in Islamic-Arab societies is not about mutuality between partners, but about the adult male's achievement of pleasure through violent domination. [3] While secrecy and taboo surround this phenomenon, some courageous Arabs have dared to discuss and expose it. Walid Shoebat, for instance, a former Palestinian terrorist, has openly related the abuse of young boys in Palestinian Muslim society. He himself witnessed a line of shepherd boys waiting for their turn to sodomize a five-year-old boy. [4] Amnesty International has also reported that Afghan warlords routinely sexually victimize young boys and film the orgies. [5] (The sexual abuse of young girls in this environment is also obviously widespread). [6] While she was in Afghanistan in 1961, author and scholar Phyllis Chesler saw homosexuals roaming the streets, holding hands in broad daylight and gazing into each other’s eyes. “One of the pair,” she writes, “might sport a flower behind his ear; another might be wearing lipstick or have rouged cheeks.” At the same time, Chesler observed that everyone, including her Arab husband, was in denial about this common social reality, refusing to admit that this widespread behaviour was, in fact, homosexuality. [7] In the dysfunctional and morbid paradigms of this culture, the idea of love is, obviously, completely absent from men's understanding of sexuality. Like the essence of Arab masculinity, it is reduced to a form of prison sex: hurting others with violence. A gigantic rupture inevitably develops between men and women, where no harmony, affection or equality is allowed to exist. [8] The sexual confusion, humiliation, and repression that develop in the mindset of many males in this culture are excruciating. And it is no surprise that many of them find the only avenue for personal gratification in the act of sexually abusing young boys and, of course, in humiliating the foreign "enemy," whose masculinity must be violated at all costs -- just as theirs once was. Islamist terror, therefore, is, in part, very much a release of the terrorists’ bottled-up sexual rage in connection to sexual frustration and desperation -- and to the humiliation connected to feelings of emasculation, which culminates in the act of striking out against “the enemy” and violating his masculinity. The inner workings of this mindset explain why Islamic terrorists consistently engage in sexual mutilation of their victims. Psychiatrist David Gutmann notes this phenomenon in the context of Arab Jew-hatred: The Israelis perform in this Arab psychodrama of gender as a potent, destabilizing threat: to begin with, as a people they broke out of the deprecated but tolerated status of Dhimmi - a kind of submissive "woman" - to the "masculine" status of pioneer, rebel, warrior and nation builder. In retaliation, in their wars and Intifadas the Arabs strive to castrate the uppity masculinizing Jew -- and this project is carried out quite literally on the battlefield, where the bodies of fallen Jews have been mutilated in the most obscene ways. [9] This lust for violence against “the enemy” and the accompanying yearning to die in the process are fuelled by the morbid earthly existence that is engendered by militant Islam. Indeed, there exists very few reasons for males to value their time on earth; their freedom of action and ability to experience joy and pleasure are extremely limited in terms of what is allowed. To be sure, most young men have absolutely no experience in love, sex, affection or friendship with females, and they have no outlet for their libido, which, to further pathologize the mindset, they regard as evil temptation. Killing and dying, therefore, become the only areas where free will can be exercised. This lust for death is further compounded by the theological underpinnings of Islam itself, which promises the Muslim male sexual treats in the afterlife which are forbidden to him on earth. Indeed, if a Muslim male dies in the cause of jihad, he will enjoy a blissful union with virgins in paradise (Suras 78:31, 37:40-48, 44:51-55). And for those Muslim warriors for whom women are not of interest, there will be young pre-pubescent boys at their service -- and they will be like “scattered pearls” of “perpetual freshness” (Suras 52:24, 56:17, 76:19). Thus, for the Taliban fighters who are frustrated with the new obstacles posed by Rule No. 19, there no doubt exists an even greater incentive to get to paradise a little faster. In essence, suicide through jihad represents a form of perverted liberty through which an individual can express himself. In so doing, the Islamic radical strikes out at what tempts him, avenges his own emasculation and, through the act of suicide, cleanses himself of his own temptation by ridding himself of his earthly existence. Theodore Dalrymple offers a profound analysis of this phenomenon in the context of the Muslim fundamentalist’s agonizing hate and self-hate inside a Western society. Analyzing the motivations of the Pakistani suicide bombers who struck in London in June 2005, he demonstrates that they saw no way out of their confrontation with freedom and modernity except death: What more convincing evidence of faith could there be than to die for its sake? How can a person be really attached or attracted to rap music and cricket and Mercedes cars if he is prepared to blow himself up as a means of destroying the society that produces them? Death will be the end of the illicit attachment that he cannot entirely eliminate from his heart. The two forms of jihad, the inner and the outer, the greater and the lesser, thus coalesce in one apocalyptic action. By means of suicide bombing, the bombers overcome moral impurities and religious doubts within themselves and, supposedly, strike an external blow for the propagation of the faith. [10] All of these inter-related phenomena serve as windows of understanding for us, through which we become able to grasp the demented and psychopathic psychology that creates the need for a rule such as the Taliban’s No. 19. It is a rule that exposes a fanatic mindset that holds the sight and reality of an unveiled woman to be a horrific nightmare and the greatest sin, yet simultaneously considers the forced rape of a young prepubescent boy to be in the normal swing of things. It is on this eerie and putrid plateau that we come to see the factors that spawn the yearning for death and suicide inside militant Islam. Circumscribed in the most vicious and sadistic of ways, the men imprisoned in these cages long to regain a masculinity and humanity that was violently robbed from them as children. In a setting where healing through contact with feminine affection is denied and considered evil, self-extinction through hurting the “enemy” -- and the tempter -- becomes the only way out. Notes:
March 19, 2007 2 Stigma and a lack of education and prevention efforts are fueling the spread of HIV in Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, there are 69 recorded cases of HIV in the country; however, some health officials say the actual number of cases is much higher. The World Health Organization estimates that about 1,000 to 2,000 Afghans are HIV-positive. Nilufar Egamberdi, a World Bank consultant on HIV/AIDS, said the WHO estimate is "not even close to reality." According to the Times, Afghanistan "faces the additional vulnerabilities of countries emerging from conflict -- lack of education and government services; mass movements of people; and a sudden influx of aid money, commerce and outsiders." In addition, Afghanistan's proximity to Russia, China and India -- which have some of the fastest-growing HIV/AIDS epidemics worldwide -- and the migration of its residents are fueling the spread of HIV. The country, which produces the largest amounts of opium and heroin in the world, has about one million injection drug users, according to United Nations estimates. In addition, about 30% of blood used for transfusions in the country's hospitals is screened for HIV, according to a World Bank report. According to Saifur Rehman, director of the National AIDS Control program at the Ministry of Health, about 80% of government hospitals screen blood for HIV, but many other institutions do not. Rehman added that health providers in the country are not well-informed about HIV and often reuse needles. A lack of knowledge about the virus among commercial sex workers in Kabul, the country's capital, also is contributing to the spread of the virus, according to the Times. A 2003 survey by the German international aid organization ORA International found that one of 126 surveyed sex workers was familiar with condoms and that one had knowledge of HIV/AIDS. There are no treatment centers in the country, and one clinic in Kabul monitors HIV/AIDS but does not provide access to antiretroviral drugs, the Times reports. According to the World Bank, which is providing $10 million to fight HIV/AIDS in the country, although several organizations are working to implement needle-exchange programs and to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS, a wider program is needed. Stigma is the "most difficult" challenge in fighting HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan, according the Times. Health providers in the country say that HIV-positive people will face ostracism and possibly death if their communities learn their HIV status. The Ministry of Health keeps the identity of HIV-positive people confidential to prevent stigma. The health ministry also is working with the country's Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs to educate religious leaders, who often are the most influential people in villages, to promote HIV/AIDS education and reduce stigma surrounding the disease, the Times reports (Gall, New York Times, 3/19).
March 19, 2007 3 by Carlotta Gall “When my wife died, I thought, well, it is from God, but at least I have him,” he said. “Then I learned he is sick, too. I asked if there is medicine and the doctors said no. They said, ‘Just trust in God.’ ” Cloistered by two decades of war and then the strict Islamic rule of the Taliban, Afghanistan was long shielded from the ravages of the AIDS pandemic. Not anymore. H.I.V. and AIDS have quietly arrived in this land of a thousand calamities. They remain almost completely underground, shrouded in ignorance and stigma as the government struggles with the help of American and NATO forces to rebuild the country in the face of a new offensive by Taliban insurgents. The father of this boy, the youngest Afghan known to have H.I.V., agreed to speak to a reporter only if their names and other details were omitted. He has not even told his family what his son has. He said he believed that his wife contracted it through blood transfusions in Pakistan years ago. The few surveys that exist suggest that Afghanistan has a low prevalence of H.I.V. — only 69 recorded cases, and just three deaths. Yet health officials warn that the incidence is certainly much higher. “That figure is absolutely unreliable, even dangerous,” said Nilufar Egamberdi, a World Bank consultant on H.I.V./AIDS. The World Health Organization has estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 Afghans are infected, but Ms. Egamberdi said even that was “not even close to reality.” Dr. Saifur Rehman, director of the National AIDS Control program in the Ministry of Health, agreed. Afghanistan, a deeply religious and conservative country — sex outside marriage is against the law — may still be less at risk of the spread of the virus than other places. But international and Afghan health experts warn that it faces the additional vulnerabilities of countries emerging from conflict — lack of education and government services, mass movements of people and a sudden influx of aid money, commerce and outsiders. Geography and migration make Afghanistan particularly susceptible. It is surrounded by countries with the fastest-growing incidence of AIDS in the world — Russia, China and India. Other neighbors, Pakistan and Iran, have high levels of drug addiction and a growing number of H.I.V. infections, as does Central Asia to the north, experts say. AIDS can easily cross borders, carried by migrants or refugees who pick up drug habits or have sex with infected people in those countries and return home. Rates of drug addiction are rising in Afghanistan, with its booming opium and heroin trade. Though the Afghan government and senior religious leaders have won praise for making H.I.V. a national priority, they are struggling with many problems. “In Afghanistan, all the traditional risk factors for rapid spread of H.I.V. exist concurrently,” said Dr. Fred Hartman of Management Sciences for Health, a Boston-based group working in Afghanistan. He has worked as technical director of Reach, an American-financed program to expand health care to Afghanistan’s rural communities for three years, and has advised the government on H.I.V./AIDS. Afghanistan experienced a trade boom in the last five years, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans go abroad, especially to Arab countries in search of work. A European doctor, who asked not to be identified because his work was confidential, worked in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates where foreign workers went for mandatory testing and said that in 2001 and 2002, 23 Afghans were deported after testing H.I.V.-positive. “There were only 30 known cases in Afghanistan then, and I knew of 23 more,” he said. The return home of more than two million refugees is another way the disease is likely to spread, said Renu Chahil-Graf, regional coordinator for Unaids, the United Nations program, who was visiting Pul-i-Charkhi prison in Kabul, where a voluntary testing clinic has opened. Some of those returning to Afghanistan have drug habits, and they spread AIDS by sexual contact with spouses, prostitutes and street children. Afghanistan, the biggest opium- and heroin-producing country in the world, has nearly one million drug users, according to United Nations estimates. Most users still smoke the drug, but five years ago, injectable heroin hit the streets of Kabul, the capital. Now there are an estimated 19,000 intravenous drug users here, according to the World Bank. Addicts are not difficult to find, living in bombed-out buildings in the old part of the city and in Kota-e-Sangi, a neighborhood on the city’s south side. They are homeless or returned refugees, mostly young men, according to Miodrag Atanasijevic, a coordinator for Doctors of the World, a French aid group that runs a clean needles program in Kabul. “It will become a huge thing,” he said. “In this country you have a lot of drugs.” Even after five years of international assistance to the health sector, only 30 percent of blood used in transfusions in hospitals is screened for H.I.V., according to a recent World Bank report. Dr. Rehman said that 80 percent of government hospitals screened blood, but he acknowledged that many other institutions did not. Health workers remain ill-informed and careless, often reusing needles even when they know it risks spreading the disease, he said. While several organizations are working to provide needle exchanges and to increase H.I.V. awareness, a far wider program is needed, according to the World Bank, which is providing $10 million to fight H.I.V./AIDS in Afghanistan. A recent study of 461 intravenous drug users in Kabul showed that 3 percent were infected, Dr. Rehman said. Stigma is perhaps the most difficult challenge in dealing with H.I.V./AIDS in Afghanistan. The Taliban government, with its stoning and execution of adulterers and homosexuals, may be gone, but sex outside marriage and homosexual sex are still socially unacceptable. Doctors and health workers here warn that AIDS patients will face ostracism, even death, if their communities learn they are infected. The Ministry of Health closely guards the identity of the few people who have tested H.I.V.-positive. Dr. Muhammad Farid Bazger, H.I.V./AIDS coordinator of the German aid organization ORA International, has seen firsthand the cruelty communities are capable of. During his work in villages and refugee camps in Pakistan, he came across an unmarried man who had returned from the Arabian Peninsula infected with H.I.V. The man told his father, who, not understanding the consequences, told others. Soon, villagers told the father he should kill his son. The son ended up locked in a brick cell in the family yard, with only a small opening where food was thrown in. Dr. Bazger and his colleagues eventually rescued him and made a film about him, which has been shown on Afghan television. ORA has also worked among women in the sex trade in Kabul. In a 2003 survey of 126 of the women by ORA, only one was familiar with condoms and only one had knowledge of H.I.V./AIDS. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed were married. Eighty-four percent were illiterate. Scores of foreign prostitutes have arrived in Kabul in recent years, along with the influx of foreigners and foreign assistance. Afghans are using their services as well, particularly the well-paid young men employed by foreign organizations, health officials say. Sex between men is an even worse taboo in Afghanistan, but health officials say it does occur. Ms. Egamberdi, who is from neighboring Uzbekistan, said sex between men was a reality in much of Central Asia, including Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s efforts to combat AIDS have been stymied by the lack of urgency among donors who believe Afghanistan has a low prevalence of H.I.V., Dr. Hartman and others said. Even United Nations agencies have been slow to develop H.I.V./AIDS education, Ms. Egamberdi said. “At least do awareness campaigns,” she said in frustration. Until this year, the members of the government AIDS team worked out of a shipping container on the grounds of the Health Ministry. They have graduated to a drafty unheated hall inside the main building. While the World Bank granted Afghanistan money to gather data and work with high-risk groups, Dr. Rehman’s hopes for an AIDS treatment ward in Kabul, country-wide testing and antiretroviral drugs remain unfulfilled. The Health Ministry has enlisted the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs to educate mullahs, often the most influential people in villages, to help promote basic health education and mitigate the stigma of AIDS. Yet they have barely reached the population beyond the capital. The father of the infected 18-month-old said his village mullah had never talked about AIDS. Nearly a year of tests on the father have found no H.I.V., and the older children are clear, but his smallest child tested positive at 10 months. “The doctor asked me a lot of questions — did you have an operation, did you have illegal sex?” he said. “But I knew I was a Muslim, and I don’t have illegal sex, and I trusted my wife, too. So then he said it was from her operation.” Six years earlier, his wife lost a baby and had several transfusions in Pakistan. After she became sick and was found to be infected, “I told the family her blood was not good and to avoid eating with her,” he said. “And I tell them not to kiss the child.” When he was told he could indeed kiss his son, he burst into tears. “I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I have sacrificed so much since my marriage. I mortgaged half my land to pay for her medical care.” The father can do little for his son but keep his secret. There are no AIDS treatment centers in Afghanistan, only a single confidential clinic in the capital that just monitors the disease, and no antiretroviral drugs are available. 4 Wealthy strongmen recruit adolescent boys for entertainment and sex, with the local authorities powerless to stop the practice. by Sayed
Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif The boys are kept by powerful older men, made to dance at special parties, and often sexually abused afterwards. (This statement is based on the assumption that all sex between bacha-baaz and bacha is non-consensual and abusive.) Known as "bacha bereesh" -- literally, "beardless boys", they are under 18, with 14 the preferred age. (This statement gives the false impression that there is almost always a wide age gap between bacha-baaz and bacha. In fact, the gap can be as small as 2 or 3 years – say, between 20-yo bacha-baaz and 18-yo bacha. Also, on what basis can the author definitively say that “14 is the preferred age”? Did he canvass a wide range of opinion?) "When I was young, I had a bacha bereesh who was the best in the region," recalled Allah Daad, 44. "He danced like a flying pigeon.... Nobody could take his place afterwards. I kept him for three years, then left him when he matured. (This quotation falsely implies that ending the relationship completely is the norm. In fact, a friendship often continues, and sometimes even the sexual relationship continues, after the bacha passes the age of 18.) Allah Daad has kept many boys over the years, and says he enjoys his "hobby". "I am married, but I prefer boys to women," he said. "You can't take women with you to parties in this region, and you can't make them dance. These boys are our [mark of] prestige. Large halls known as "qush-khana" provide the venues for bacha baazi parties where the boys' "owners" or "kaatah" invite their friends to watch them dancing. Late in the night, when the dancing is over, the boys are often shared with close friends, for sexual abuse. (Again, this implies that all sex between bacha-baaz and bacha is non-consensual and abusive.) Allah Daad explained how the boys are enticed (pejorative word) into the arrangement. "First we select boys in the village and later on we try to trick them into coming with us," he said. "Some of them stay with us for money; they get a monthly allowance, and in return we can have them any time we want. They don't stay with us all the time - they can do their own jobs and then just come to parties with us." If a boy refuses to become a bacha bereesh, he said, there is little a man can do to make him. "We can't force them," he insisted. "Only the very powerful can have boys with them all the time. The owner will take his boy to wedding parties to show him off to other men. "When the party starts, the boys are dressed in special clothes, called 'jaaman'," continued Allah Daad. "Then Mazari dancing bells are tied to their feet and they dance in time to the music. Several different types of dances are popular, he explained, each with its own beat. If the boy refuses to dance or performs badly, his master beats him with a long stick. (Is this the norm? How does the author know?) "We have to do that," said Allah Daad. "We spend money on these boys, so they have to dance. Allah Dad's current bacha, who is 16, refused to be interviewed. Another owner forced his 14-year-old boy to speak, although he would not give his name. "I was dancing last night," he said, looking exhausted. "I have been doing this for the past year. I have no choice - I'm poor. My father is dead, and this is the only source of income for me and my family. I try to dance well, especially at huge parties. The men throw money at me, and then I gather it up. Sometimes they take me to the market and buy me nice clothes." The tradition of older men maintaining adolescent boys is by no means restricted to the north of Afghanistan, but the custom is in abeyance in the south, where the Taleban and their strict moral code act as a deterrent. (This statement is absolutely false. Bacha-baazi is as common in the south and east as it is in the north. The Taleban not only do not control the south and east with their “strict moral code,” but the practice flourished even when they held absolute sway over the whole country. Talebs themselves practiced bacha-baazi; the well-publicized executions of men for same-sex conduct were few in number and were part of the Taleban’s overall terror campaign against supposed enemies of the regime.) In the north, no such curbs exist, and bacha baazi has seen a massive resurgence in the past few years. "Bacha baazi has increased tremendously lately and is still on the rise," said Baz Gul, a resident of Kunduz. "In the past, people were ashamed of it, and tried to hide it. Now nobody is shy about it, and they participate openly in these parties. He explained that there were several reasons why the practice had become more common, one of which was the growing influence of local strongmen, who regard bacha baazi as status symbols. These militia commanders are supposed to have demobilised their forces and handed over their weapons, but as IWPR has reported, many still rule the roost on the ground and retain the power to intimidate the local population. Baz
Gul said poverty was another reason why boys could
find themselves ensnared, while
the government
had failed to do much about the problem and its
police force
enjoyed little public confidence. "It
used to be that only a few people had boys. Now
everyone owns
one
and the
authorities
don't care about
it at all," he said. "It's got
to the point where almost no party takes place
without dancing boys.
It's seen
as a disgrace
if you
don't have dancing boys at your wedding. This has
led to a rise in immoral behaviour among
boys,
and if nothing
is
done about
it, this trend will
continue. Nasro Bay insisted that the dancing boy tradition was a good one. "It's a good thing," he said. "We have our own culture. In foreign countries, the women dance. We have our own dances which don't exist anywhere else in the world. Militia commanders and other men of substance buy and sell good-looking boys, using the bacha baazi parties as marketplaces. "Commanders and wealthy men arrange parties in order to select a bacha bereesh," said Nek Mohammad, a resident of Baghlan's Andarab district who frequently attends dance parties, although he does not own a bacha bereesh himself. "Many of the men make their boys dance at these parties, and other men choose one and pay for him. By the end of the party, the boy has acquired a new owner He said substantial amounts of money changes hands in these transactions. Like Nasro Bay, Nek Mohammad sees public ostentation as part of the bacha baazi tradition. "Commanders often take their boys to a market and buy them beautiful clothes, as a challenge to other commanders. Sometimes they even give them cars. That gives them a very big reputation," he said. Religious scholars condemn the custom, which they count as one of the most sinful acts possible. "Making boys dance and sexually abusing them is strictly prohibited by Islam," said Mawlawi Ghulam Rabbani, a religious leader in Takhar province. "Those who engage in it should be punished. They should be thrown off a mountain and stoned to death." Local officials admit the practice is prevalent but are at a loss as to how to combat it. "Yes, bacha baazi is practiced a great deal, especially in the Khost-o-Fering and Andarab districts," said Hafizullah Khaliqyar, head of the prosecutor's office for Baghlan province. "Boys are forced to dance, they are sexually abused, and they are even bought and sold. Fights take place over these bacha bereesh. It's increasing day by day, and it's catastrophic." Khaliqyar said there was little that prosecutors could do. "The police and district heads won't cooperate with us," he complained. "They don't send us their files, so we can't take action." He said the paramilitary commanders involved were so powerful that no one -- not even the police -- would raise a hand against them. "Regional commanders engage in this practice and support it," he said. "They have money, power and weapons, and neither the district heads nor the local population dares to tell us about this. However, Khaliqyar said he is committed to fighting the practice and had had some successes. "We treat this matter very seriously. It's against the law, and the perpetrators should be punished," he said. Police in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan, recently raided a bacha-baazi hall and arrested 30 men. "Their case is currently with the Supreme Court. We have sent several men to prison on these types of charges," said Khaliqyar. In Takhar province, the head of the local security agencies, General Sayed Ahmad Saame, also complained about lack of cooperation from the public. "We have closed every bacha baazi centre we have found," he said. "We have forwarded seven cases to the prosecutor's office so far this year But there is only so much the police can do. "This practice has such a long history in this province that local people treat it as a respected custom, and won't cooperate with us. This is a serious obstacle to our work," said Saame. General Asadullah Amarkhail, the security chief in Kunduz, agreed that public cooperation was needed if the practice was to be curbed, although to date 27 people had been arrested in his province. Mohammad Zaher Zafari, head of the northern branch of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, bemoaned the government's inability to take action. "Unfortunately I have to say that this type of dancing, sexual abuse and even the sale of boys has been going on for years," he said. "It is a despicable culture. The boys involved are usually poor, underage or orphans, and they are forced into it by their economic circumstances. It's shocking from both a humanitarian and a legal point of view." (This quotation excludes the possibility that there might be a genuine friendship between bacha-baaz and bacha.) "The boys who do this have a very dark future ahead of them - they will always be ashamed and they grow into frustrated human beings, and, pose a threat to community." (There is no evidence of this. When bachas reach adulthood, their past as a bacha is usually forgotten. Many of them “flip” and become bacha-baaz.) The government has taken no action on this issue, and child abuse is still being practiced. Khaliqyar took a similar view of the damage done to the bacha bereesh, saying it destroys their identity. "If the United Nations and the government don't take this issue as seriously as they do child-trafficking and drug-smuggling, and punish the offenders, it's going to be almost impossible to prevent it," he said. Sayed Yaqub
Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.
19th October 2007 5 by Joe Roberts "Some men enjoy playing with dogs, some with women. I enjoy playing with boys," said 44-year-old Allah Daad, a one-time Mujahedin commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, who participates in bacha baazi. "I am married, but I prefer boys to women," he adds. "You can't take women with you to parties in this region, and you can't make them dance. These boys are our prestige." Often poor and orphaned, the boys are lured into bacha baazi by money. Some receive a monthly allowance while others have jobs of their own and only work at parties. Many are treated to expensive clothes and even cars by owners eager to have them reflect their own wealth and social standing. But if they refuse to perform or don't meet their owners expectations, they are beaten. While the long-standing tradition enjoys some public support in the north, religious leaders have denounced it as one of the most sinful acts. In the Taliban controlled south of Afghanistan, where a strict moral code is enforced, it is no longer practiced. Mawlawi Ghulam Rabbani, a religious leader in Takhar province, told e-Ariana: "Making boys dance and sexually abusing them is strictly prohibited by Islam. Those who engage in it should be punished. They should be thrown off a mountain and stoned to death." As those who organise bacha baazi are usually leaders of armed militia groups, however, police and government are fearful to intervene. Hafizullah Khaliqyar, head of the prosecutor's office for Baghlan province said: "Regional commanders engage in this practice and support it. They have money, power and weapons, and neither the district heads nor the local population dares to tell us about this." Mohammad Zaher Zafari, head of the northern branch of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, sees a dark future ahead for the boys involved. And he believes that without external aid, the situation will continue long into the future. "It's shocking from both a humanitarian and a legal point of view," he told e-Ariana. If the United Nations and the government don't take this issue as seriously as they do child-trafficking and drug-smuggling, and punish the offenders, it's going to be almost impossible to prevent it." 6
December 18, 2007 7 By Leslie Feinberg Most reports did not differentiate between peoples of the lowlands and those in the mountain ranges. Or between peoples who lead nomadic lives, and those who dwell in crowded cities. And speculations only focused on same-sexuality between male-bodied individuals. Colonialism and imperialism have always studied the cultures they sought to conquer and destroy. The job of embedded anthropologists is ultimately always to claim cultural superiority—the rotten plank on which white-supremacist ideologues stand. Not a word coming from the imperialist occupiers about Afghan cultures has any validity. Some of the most bigoted theories these articles rehash and spew about same-sex love and gender expression, and their relation to women’s oppression, do need to be exposed and combated. Imperial anthropology The organization of the sexes, socially accepted sexualities and gender expressions in Afghanistan are rooted in that country’s ancient history, and are not the same as in the U.S. or Britain. The existence of other forms of social organization and sexual and gender expression challenges the biological determinists who argue that sexuality is genetically fixed in the human species. Therefore, colonialists and imperialists have historically used racist characterizations like “obsessive sodomy,” “promiscuity” and “unnatural sexuality, and gender-phobic baiting of oppressed males as “effeminate” or “hyper-masculine” to excuse the inexcusable: imperial domination and exploitation. Brian James Baer, associate professor of Russian Literature and Translation at Kent State University, wrote about the bias in the spate of Western reporting about sexualities in Afghanistan in an article in the Gay and Lesbian Review, March-April 2003. Baer noted, “Journalists repeatedly used Western concepts such as ‘gay’ and ‘the closet’ to characterize the Kandahar situation, thus imposing their notion of homosexuality as a minority identity.” And, he added, “In their reporting Western journalists insisted on reducing relationships that are often long-term emotional bonds to a crude sexual bargain.” Baer pointed out: “Maura Reynolds of The LA Times noted that ‘there is a strong streak of dandyism among Pashtun males. Many line their eyes with kohl, stain their fingernails with henna or walk about town in clumsy, high-heeled sandals.’ But this equation makes sense only if we accept two Western assumptions: that homosexuality and effeminacy are automatically linked; and that the practices described are in fact ‘effeminate.’” Baer stressed: “Despite statistical evidence demonstrating that pedophilia in the West is more common among heterosexual men, the Baer took journalist Michael Griffin to task for writing in The Times of London that the Taliban hated women and that resulted in making sex with other males popular in Afghanistan. On the eve of invasion, articles in the imperialist media centered on the claim that the Taliban was repressing same-sexuality. Baer also challenged Griffin for flipping the argument in the same article by claiming that woman-hating appears to be “the product of a repressed homosexuality.” Readers were spared theories about what is at the root of women loving women. The claim that same-sex love arises from hatred of women or that misogyny is rooted in unexpressed homosexual desire pits sexes and sexualities that are both oppressed under patriarchal class rule against each other. Most of the imperialist war-time media reports claim that many males in Afghanistan have sex with each other because of “extreme segregation of the sexes.” Some of the same journalists did not attempt to reconcile the contradiction to their theory when they quoted Afghan males who are married to women and have sex with other males. The “prison” theory of homosexuality is an old one. It assumes that heterosexuality is hard-wired and “natural” and that sex between males or females only takes place when the sexes are segregated. Even the term “segregation” is judgmental. Every society has its own organization of the sexes. However, in pre-class societies, in which women were not ruled over by men, same-sex organization in collective households or hunting or rituals was not oppressive. On the whole, such societies made room for more sexes, sexualities and gender expressions, and socially accepted sex reassignment than is allowed for in the patriarchal organization of modern imperialist societies. Dubbing Afghanistan as a “prison culture” for oppressed sexes and sexualities allowed post-invasion articles in the U.S. and British media to make it seem as though “gay liberation” was a collateral benefit of imperialist massive bombing raids, invasion and military occupation. But imperialism has tried to lock down Afghanistan like a prison. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” Pentagon command didn’t bring liberation from the Taliban. It brought the Taliban. It was the CIA and “Defense” Department that armed and trained the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and other counter-revolutionary forces to crush the 1978 Revolution—which was taking action, with women in the lead, to liberate Afghanistan from semi-feudal rule. After the Pentagon hammered the country with bombs, and Special Forces battered down the doors of homes, U.S. and British journalists in Kandahar followed behind, demanding that peoples under siege and under occupation talk publicly about sexualities in their cultures. While admitting, “There appears to be no shame or furtiveness about them, although when approached, they refuse to talk to a western journalist,” Reid turned around and charged the Pashtun with “lying” because they did not confess to his definition of their sexualities. Maura Reynolds quotes Mohammed Daud, a motorbike repair person, in her Los Angeles Times article. “These are hard questions you are asking,” he says. “We don’t usually talk about such things.” (Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2002) Rambo gay bashing The Pentagon brass—which carry out a crusade of terror against gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans GIs in its own ranks—gay-bashed Afghanistan, too. Just days after the Pentagon began dropping a torrent of high-tech ordnance from the sky over Afghanistan, the Associated Press released worldwide a photograph of a gay-bashing epithet, “High Jack This F—-,”scrawled on one of the bombs on a fighter jet parked on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise. The widely circulated photo created uproar among lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) organizations in the United States. However, all but one of these groups debated it from the standpoint of a hate-speech issue; they did not denounce the aerial bombardment and post-9/11 Pentagon military aggression against Afghanistan. AP spokesperson Jack Stokes used the weapon of xenophobia to deflect anger, saying that the photographer “is not American, and that [epithet] meant nothing to him.” Stokes didn’t bother taking a stab at explaining how the photo got past everyone else in the process of selection and production. At the Pentagon, Navy Rear Adm. Stephen Pietropaoli said the ship’s crew had been told to edit “the spontaneous acts of penmanship by our sailors.” He concluded, “We want to keep the message positive.” Pietropaoli is referring to messages written on bombs about to drop on the population below. The release of the photograph was very much in keeping with the menacing psy-op messages of U.S. and British imperialism. Political pundits, late-night-television comics, newspaper and Internet cartoons gay-baited and transgender-baited the Taliban and Osama bin Laden—including threats of anal rape. The threat of rape and sexual and gender humiliation is a primary weapon of CIA and mercenary interrogators of Muslim men and women. The following quotes, vicious and offensive, are repeated here solely to spotlight the threat of violence that smolders in these reports, which are broadcast around the world. In an article in The Scotsman on May 24, 2002, journalist Chris Stephen wrote, “In Bagram British marines returning from an operation deep in the Afghan mountains spoke last night of an alarming new threat—being propositioned by swarms of gay local farmers.” British Royal Marine James Fletcher said: “They were more terrifying than the al-Qaeda. One bloke who had painted toenails was offering to paint ours. They go about hand in hand, mincing around the village.” “It was hell,” said Corporal Paul Richard. “They put some music on and ask us to dance. I told them where to go,” said Cpl. Richard. “Some of the guys turned tail and fled. It was hideous.” These quotes from military aggressors are a “homosexual panic defense,” by which gay-bashers later claim in court that they were justified to torture and murder because the victim made sexual advances. Even after the U.S. and British invaded Afghanistan—dominating the country militarily and crafting a legislative and political façade of independent government and law—the imperialists did not remove the law which they had said in pro-war agitation made same-sex love a capital offense. Next: Same-sex rights: Dec.18 New York Times pits Iraq and Iran. Read parts 116 and 117 on Afghanistan and the entire Lavender & Red series at www.workers.org. Look for the Lavender & Red logo. Email: lfeinberg@workers.org.
March, 2008 8 by Aunohita Mojumdar Though there has been considerable documentation of the denial of women’s rights in Afghanistan, as well as some cursory examination into issues of gay identities, the behavioural norm that blurs the distinction between sexual and platonic relationships remains almost completely unexplored. This continues in spite of the fact that there is a long history of such relationships in official records and cultural traditions of the region. Take, for example, two widely known works of literature, the Baburnama (Book of Babur) and the works of the 13th-centruy poet Rumi. The former was written by an emperor who came from Uzbekistan to make Hindustan his home, but all his life longed for Kabul, for its resemblance to his childhood home. The latter, though born in Balkh in northern Afghanistan, ultimately left the region for Turkey. Zahiruddin Muhammed Babur, who lived between 1483 and 1530, was the founder of the Mughal dynasty in the Subcontinent. In his astonishingly frank autobiography, the Baburnama, he provides an extensive record his longing for a young boy. Unfortunately, this infatuation also coincided with his marriage. Though wed at the age of 17, to one Ayisheh Sultan Begum, he soon loses both his interest in and fondness for his wife. “Once every month or forty days,” the emperor recalls, “my mother, the khanim, drove me to her [Ayisheh] with all the severity of a quartermaster.” Readers are never told exactly what the results were of these disciplinarian efforts. And, of course, as is the norm with the history of kings, we know even less of Ayisheh’s feelings. What we do know, however, is of Babur’s real interest. “During this time there was a boy from the camp market named Baburi,” he writes. Even his name was amazingly appropriate. I developed a strange inclination for him – rather I made myself miserable over him. Before this experience I had never felt a desire for anyone, nor did I listen to talk of love and affection or speak of such things. At that time I used to compose single lines and couplets in Persian. I composed the following lines there: ‘May no one be so distraught and devastated by love as I; Occasionally Baburi came to me, but I was so bashful that I could not look him in the face, much less converse with him. In my excitement and agitation I could not thank him for coming, much less complain of his leaving. Who could bear to demand the ceremonies of fealty? Another time, coming suddenly across the subject of his affections, Babur recalls being so embarrassed that he nearly went to pieces. In the throes of love, in the foment of youth and madness, I wandered bareheaded and barefoot around the lanes and streets and through gardens and orchard, paying no attention to acquaintances and strangers, oblivious to self and others. When I fell in love I became mad and crazed. I knew not this to be part of loving beauties. Sometimes I went out alone like a madman to the hills and wilderness, sometimes I roamed through the orchards and lanes of town, neither walking nor sitting within my own volition, restless in going and staying. I have no strength to go, no power to stay. You have snared us in this state, my heart. What appears to have been a passing infatuation ends here, however, and little more is heard of Babur’s love and longing. Much of the rest of the Baburnama is instead devoted to more ‘manly’ pursuits, particularly Babur’s extensive military expeditions. Inside the unsayable Much is now made of Rumi’s role in bridging cultures. As a Sufi poet whose verse transcended the narrow boundaries of not just one religion but also the more narrow interpretation of man’s relationship with god, Rumi is now held up as an example of the religious tolerance that existed. His poetry is often quoted and used to buttress the more liberal interpretations of religion and tolerance, especially since he came from a region that has recently seen a great deal of intolerance. But even today, little is said of Rumi’s role in blurring the boundaries of love. Soon after they met, Shams and Rumi became inseparable. “Their friendship is one of the mysteries,” Barks writes. “They spent months together without any human needs, transported into a region of pure conversation. This ecstatic connection caused difficulties in the religious community.” As a teacher of religion, after all, Rumi would have been expected to be beyond ‘worldly’ longings, while his students are also said to have felt neglected by this obsession with Shams. Shams eventually disappeared, only to be brought back at Rumi’s urging. “Shams stayed in Rumi’s home and was married to a young girl who had been brought up in the family. Again the long mystical conversation (sohbet) began and again the jealousies grew.” Shams disappeared again, this time probably murdered by Rumi’s own family. In despair Rumi travelled to Damascus, realising only then: “Why should I seek? I am the same as he. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself.” Yet even so, Rumi needed his muse. Barks states, somewhat obliquely, “After Shams’ death and Rumi’s emotional ‘merging’ with him another companion was found. Saladin Zarkub.” And, after Zarkub, there was another, Husam Chelebi – all of them male. It was to Shams, however, that Rumi addressed his most intense poems, included in a masterwork collectively referred to as “The Shams”. “There’s no more wine; my bowl is broken,” Rumi laments, “I am terribly sick, and only Shams can cure me. Do you know Shams, the prince of seeing, Shams is a trumpet note of light Contemporary history does not say whether the love of Rumi for Shams, or of Babur for Baburi, ever had a physical element. If this were so, these couples would perhaps be called homosexual. But what if it were not so? In the narrow categorisations of homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual, where would these friendships fit in – traversing the space between sexual and platonic, between friendship and love? Babur and Shams may well have also been homosexual. Or, like the boys of Kabul today, it might be just that they were uninhibited and intensely attached to others of the same sex. What enables young men in Afghanistan today to hold swinging hands as they walk together is a lack of awareness that such behaviour is nowadays stereotyped as ‘gay’. Caught in something of a time warp, isolated by three decades’ of fighting, Afghanistan, in a paradoxical way, provides some spaces and freedoms that are a direct result of its years of social seclusion. Now on the path of assimilation into the ‘global community’, perhaps it will not be long before Afghan youth, like others in the region, become aware of ‘modern’ behavioural codes, and the displays of physical affection that are now the norm will quickly be labelled as ‘deviant’. |
