Do you remember last Sunday I
wrote the following questioning the Orlando shooter being angry about gays?
I can't imagine why he would be angry. American troops report such behavior is absolutely routine in Afghanistan, much of it involving adult males and preteen "dancing boys."
Today comes an
article from
Yahoo News describing the practice in considerable detail and indicating its absolute prevalence throughout Afghanistan, particularly among leaders of police units and others in positions of power and/or wealth.
Bacha bazi, which the US State Department has called a "culturally sanctioned form of male rape", peels away the masculine identity of boys in a society where the sexes are tightly segregated.
In conservative areas women are mostly invisible in public -- and often unattainable due to steep bride prices. Bachas supplant the role of women, adopting a feminine gait and sometimes wearing makeup and bells on their feet.
Many in Uruzgan see bacha bazi neither as paedophilia nor homosexuality, which is forbidden in Islam. If social norms had a pecking order, violating boys would be seen as far more ethical than violating women.
