Bacchá
Encyclopedia
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
bacheh بچه "child, young man, calf") or bacha bereesh (beardless boy) is sexual slavery
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
and child prostitution in which prepubescent and adolescent boys are sold to wealthy or powerful men for entertainment and sexual activities. This business thrives in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, where many men keep them as status symbols. 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.
A documentary by Najibullah Quraishi
Najibullah Quraishi
Najibullah Quraishi is an award winning Afghan journalist and filmmaker.Najibullah worked as a journalist and presenter on radio and television in Afghanistan for 10 years and has a degree in journalism. Najibullah is Clover Films chief investigator for projects in Asia and the Arab states...
about the practice was aired on PBS Frontline in the United States, and True Stories in the UK on 20 April 2010. This film premiered at the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
on 29 March 2010.
The practice is illegal under Afghan law.
The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General
Special Representative of the Secretary-General
A Special Representative of the Secretary-General is a highly respected expert who has been appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to represent her/him in meetings with heads of state on critical human rights issues...
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."
History
The practice of bacha bazi is one form of pederastyPederasty
Pederasty or paederasty is an intimate relationship between an adult and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family. The word pederasty derives from Greek "love of boys", a compound derived from "child, boy" and "lover".Historically, pederasty has existed as a variety of customs and...
. The practice has been prevalent in in Central-East Asia since ancient times, when it was observed by the ancient Greeks. 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."
Bacha bazi, historically more common, especially in Pashtun areas, than in present day, waned in the big cities after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, forced out for reasons that historian Anthony Shay
Anthony Shay
Anthony Shay is a dancer and choreographer specializing in dances from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. In 50 years of work he has created over 200 choreographies....
describes as "Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
prudery and severe disapproval of colonial powers such as the Russians
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, and French
French colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
, and the post colonial elites who had absorbed those Western colonial values."
A number of western travellers through Central Asia have reported on the phenomenon of the bacchá. Visiting Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
in 1872-3, Eugene Schuyler
Eugene Schuyler
Eugene Schuyler was a nineteenth-century American scholar, writer, explorer and diplomat. Schuyler was of the first three Americans to earn a Ph.D. from an American university; and the first American translator of Ivan Turgenev and Lev Tolstoi...
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
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
and the neighbouring Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
. In the khanate of Khokand
Khanate of Kokand
The Khanate of Kokand was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1883 within the territory of modern eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan...
public dances have for some years been forbidden." Schuyler remarked that the ban had barely lasted a year, so enthusiastic were the Sarts
Sarts
SARTS or Sarts can have several meanings:* Singapore Amateur Radio Transmitting Society* Sarts, a group of Central Asian people...
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.
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.
Media coverage
Afghan journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
Najibullah Quraishi
Najibullah Quraishi
Najibullah Quraishi is an award winning Afghan journalist and filmmaker.Najibullah worked as a journalist and presenter on radio and television in Afghanistan for 10 years and has a degree in journalism. Najibullah is Clover Films chief investigator for projects in Asia and the Arab states...
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., and 'True Stories' in the U.K. on 20 April 2010. Journalist Nicholas Graham of The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
also lauded the documentary as "both fascinating and horrifying." The issue has been covered by RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is a women's organization based in Quetta, Pakistan, that promotes women's rights and secular democracy...
. The practice of 'Bacha bazi' prompted the US Defense Department to hire social scientist AnnaMaria Cardinalli
AnnaMaria Cardinalli
AnnaMaria Cardinalli is an American Military Investigator, Classical Guitarist, and operatic Mezzo-Soprano.- Education :...
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.
In the novel The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007....
, 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
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
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.
External links
- Reuters, "Afghan boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords"
- Bannerman, Mark, The Warlord's Tune: Afghanistan's war on children, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Co.) News, 22 Feb 2010.