Bacha Bazi (Persian: بچه بازی, literally "playing with children" in Iranian dialect and "playing with boys" in Afghani dialect), also known as bacchá (from the Persian bacheh بچه "child, young man, calf") or bacha bereesh (beardless boy) is sexual slavery and child prostitution[1] in which prepubescent and adolescent boys are sold to wealthy or powerful men for entertainment and sexual activities. This business thrives in Afghanistan, where many men keep them as status symbols.[2][3] Some of the individuals involved report being forced into sex. The authorities are barely attempting to crack down on the practice but many doubt it would be effective since many of the men are powerful and well-armed former commanders.[4]
A documentary by Najibullah Quraishi about the practice was aired on PBS Frontline in the United States,[2] and True Stories in the UK on 20 April 2010. This film premiered at the Royal Society of Arts on 29 March 2010.[5]
The practice is illegal under Afghan law.[6][7]
The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict reported, in 2009, "It is time to openly confront this practice and to put an end to it. Religious leaders in Afghanistan appealed to me to assist them in combating these activities. Laws should be passed, campaigns must be waged and perpetrators should be held accountable and punished. Boys, as well as girls, should be protected so that they are allowed the full benefits of a childhood without exploitation."[8]
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The practice of bacha bazi is one form of pederasty. The practice has been prevalent in Central-East Asia since ancient times, when it was observed by the ancient Greeks.[9] In pre-modern times there was a "widespread conviction that beardless youths possessed a temptation to adult men as a whole, and not merely to a small minority of deviants."[10]
Bacha bazi, historically more common, especially in Pashtun areas, than in present day, waned in the big cities after World War I, forced out for reasons that historian Anthony Shay describes as "Victorian era prudery and severe disapproval of colonial powers such as the Russians, British, and French, and the post colonial elites who had absorbed those Western colonial values."[11]
A number of western travellers through Central Asia have reported on the phenomenon of the bacchá. Visiting Turkestan in 1872-3, Eugene Schuyler observed that, "here boys and youths specially trained take the place of the dancing-girls of other countries. The moral tone of the society of Central Asia is scarcely improved by the change". His opinion was that the dances "were by no means indecent, though they were often very lascivious." At this date there were already signs of official disapproval of the practice. Wrote Schuyler: "These batchas, or dancing-boys, are a recognised institution throughout the whole of the settled portions of Central Asia, though they are most in vogue in Bokhara and the neighbouring Samarkand. In the khanate of Khokand public dances have for some years been forbidden." Schuyler remarked that the ban had barely lasted a year, so enthusiastic were the Sarts for a bazem "dance". He further describes the respect and affection the dancers often received:
"These batchas are as much respected as the greatest singers and artistes are with us. Every movement they make is followed and applauded, and I have never seen such breathless interest as they excite, for the whole crowd seems to devour them with their eyes, while their hands beat time to every step. If a batcha condescends to offer a man a bowl of tea, the recipient rises to take it with a profound obeisance, and returns the empty bowl in the same way, addressing him only as Taxir, 'your Majesty', or Kulluk 'I am your slave'. Even when a batcha passes through the bazaar all who know him rise to salute him with hands upon their hearts, and the exclamation of Kulluk! and should he deign to stop and rest in any shop, it is thought a great honour."
He also reports that a rich patron would often help establish a favorite dancer in business after he had grown too old to carry on his profession.[12]
A 2011 study in Pakistan involving four boys found similarities and differences between the practice in Pakistan and those observed in Uzbekistan in the 1970s by Ingeborg Baldauf.[13]
Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi made and released a documentary titled "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan" about the practice, made after the end of his exile from the country. PBS Frontline aired it in the U.S.,[2] and 'True Stories' in the U.K. on 20 April 2010.[5] Journalist Nicholas Graham of The Huffington Post also lauded the documentary as "both fascinating and horrifying."[14] The issue has been covered by RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.[15] The practice of 'Bacha bazi' prompted the US Defense Department to hire social scientist AnnaMaria Cardinalli to investigate the problem, as Western soldiers on patrol often passed older men walking hand-in-hand with pretty young boys. British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch and fondle them," which the soldiers didn't understand.[16]
In the novel The Kite Runner, and in the movie of the same name, the practice of bacha bazi is depicted. In the plot, the protagonist's half-nephew is forced to become a dancing boy and sexual slave to a high-ranking official of the Taliban government, who also had, years earlier, raped the boy's father when both were young teenagers.
In December 2010 a Wikileaks cable revealed that a US company, DynCorp had spent money on pimps who purchased young boys for Afghan policemen. The boys were used in Bacha bazi.[17]
The practice is captured in a phrase oft repeated by US military members that in Afghanistan 'women are for babies, boys are for fun'