Boys used as sex slaves by Afghan warlords and rich
Sunday, July 13th, 200812/7/08
Afghanistan must do more to end an age-old practice of young boys being kept as sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict has said. Radhika Coomaraswamy said the practice, called bacha bazi - literally boy play - was a taboo subject but she had heard of warlords and military commanders keeping boys and “exploiting them in terrible ways”. “Nobody talks about it; everyone says, ‘Well, you know, it’s been there for 1000 years so why do we want to raise this now?”‘ she said yesterday at UN headquarters in New York, reporting on a visit to Afghanistan last week. “That seems to be the general attitude among everyone, but somebody has to raise it and it has to be dealt with.” Known as bacha bereesh, boys without beards, the victims of such abuse are teenagers who dress as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan.
