{{Short description|Form of child sexual abuse in Central Asia}} {{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}} {{Italic title}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} [[File:Samarkand A group of musicians playing for a bacha dancing boy.jpg|thumb|Bacha dance performance in the city of Samarkand (in modern-day Uzbekistan), {{circa|1910}}]] {{Slavery}}
'''''Bacha bazi'''''<ref name=FreePass/> (Persian{{efn|{{IPA|fa|ba.t͡ʃʰæ bäː.zíː}}}}: {{Lang|fa|بچه بازی}}, {{literally|boy play}}) is a pederastic practice in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan, in which men exploit and enslave adolescent boys, sometimes for sexual abuse, and/or coerce them to cross-dress in attire traditionally only worn by women and girls and dance for entertainment.{{refn|<ref name=OutrageBBCNews/><ref name="PD"/><ref name=CausesAndConsequences/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/246409/Boys_in_Afghanistan_Sold_Into_Prostitution_Sexual_Slavery|url-status=dead|title=Boys in Afghanistan Sold Into Prostitution, Sexual Slavery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203033650/http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/246409/Boys_in_Afghanistan_Sold_Into_Prostitution_Sexual_Slavery|archive-date=3 December 2013|publisher=Digital Journal|date=20 November 2007|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Londoño|first1=Ernesto|title=Afghanistan sees rise in 'dancing boys' exploitation|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afganistans-dancing-boys-are-invisible-victims/2012/04/04/gIQAyreSwS_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=24 September 2015|archive-date=25 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925134901/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afganistans-dancing-boys-are-invisible-victims/2012/04/04/gIQAyreSwS_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b|url-status=dead|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>}} The man exploiting the young boy is called a ''bacha baz'' (literally "boy player")<ref name="PD"/> and the young boy is called a ''bacha''.
Often, the boys come from an impoverished and vulnerable situation such as street children, mainly without relatives or abducted from their families.<ref name="PD"/><ref name="arnisnaevarr2">{{cite web |author=Arni Snaevarr |date=19 March 2014 |title=The dancing boys of Afghanistan |url=http://www.unric.org/en/latest-un-buzz/29091-the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408020332/https://www.unric.org/en/latest-un-buzz/29091-the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan |archive-date=8 April 2019 |website=United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC)}}</ref><ref name=DancingBoys>{{cite news |last=Qobil |first=Rustam |date=7 September 2010 |title=The Sexually Abused Dancing Boys of Afghanistan |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11217772 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190818070104/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11217772 |archive-date=18 August 2019 |access-date=9 May 2016 |work=BBC News |quote="I'm at a wedding party in a remote village in northern Afghanistan."}}</ref> In some cases, families facing extreme poverty or starvation may feel compelled to sell their young sons to a ''bacha baz'' or allow them to be "adopted" in exchange for food or money.<ref name="PD"/> The ''bachas'' are obliged to serve their patrons and their wishes, through cross-dressing and sexual entertainment. ''Bachas'' are primarily exploited for entertainment, but they have also been used for daily tasks in war,<ref name=BachahIntroHistory/>{{pn|date=July 2025}} and for becoming bodyguards.{{Efn|According to a 2014 report on bachah-bāzi by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), the leading Afghan human rights organization, the practice remains "normal and customary" in some areas of Afghanistan, and bachahs play (or are forced to play) the roles of "bodyguards, apprentices, and servants at home, shop, bakery, workshop, hotels, restaurants and other paid jobs" (Saramad et al., "Bachabazi," 3; the report’s introduction by Sima Samar, the then-head of the AIHRC).}} Facing social stigma and sexual abuse, the young boys, who often despise their captors, struggle with psychological effects from the abuse<ref>{{cite news |date=29 January 2020 |title=Bacha bazi: the scandal of Afghanistan's abused boys |url=https://www.theweek.co.uk/105442/bacha-bazi-the-scandal-of-afghanistan-s-abused-boys |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822003619/https://www.theweek.co.uk/105442/bacha-bazi-the-scandal-of-afghanistan-s-abused-boys |archive-date=22 August 2021 |access-date=16 April 2020 |work=The Week}}</ref> and suffer from emotional trauma for life, including turning to drugs and alcohol.<ref name="PD">{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Samuel V. |date=25 April 2015 |title=Ending Bacha Bazi: Boy Sex Slavery and the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine |url=https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/iiclr/article/view/18587 |journal=Indiana International & Comparative Law Review |publisher=Indiana University Indianapolis |location=Indianapolis, Indiana, USA |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=63–78 |doi=10.18060/7909.0005 |issn=2169-3226 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
''Bacha bazi'' was outlawed during the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan period.<ref name=DancingBoys/><ref name=mondloch>{{cite magazine| last =Mondloch| first =Chris| title =Bacha Bazi: An Afghan Tragedy| magazine =Foreign Policy |location=Washington, D.C., USA| date =28 October 2013| url =https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/10/28/bacha-bazi-an-afghan-tragedy/| access-date = 23 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Wijngaarden |first=Jan Willem de Lind van |date=October 2011 |title=Male adolescent concubinage in Peshawar, Northwestern Pakistan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23047511 |url-status=live |journal=Culture, Health & Sexuality |publisher=Taylor & Francis, Ltd |volume=13 |issue=9 |pages=1061–1072 |doi=10.1080/13691058.2011.599863 |jstor=23047511 |pmid=21815728 |s2cid=5058030 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210704214821/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23047511 |archive-date=4 July 2021 |access-date=26 December 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Nevertheless, it was widely practiced. Force and coercion were common, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan stated they were unable to end such practices and that many of the men involved in ''bacha bazi'' were powerful and well-armed warlords.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/dancingboys/transcript/|publisher=PBS|title=Transcript: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan|date=20 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/bacha-bazi-the-tragedy-of-afghanistans-dancing-boys/|title=Bacha Bazi: The Tragedy of Afghanistan's Dancing Boys|author=Roshni Kapur, The Diplomat|website=The Diplomat|access-date=12 February 2021|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308030223/https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/bacha-bazi-the-tragedy-of-afghanistans-dancing-boys/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSISL1848920071119?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true|work=Reuters|title=Afghan boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords|date=18 November 2007|access-date=30 April 2015|archive-date=11 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111163842/http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSISL1848920071119?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true|url-status=live}}</ref> The laws were seldom enforced against powerful offenders, and police had reportedly been complicit in related crimes.<ref>Quraishi, Najibullah [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/dancingboys/? Uncovering the world of "bacha bazi"] at ''The New York Times'' 20 April 2010</ref><ref>Bannerman, Mark [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-22/the-warlords-tune-afghanistans-war-on-children/338920 The Warlord's Tune: Afghanistan's war on children] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831010114/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-22/the-warlords-tune-afghanistans-war-on-children/338920|date=31 August 2017}} at Australian Broadcasting Corporation 22 February 2010</ref> While ''bacha bazi'' carried the death penalty,<ref name="DS">{{Cite web |title=Bacha bazi: Afghanistan's darkest secret |url=https://humanrights.brightblue.org.uk/blog-1/2017/8/18/bacha-bazi-afghanistans-darkest-secret |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822052916/https://humanrights.brightblue.org.uk/blog-1/2017/8/18/bacha-bazi-afghanistans-darkest-secret |archive-date=22 August 2021 |access-date=1 May 2019 |website=Human Rights and discrimination |language=en-US}}</ref> the boys were sometimes charged rather than the perpetrators.<ref name="arnisnaevarr2"/>
The practice carries the death penalty under Taliban law.<ref name="DS" /> Despite the official ban, the practice continues, although some scholars argue that since the mid-2010s, the practice has gradually begun to recede from the view of the public and is increasingly subject to condemnation in places like Kabul.{{r|name=BachahIntroHistory|p=175,178|q=Public condemnations of man-bachah relationships increased after Ashraf Ghani was elected president in 2014. ... While such arrangements have not died out in today’s Afghanistan, they have receded from public view in recent times, especially in Kabul ....}}
==Etymology==
''Bacha bazi'' comes from the Persian words {{Lang|fa-Latn|bache}} ({{Lang|fa|بچه}}), meaning 'child' or 'young boy', and {{Lang|fa-Latn|bāzi}} ({{Lang|fa|بازی}}), meaning 'game' or 'play', which later evolved into an Uzbekified form of the word into ''Bacha bozi'' (Бача бози), which was known by the same term by the Russians.
==History==
===Origins of Bacha bazi=== {{See also|Pederasty in ancient Greece}} Scholar and Turkologist Ingeborg Baldauf (1988) hypotheses that ''bacha bazi'' originated from Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian influences developed in the regions of Bactria and Sogdia, noting the similarities in classical Greek pederastic customs and the distinction between erastes (lover) and eromenos (beloved). Another potential origin being from Ancient China, due to the parallels of Chinese and Central Asian 'boy love', and its existence in East Turkestan.<ref name="Bacabozlik">{{Cite book |last=Baldauf |first=Ingeborg |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297919766 |title=Die Knabenliebe in Mittelasien: Bacabozlik |date=1988 |publisher=Free University of Berlin |isbn=3-923446-29-2 |location=Berlin |page=5; 79—88 |trans-title=Boy-love in Central Asia: 'Bacabozlik'}}</ref> The ''Journal of Trafficking and Human Exploitation'' (2019) said that ''bacha bazi'' is considered by some anthropologists to have been introduced by Alexander the Great's ancient Macedonian army in Central Asia. Further stating "[o]ld poems, tales, and songs about Bacha Bazi in Afghanistan predate the pre-Islamic era (Eighth Century)."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Akhtar |first=Anwar |date=2019 |title=The Neglected Boys of War: Trapped in a Vicious Cycle of Slavery and Sexual Abuse |url=https://www.uitgeverijparis.nl/nl/reader/204793/1001413551 |access-date=17 June 2025 |website=Uitgeverij Paris |series=Journal of Trafficking and Human Exploitation (JTHE) |language=}}</ref> The Journal of Contemporary Asian Studies (2018) said, "[i]t is generally believed that bachabazi existed in antiquity", but added it was unclear if it was connected with ancient Occidental pederasty due to insufficient study to "offer a conclusive picture" in the context of antiquity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 August 2018 |title=A Tradition of Pederasty |url=https://utsynergyjournal.org/2018/08/24/a-tradition-of-pederasty/ |access-date=17 June 2025 |website=Synergy: The Journal of Contemporary Asian Studies |language=en-US}}</ref>
===''Bacha bazi'' in Turkestan=== [[File:The Bacha and His Admirers 1868.jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of a ''bacha'' and adult admirers in Russian Turkestan, {{circa|1868}}]]
According to Baldauf, the practice of ''bacha bazi'' in Medieval Central Asia was recognized by the 13th century, having spread from Khorasan.<ref name="Bacabozlik" /> After the Russians conquered most of Central Asia, they encountered the practice of 'bacha bozi'{{Efn|The term was known to be 'bacha bozi' by the Russians, derived from an Uzbekified pronunciation of the Persian word 'bacha bāzi'}}, a practice of boys dancing dressed as girls during the 19th century in the Emirate of Bukhara, and surrounding regions in the north, most common among ethnic Uzbeks, and ethnic Turkmens.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kushelevskiy |first=Vladimir |title=В новом краю. Роман-хроника из времён завоевания Туркестанского края. Том. 1. Ташкент, 1913 |publisher=A. L. Kirsner |year=1891 |pages=94–98 |language=ru |trans-title=In a New Land. A Chronicle Novel from the Time of the Conquest of the Turkestan Region. Vol 1. Tashkent, 1913}}</ref> The Russians left many detailed accounts of this practice, as they found these cross-dressing and sexual habits to be bizarre, as well as its social and sexual effect on society.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ilyin |first=Nikolai |title=Материалы для медицинской географии и санитарного описания Ферганской области. Том II |publisher=New Margelan Press |year=1891 |pages=451–458 |language=ru |trans-title=Materials for Medical Geography and Sanitary Description of the Ferana Region. Vol II}}</ref>
This practice was not only about young boys cross-dressing in female attire, but they would often perform sexual services for their admirers. Abdulla Qodiriy, the first modern Uzbek novelist, was not the only one among Uzbek intellectuals in describing same-sex relations among madrasa students. Qodiriy has also witnessed many incidents taking places in madrasas, and had left a semi-biographical account of a tragic story about two madrasa students in amorous relations, which would later be adapted as a play by Mark Weil and staged at Ilkhom Theatre, the first independent theatre in the Soviet Union, and the only self-supporting cultural institution in the Uzbek SSR.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Qodiriy |first=Abdullah |title=Juvonboz. To'liq asarlar to'plami. 6-jildlik, 1-jild |publisher=Abdulla Qodiriy |year=1915 |pages=19–26 |language=uz |trans-title=Juvonboz. Complete Works Collection. VI Volumes, Vol. II}}</ref>
[[File:Мальчик-бача.webp|thumb|1923 painting of a ''bacha'' in the city of Samarkand (in modern-day Uzbekistan)]]
Besides the Russians, a number of Western travellers through Central Asia, have reported on the phenomenon of ''bacha bazi'', while visiting the region of Turkestan. In 1872 to 1873, Eugene Schuyler observed that the boys of the Emirate of Bukhara were trained to replace the dancing girls of other countries.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Schuyler |first=Eugene |title=Turkistan: Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Khokand, Bukhara and Kuldja |publisher=London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington) 1876 |year=1876 |edition=Vol I. |pages=132–133}}</ref> His opinion was that the dances "were by no means indecent, though they were often very lascivious". Schuyler also reported that these ''bachas'' continued to flourish until 1872 in Tashkent, when a severe epidemic of cholera influenced the Mullahs to declare that dancing was against the words of Allah, and at the request of the leaders of the native population, the Russian authorities forbade public dances during that summer.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
However, Schuyler had also remarked that the ban had barely lasted a year, and how enthusiastic the Sarts were for a bazem "dance". Schuyler also reported that a rich patron would often help establish a favourite dancer in business after he had grown too old to carry on his profession.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Troupe of Musicians. A Batcha, or Dancing Boy WDL11109.png|thumb|right|''Bacha'' in Turkestan, {{circa|1870}}]]
Count Konstantin Konstantinovich Pahlen, during his travels through the area in 1908 and 1909, described such dances, and commissioned photographs of the dancers:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pahlen |first=Count |title=Mission to Turkestan: Being the memoirs of Count K. K. Pahlen |publisher=Translation by Mr. N. Couriss |year=1909}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1865 |title=Pastimes of Central Asians. Group of Male Musicians Posing with Several Batchas, or Dancing Boys |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10829 |access-date=14 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1865 |title=Pastimes of Central Asians. Group of Male Musicians Posing with Several Batchas, or Dancing Boys, 2 |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10830 |access-date=14 May 2014 |website=World Digital Library}}</ref>
<blockquote>Cushions and rugs were fetched, on which we gratefully reclined, great carpets were spread over the court, the natives puffed at their narghiles, politely offering them to us, and the famous Khivan bachehs made their entrance. Backstage, an orchestra mainly composed of twin flutes, kettle drums, and half a dozen man-sized silver trumpets took up its stand. Opposite us a door left slightly ajar led to the harem quarters. We caught a glimpse of flashing eyes as the inmates thronged to the door to have a good look at us and watch the performance. The orchestra started up with a curious, plaintive melody, the rhythm being taken up and stressed by the kettle drums, and four bachehs took up their positions on the carpet. The bachehs are young men specially trained to perform a particular set of dances. Barefoot, and dressed like women in long, brightly coloured silk smocks reaching below their knees and narrow trousers fastened tightly round their ankles, their arms and hands sparkle with rings and bracelets. They wear their hair long, reaching below the shoulders, though the front part of the head is clean shaven. The nails of the hands and feet are painted red, the eyebrows are jet black and meet over the bridge of the nose. The dances consist of sensuous contortions of the body and a rhythmical pacing to and fro, with the hands and arms raised in a trembling movement. As the ballet proceeded the number of dancers increased, the circle grew in size, the music waxed shriller and shriller and the eyes of the native onlookers shone with admiration, while the bachehs intoned a piercing melody in time with the ever-growing tempo of the music. The Heir explained that they were chanting of love and the beauty of women. Swifter and swifter moved the dancers till they finally sank to the floor, seemingly exhausted and enchanted by love. They were followed by others, but the general theme was usually the same.</blockquote>
In 1909, two ''bachas'' performed among the entertainers at the Central Asian Agricultural, Industrial and Scientific Exposition in Tashkent. Noting the public's constant interest in, and laughter at the performance, several locally based researchers recorded the lyrics of the songs performed by the two boys (16-year-old Hadji-bacha and 10-year-old Sayid-bacha, both from the then-Margilan Uezd).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ilkin |first=B. |date=1910 |title=Songs of the Bacha: Kaufman Collection, for the 25th anniversary of the death of Adjutant General K.P. von Kaufman, the conqueror of Central Asia, Moscow, 1910 |url=http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/M.Asien/XX/1900-1920/Kaufmann_sbornik/index.htm |journal=Песни бачей: Кауфманский сборник, изданный в память 25 лет, истекших со дня смерти покорителя Туркестанского края, генерал-адъютанта К. П. фон-Кауфмана I-го, Москва, 1910}}</ref> The songs were then published in the original "Sart language", with a Russian translation. It waned in many major cities after World War I, for reasons that dance historian Anthony Shay describes as "Victorian era prudery and [the] severe disapproval of colonial powers such as the Russians, British, and French, and the post-colonial elites who had absorbed those Western colonial values".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shay |first=Anthony |date=7 July 2008 |title=The Male Dancer in the Middle East and Central Asia |url=http://artira.com/danceforum/articles/shay_maledancer.html}}</ref> Bacha bazi never disappeared completely within the Central Asian republics, and had shifted to become an underground activity, being practiced in secret.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Men on Top: Sexual Economy of ''Bacha Bazi'' in Afghanistan |url=https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/173188/1/BB.Revised.pdf |quote=A time-honoured tradition among the Khanates in 18th and 19th centuries, bacha bazi was banned in the early 20* century in the region. However, in spite of the religious and state-led prohibition, it did not disappear completely. Bacha bazi simply became an underground activity during Soviet control of the Central Asian republics.}}</ref>
=== Spread into Afghanistan === Lord Curzon, who visited the court of Abdur Rahman Khan in the late 19th century, refers to "dancing-boys" as "an amusement much favored in Afghanistan", and John Alfred Gray, a British physician who served as the Amir's surgeon in the early 1890s, describes a scene of a dozen boys, "aged about thirteen to fourteen," with long hair and in girls' dress, dancing at the court. Mahmud Tarzi, a leading intellectual of the time, also makes reference to the presence of both bāzengar (dancing-boys) and kanchini (dancing-girls) in public gatherings of late 19th century Kabul in his memoir.
During the time of Abdur Rahman Khan, the signification of ''bacha bazi'' was mainly about having ''bachas'' dance, and to be bodyguards, rather than having sexual liaisons. These were mainly called ''gholām-bacha'' (meaning 'servant child'), and would grow up to be commanders-in-chief, treasury lords, and the Amir's personal bodyguards.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
[[File:Prince Habibullah Khan and King Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|Abdur Rahman Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan, surrounded by three of his ''gholam-bachās'' in the Royal Court {{circa|1900|lk=no}}]]
===Afghan penalization of Bacha bazi===
His grandson, King Amanullah Khan had abolished the short-lived practice that was brought to the Afghan royal court in the 1880s and which later spread to neighboring societies, of recruiting or raising ''gholām-bachas,'' for moral reasons. Amanullah also wished to further boast his modernization and anti-slavery campaigns through such efforts, and had criminalized this custom by law.<ref name=BachahIntroHistory>{{Cite journal |last=Abdi |first=Ali |date=January 2023 |title=The Afghan Bachah and its Discontents: An Introductory History |journal=Iranian Studies |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0E0397A09804E5995947B7024D9B9815/S0021086222000421a.pdf/the-afghan-bachah-and-its-discontents-an-introductory-history.pdf |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=161–180 |doi=10.1017/irn.2022.42 |issn=0021-0862|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{pn|date=July 2025}}
Article 170 of the first General Penal Code of Afghanistan, which was adopted in 1921, called for a fine of 1,000–5,000 rupees, and jail time for keeping ''bachas.'' This was the first law on ''bacha bazi'' in the history of modern Afghanistan, and according to Article 167 of the same Penal Code, perpetrators of the 'despicable act' (feʿl-e shaniʿ) on bachas, such as sodomy, were punishable by death.{{Efn|Article 135 of the Ministry of Justice's Nezāmnāmah (1924)}}
Furthermore, in the General Penal Code of 1924, which returned the power of deciding punishment to the clerics, the following clause was added: "The amrād would be sentenced to the same punishment [that the judge decides for the older man] should he have participated [in the sexual encounter] willingly."{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
Ethnomusicologist John Baily commented that organizing gatherings with dancing ''bachas'' was not allowed in Herat in the late 1970s, mainly because violent fights often erupted at such events.<ref name=BachahIntroHistory/>{{pn|date=July 2025}} German ethnographic research, conducted in the 1970s, observed the widespread practice of dancing boys or ''bachabozlik'' among Uzbek populations in northern Afghanistan. The research found such stances were prevalent among Afghan intellectuals, who either "denied the existence of the phenomenon in Afghanistan or among their own ethnic group" or associated it with illiteracy, gender segregation, and the limited sexual possibilities of rural areas. While the exchange of a few kisses and caresses was permissible between the ''bacha'' and ''bacha bāz'', no sexual intercourse was allowed, or the relationship would end abruptly.<ref name=BachahIntroHistory/>{{pn|date=July 2025}}
According to international relations scholar Lasha Tchantouridze, there is no reliable data about ''bacha bazi'' during the socialist era or the way the Soviets handled it during their military operation. Tchantouridze suggests that—since the Soviets executed perpetrators of similar practices in Central Asia during the 1920s and 1930s—they probably did not tolerate the practice in Afghanistan either.<ref name=tchantouridze>{{cite journal |last=Tchantouridze |first=Lasha |date=10 November 2021 |title=In Afghanistan: Western and Soviet Methods of Counterinsurgency |url=https://www.securityscience.edu.rs/index.php/journal-security-science/article/view/59/32 |journal=Security Science Journal |publisher=Institute for Science and International Security |location=Washington, D.C. |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=22–40 |doi=10.37458/ssj.2.2.10 |access-date=3 January 2025 |doi-access=free }}</ref> However, ''bacha bazi'' was practiced by the Mujahideen due to lawlessness and power, and later by field commanders in the Northern Alliance. Among the Mujahideen, the keeping of underage male conscripts (so-called "chai boys") for sexual servitude was seen as a status symbol.<ref name=mondloch/><ref name=tchantouridze/>
==Formation of the Taliban== According to some accounts, the practice of ''bacha bazi'' by warlords was one of the key factors in Mullah Omar mobilizing the Taliban,<ref name=tchantouridze/><ref name=mondloch/> as he became sickened by the abusive raping of children by warlords and turned against their authority from 1994 onwards.{{refn|<ref>{{cite news |title=Mullah Mohammad Omar, Taliban leader – obituary |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11773778/Mullah-Mohammad-Omar-Taliban-leader-obituary.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11773778/Mullah-Mohammad-Omar-Taliban-leader-obituary.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |date=31 July 2015 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |page=35 |access-date=26 September 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Zaman |first1=Muhammad Qasim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1I0pcrFFSUC&q=%22Head+of+the+Supreme+Council%22+Afghanistan+Omar&pg=PA379 |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought |last2=Stewart |first2=Devin J. |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-691-13484-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Capon |first=Felicity |date=2 August 2015 |title=Why the New Taliban Leader Could Be a Disaster for Peace in Afghanistan |website=Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/afgan-taliban-peace-talksmullah-omarmullah-akhtar-mansoortalibantaliban-peace-601700 |access-date=13 February 2016 |archive-date=20 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820121142/http://www.newsweek.com/afgan-taliban-peace-talksmullah-omarmullah-akhtar-mansoortalibantaliban-peace-601700 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gunaratna |first1=Rohan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOk1CgAAQBAJ&q=%22Supreme+Council%22+Taliban+Afghanistan+1997&pg=PA117 |title=Afghanistan after the Western Drawdown |last2=Woodall |first2=Douglas |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4422-4506-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>}}
After President Mohammad Najibullah stepped down, the country fell into chaos as various Mujahideen factions fought for total control of Afghanistan. Omar, while initially remaining quiet and focused on continuing his studies during the Afghan Civil War, became increasingly discontent with what he perceived as ''fasād'' in the country, including the practice of ''bacha bazi'', ultimately prompting him to return to fighting in the Civil War.
Omar had a dream in 1994, in which a woman told him: "We need your help; you must rise. You must end the chaos. God will help you."<ref>Dexter Filkins, ''The Forever War'' (New York: Vintage Books/Random House, 2009; orig. ed. 2008), p.30.</ref> Omar started his movement with less than 50 armed madrasa students who were simply known as the ''Tālibān'' (Pashto for 'students'). His recruits came from madrasas located in Afghanistan (mainly from Kandahar), and the Afghan refugee camps which were located across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption which had emerged during the civil war period, and were initially welcomed by Afghans who were weary of warlord rule.
In 1994, Omar, along with religious students in Kandahar, formed the Taliban, which emerged victorious against other Afghan factions by 1996. Omar led the Taliban to form a Sunni Islamic theocracy headed by the Supreme Council, known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which strictly enforced sharia.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
Reportedly, in early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two young girls who had been kidnapped and raped by a warlord, hanging him from a tank gun barrel.<ref>{{cite AV media | people=National Geographic |year=2007 | title=Inside The Taliban | medium=Documentary | location=Afghanistan | work=National Geographic | url=http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/inside-the-taliban/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007043712/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/inside-the-taliban/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=7 October 2012 | df=dmy-all}}</ref> Another instance arose when in 1994, a few months before the Taliban took control of Kandahar, two militia commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both wanted to sodomize. In the ensuing fight, Omar's group freed the boy; appeals soon flooded in for Omar to intercede in other disputes. His movement gained momentum through the year, and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools totaling 12,000 by the year's end with some Pakistani volunteers, who were mainly Pashtun madrasa students from tribal areas.
''Bacha bazi'' was officially outlawed by the Taliban after their ascent to power and imposition of Sharia law in 1996. The Taliban virtually eradicated the practice by harsh repression against those who engaged in it, as it carried the death penalty.<ref name=tchantouridze/>{{rp|p=37}}
==Revival following 2001 U.S. invasion==
This practice saw an increase after the Taliban's ouster in 2001, due both to the former Mujahideen commanders regaining power and the widespread lawlessness.<ref name=mondloch/> Today, Afghanistan is one of the few places in the world where the aesthetic-erotic category of ''bacha'' (beardless young male) has been preserved in the public consciousness.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abdi |first=Ali |date=January 2023 |title=The Afghan Bachah and its Discontents: An Introductory History |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=56 |issue=Special Issue 1: Parsis and Iranians in the Modern Period |pages=161–180 |doi=10.1017/irn.2022.42 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Many experts{{Who|date=March 2026}} suggest poverty, extreme gender segregation and war as its main drivers.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
In 2011, in an agreement between the United Nations and Afghanistan, Radhika Coomaraswamy and Afghan officials signed an action plan promising to end the practice, along with enforcing other protections for children.<ref>{{Cite news|date=3 February 2011|title=New UN-Afghan pact will help curb recruitment, sexual abuse of children – UN|work=UN News|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/02/365992-new-un-afghan-pact-will-help-curb-recruitment-sexual-abuse-children-un|url-status=live|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=24 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824053243/https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/02/365992-new-un-afghan-pact-will-help-curb-recruitment-sexual-abuse-children-un}}</ref> In 2014, Suraya Subhrang, child rights commissioner at the national Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, stated that the areas practicing ''bacha bazi'' had increased.<ref name="arnisnaevarr2" /> Up to 2017, Afghan law lacked clear definitions or provisions to address the practice. A new penal code entered in force in February 2018, containing specific provisions to punish offenders involved in ''bacha bazi''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gevorgyan |first1=Maria |last2=Matevosyan |first2=Armen |date=December 2023 |title=Bacha Bazi: Unraveling Debate between Crime Against Humanity and Regional Tradition |url=https://www.ej-politics.org/index.php/politics/article/view/111/90 |journal=European Journal of Law and Political Science |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=39 |doi=10.24018/ejpolitics.2023.2.6.111 |access-date=3 January 2025|doi-access=free }}</ref>
In December 2012, a teenage victim of sexual exploitation and abuse by a commander of the Afghan Border Police killed eight guards. He made a drugged meal for the guards and then, with the help of two friends, attacked them, after which they fled to neighbouring Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nordland |first=Rod |date=27 December 2012 |title=Betrayed While Asleep, Afghan Police Die at Hands of Their Countrymen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/world/asia/betrayed-while-they-sleep-afghan-police-are-dying-in-numbers.html |access-date=7 May 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
A study published in 2014 by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) found that 78% of the men who practice ''bacha bazi'' are married to a woman.<ref name=CausesAndConsequences>{{Cite web |date=18 August 2014 |title=Causes and Consequences of Bachabazi in Afghanistan |url=https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/aihrc/2014/en/108586 |website=Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Essar |first1=Mohammad Yasir |last2=Tsagkaris |first2=Christos |last3=Ghaffari |first3=Hujjatullah |last4=Ahmad |first4=Shoaib |last5=Aborode |first5=Abdullahi Tunde |last6=Hashim |first6=Hashim Talib |last7=Ahmadi |first7=Attaullah |last8=Mazin |first8=Rafael |last9=Lucero-Prisno |first9=Don Eliseo |date=3 April 2021 |title=Rethinking 'Bacha Bazi', a culture of child sexual abuse in Afghanistan |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13623699.2021.1926051 |journal=Medicine, Conflict and Survival|publisher=Medact |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=118–123 |doi=10.1080/13623699.2021.1926051 |pmid=33971772 |s2cid=234361313 |issn=1362-3699|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Some Afghans assert that ''bacha bazi'' violates Islamic law on grounds that it is homosexual in nature; others claim that Islam only forbids a man to sexually engage with another man, but not with a boy.<ref name="PD"/>
On 23 September 2016, Taliban militants in northern Baghlan province executed a man and a young boy on charges of "bacha bazi" (pederasty). The man was caught with the boy at his house by the militants and both were shot dead by the militants in front of family members.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 September 2016 |title=Taliban kill 2 people over "bacha bazi" in Baghlan |url=https://swn.af/archive/taliban-kill-2-people-over-bacha-bazi-in-baghlan/ |website=Salam Watandar}}</ref>
=== U.S. military encounters with the practice ===
In December 2010, a leaked diplomatic cable revealed that foreign contractors hired by the American military contractor DynCorp had spent money on ''bacha bazi'' in northern Afghanistan through hiring 'dancing boys' from the ages of 8 to 15,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last= |first= |date=9 December 2024 |title=Wikileaks: Dincorp pimped boys in Afghanistan |url=https://vreme.com/en/projekat/vikiliks-dinkorp-podvodio-decake-u-avganistanu/|magazine=Vreme|location=Belgrade, Serbia}}</ref> where a scandal happened involving foreign contractors employed to train Afghan policemen who took drugs and paid for young "dancing boys" to entertain them in northern Afghanistan. Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar requested that the U.S. military assume control over DynCorp training centres in response, but the U.S. embassy claimed that this was not "legally possible under the DynCorp contract".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/02/foreign-contractors-hired-dancing-boys |location=London |newspaper=The Guardian |first=Jon |last=Boone |title=Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals |date=2 December 2010 |access-date=14 December 2016 |archive-date=21 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221135150/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/02/foreign-contractors-hired-dancing-boys |url-status=live}}</ref>
''The Washington Post'' reported it to be an incident of "questionable management oversight" in which foreign DynCorp workers "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hedgpeth |first=Dana |date=2009-09-28 |title=DynCorp to Buy Alexandria Firm as It Seeks Wider Government Work |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/national/2009/09/29/dyncorp-to-buy-alexandria-firm-as-it-seeks-wider-government-work/a60d6059-9bb8-4053-896e-d868f4e0e50a/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |work=The Washington Post |quote=DynCorp also drew the attention of the State Department's inspector general after incidents of questionable management oversight in a case in Afghanistan where expatriate DynCorp employees hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party and videotaped the event.}}</ref> Both incidents helped fuel Afghan government demands "to hold a tighter rein over private security companies", a demand that also led Atmar to offer that the overstretched police should take over protection for military convoys in the south of Afghanistan, to which Karzai issued a decree calling for the dissolution of all private security companies by the end of the year, an edict that has since been slightly watered down.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
Some U.S. troops were told that "nothing could be done", effectively discouraging intervention, even on U.S.-run bases,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rempfer |first=Kyle |date=18 November 2017 |title=DoD IG: US troops were told to ignore child sex abuse by Afghan forces |url=https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-army/2017/11/17/dod-ig-us-troops-were-told-to-ignore-child-sex-abuse-by-afghan-forces/|newspaper=Marine Corps Times|publisher=Tegna Inc.}}</ref> while also illustrating how this practice was deeply embedded in local security structures overseen or supported by U.S.-backed training programs, due to the lack of prosecutorial follow-through, even when local officials were arrested. The rationalization and hierarchy of power often discouraged U.S. response to such incidents during 2010–2016.<ref>{{Cite web |publisher=United States Department of Defense|date=16 November 2017 |title=Implementation of the DoD Leahy Law Regarding Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse by Members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces DODIG-2018-018 |url=https://www.dodig.mil/reports.html/Article/1372966/implementation-of-the-dod-leahy-law-regarding-allegations-of-child-sexual-abuse/}}</ref>
In 2015, the New York Times, had reported that U.S. soldiers were instructed to ignore the sexual abuse of boys by Afghan allies, to maintain good relations with them,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Rivett-Carnac |first=Mark |date=20 September 2015 |title=U.S. Troops Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Forces, Report Says |url=https://time.com/4042104/us-military-afghanistan-sexual-abuse-soldiers/|magazine=Time}}</ref> and how for a decade, the U.S. army were not properly trained in how to report allegations of child sexual abuse by American allies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Leila |date=28 November 2017 |title=Pentagon Accused of Blocking Report On Child Sex Abuse By Afghan Allies |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/pentagon-accused-of-blocking-report-on-child-sex-abuse-by-afghan-allies/|publisher=PBS}}</ref>
The practice of ''bacha bazi'' prompted the United States Department of Defense to hire social scientist AnnaMaria Cardinalli to investigate the problem, as ISAF soldiers on patrol often passed older men walking hand-in-hand with young boys. Coalition soldiers often found that young Afghan men were trying to "touch and fondle them", which the soldiers did not understand.<ref>{{cite news| last =Brinkley| first =Joel| title =Afghanistan's dirty little secret| newspaper =Sfgate| date = 29 August 2010| url=http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/brinkley/article/Afghanistan-s-dirty-little-secret-3176762.php| access-date = 9 May 2016}}</ref>
In 2011, an Afghan mother in Kunduz Province reported that her 12-year-old son had been chained to a bed and raped for two weeks by an Afghan Local Police (ALP) commander named Abdul Rahman. When confronted, Rahman laughed and confessed. He was subsequently severely beaten by two U.S. Special Forces soldiers and thrown off the base.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2015/09/30/defenders-mount-support-ousted-green-beret-charles-martland/72996486/| title ='One of the best': Defenders show support for ousted Green Beret| last =Jahner| first =Kyle| date =30 September 2015| access-date =9 May 2016| archive-date =24 August 2023| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20230824053226/https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2015/10/01/one-of-the-best-defenders-show-support-for-ousted-green-beret/| url-status =live}}</ref> The soldiers were involuntarily separated from the military, but later reinstated after a lengthy legal case.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/28/politics/green-beret-afghan-police-confrontation/| title =Green Beret who beat Afghan official over alleged child assault to stay in Army| last =Mark| first =David| website =CNN| date =28 September 2015| access-date =9 May 2016| archive-date =2 May 2016| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160502150405/http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/28/politics/green-beret-afghan-police-confrontation| url-status =live}}</ref> As a direct result of this incident, legislation was created called the "Mandating America's Responsibility to Limit Abuse, Negligence and Depravity", or "Martland Act" named after Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2016/03/02/bill-would-empower-us-troops-block-sexual-abuse-foreign-soil/81211348/| title ='Martland Act' would empower U.S. troops to block sexual abuse on foreign soil| last =Jahner| first =Kyle| date =2 March 2016| access-date =9 May 2016}}</ref>
In 2015, ''The New York Times'' reported that U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan were instructed by their commanders to ignore child sexual abuse being carried out by Afghan security forces, except "when rape is being used as a weapon of war". American soldiers have been instructed not to intervene—in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records. But the U.S. soldiers have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the U.S. military was arming them against the Taliban and placing them as the police commanders of villages—and doing little when they began abusing children.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html|title=U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies|last=Goldstein|first=Joseph|date=20 September 2015|work=The New York Times|access-date=24 January 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=21 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921164708/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/opinion/ignoring-sexual-abuse-in-afghanistan.html|title=Ignoring Sexual Abuse in Afghanistan|author=The Editorial Board|date=21 September 2015|work=The New York Times|access-date=24 January 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727113101/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/opinion/ignoring-sexual-abuse-in-afghanistan.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Military lawyer Annie Barry Bruton commented that "both the Pentagon and the White House declined to take responsibility for inaction on the part of the U.S. government and instead shifted the blame to the Afghan government".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bruton |first=Annie Barry |date=2019 |title=Bacha Bazi and Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan: Should the U.S. Military Have Done More to Protect Underage Boys? |url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5470&context=klj |journal=Kentucky Law Journal |volume=108 |issue=1 |publisher=University of Kentucky College of Law |pages=185 |access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref>
According to a report published in June 2017 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the DOD had received 5,753 vetting requests of Afghan security forces, some of which related to sexual abuse. The DOD was investigating 75 reports of gross human rights violations, including 7 involving child sexual assault.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sigar.mil/pdf/inspections/SIGAR%2017-47-IP.pdf|title=Child Sexual Assault in Afghanistan:Implementation of the Leahy Laws and Reports of Assault by Afghan Security Forces|date=June 2017|website=Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction|access-date=24 January 2018|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801013200/https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/inspections/SIGAR%2017-47-IP.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> According to ''The New York Times'', discussing that report, American law required military aid to be cut off to the offending unit, but that never happened. US Special Forces officer, Capt. Dan Quinn, was relieved of his command in Afghanistan after fighting an Afghan militia commander who had been responsible for keeping a boy as a sex slave.<ref name=FreePass>{{cite news |title=Afghan Pedophiles Get Free Pass From U.S. Military, Report Says |first=Rod |last=Nordland |date=23 January 2018 |access-date=23 January 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/world/asia/afghanistan-military-abuse.html?ref=todayspaper |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727075015/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/world/asia/afghanistan-military-abuse.html?ref=todayspaper |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Post-war ===
In 2022, after the Taliban's return to power following the United States' military disengagement from Afghanistan, it was reported that the abuse persisted in the reinstated Islamic Emirate, with Taliban officials accused of engaging in bacha bazi and criminalization of victims.<ref name="USDOS">{{cite web|publisher=United States Department of State|title=2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Afghanistan|date=2024|url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-trafficking-in-persons-report/afghanistan/|quote=Although bacha bazi is officially banned, the practice has continued after the Taliban takeover. Observers reported that Taliban members were, in some cases, perpetrators of bacha bazi. ... Observers reported bacha bazi victims were hesitant to report their exploitation out of fear of punishment from the Taliban and social stigma. ... Observers report cases of bacha bazi by the Taliban and nearly all armed groups. Bacha bazi survivors reported to NGOs an 'overwhelming understanding that bacha bazi is committed by the powerful, including community leaders ....'}}</ref><ref name="Unaccompanied">{{cite web|publisher=UK Visas and Immigration|title=Country policy and information note: unaccompanied children, Afghanistan|date=November 2024|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-country-policy-and-information-notes/country-policy-and-information-note-unaccompanied-children-afghanistan-november-2024-accessible|quote=According to a June 2024 report by UN Women ‘Bacha bazi has been notoriously difficult to monitor, as it is practiced discreetly ... mainly by higher-ranking, well-connected Afghan men. While the Taliban outlawed this practice during the period of Taliban regime rule between 1996 and 2001, it has not been explicitly addressed by the DFA since their seizure of State power in August 2021. ... The USDOL 2023 report noted ‘…the Taliban considered some child trafficking victims, especially those engaged in bacha bazi or in armed conflict, as criminals, housing them in juvenile detention centers, and subjecting them to physical abuse and other forms of ill treatment rather than referring them to victim support services.}}</ref> According to a 2022 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime report, the practice is expected to continue and potentially be amplified.<ref name="USDOS" /><ref name="GlobalInitiative">{{cite web|publisher=Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime|url=https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/human-trafficking-in-the-afghan-context-briefing.pdf|location=Geneva|date=May 2022|page=5|last=Hoang|first=Thi|title=Human trafficking in the Afghan context: Caught between a rock and a hard place?|quote=Given the various reports of the Taliban’s human trafficking practices over the past two decades, such as the use of bacha bazi ... it can therefore be expected that, under the Taliban’s rule, current human rights violations and human trafficking practices will continue and often be amplified in the name of preserving traditional values and cultural norms.}}</ref> In addition to some Taliban commanders allegedly holding ''bachas'', the Taliban's ban on music and dancing appears to have driven the practice further underground, making it even harder to identify or protect victims.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=January 2022 |title=Conflict-related sexual violence: New dangers facing men and boys in Afghanistan |url=https://allsurvivorsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Conflict-related-Sexual-Violence-New-Dangers-facing-Men-and-Boys-in-Afghanistan.pdf |website=All Survivors Project |access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref>
==In popular culture== ''Bacha bazi'' within 21st century Afghanistan is a prominent theme of the 2003 ''The New York Times'' best selling novel ''The Kite Runner'' by Khaled Hosseini. In the novel, the main character Amir witnesses his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, be sexually assaulted by a fellow teenager named Assef. 15 years later, long after Amir fled Afghanistan due to the Soviet–Afghan War, he learns that Hassan was killed by the Taliban and that Hassan's son, Sohrab, was left an orphan. Amir journeys to Afghanistan to adopt him, but discovers that Sohrab was sold as a ''bacha'' by the corrupt manager of the orphanage to Assef, the same man who had sexually assaulted Sohrab's father Hassan decades earlier.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hosseini |first1=Khaled |title=The Kite Runner |date=29 May 2003 |publisher=Riverhead Books |location=United States |isbn=1-57322-245-3}}</ref> One scholar wrote that the novel "offers commentary on the role that racism and ethnic rivalry play in upholding the existence of ''bacha bazi''", as well as the long-lasting, generational psychological trauma associated with being a ''bacha''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thakur |first1=Pallavi |title=Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner: Unveiling the Trauma of Adolescent Boys Trapped in Afghanistan's Culturally Legitimised Paedophilia-'Bacha Bazi' |journal=Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities |date=1 December 2020 |volume=12 |issue=5 |doi=10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s9n5 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347411810 |access-date=13 April 2025|doi-access=free }}</ref>
In 2007, an American drama film of the same name based on Hosseini's novel, directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Benioff, was released. Shortly afterward, the film was banned in Afghanistan due to fears of intertribal reprisals against Pashtuns, given the film's depiction of Pashtun man enslaving a Hazara youth as his ''bacha''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/entertainment/7193431.stm|title = Kite Runner banned in Afghanistan|date = 17 January 2008 |work=BBC News}}</ref>
Clover Films and Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi made a documentary film titled ''The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan'' about the practice, which was shown in the UK in March 2010<ref>[http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2010/true-stories-the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan "True Stories: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831101441/http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2010/true-stories-the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan|date=31 August 2010}}, 29 March 2010</ref> and aired in the US the following month.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/ "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714190800/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/|date=14 July 2011}}, PBS Frontline TV documentary, 20 April 2010.</ref> Journalist Nicholas Graham of ''The Huffington Post'' lauded the documentary as "both fascinating and horrifying".<ref>{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Nicholas |date=22 April 2010 |title='Dancing Boys Of Afghanistan': Bacha Bazi Documentary Exposes Horrific Sexual Abuse Of Young Afghan Boys (VIDEO) |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/22/dancing-boys-of-afghanist_n_548428.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100428035639/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/22/dancing-boys-of-afghanist_n_548428.html |archive-date=28 April 2010 |access-date=3 July 2010 |work=The Huffington Post}}</ref> The film won the 2011 Documentary award in the Amnesty International UK Media Awards.<ref>{{cite web |date=24 May 2011 |title=Amnesty announces 2011 Media Awards winners |url=https://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details_p.asp?newsId=19475 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120903164017/http://amnesty.org.uk/news_details_p.asp?NewsID=19475 |archive-date=3 September 2012 |access-date=10 January 2013 |publisher=Amnesty International UK (AIUK)}}</ref>
The musical ''The Boy Who Danced on Air'' by Rosser & Sohne premiered off-off-Broadway in 2017.<ref name="WD">{{Cite news|last=Stewart|first=Zachary|date=25 May 2017|title=The Boy Who Danced on Air|work=TheaterMania|url=https://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/the-boy-who-danced-on-air_81228.html|url-status=live|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=24 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824053730/https://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/news/the-boy-who-danced-on-air_81228.html/}}</ref> Inspired by the documentary ''The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan'',<ref name="BW" /> the story centers on Paiman, a ''bacha'' who is nearing the end of his servitude. As he prepares for his release, he meets Feda, another ''bacha'', and the two begin to fall in love. Together, they contemplate escaping their circumstances. Meanwhile, their masters, Jahander and Zemar, grapple with the growing influence of American culture on Afghan society.
The production received positive to mixed reviews. Jesse Green, writing for ''The New York Times'', said the work "[took] the challenge of difficult source material too far... The ick factor here is dangerously high, a problem that the production... labors hard to mitigate through aesthetics," and appreciated the romance but wished it had not attempted "a stab at political relevance."<ref name="BW">{{Cite news|last=Green|first=Jesse|date=25 May 2017|title=Review: Tackling a Major Taboo in 'The Boy Who Danced on Air'|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/theater/boy-who-danced-on-air-review.html|url-status=live|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=24 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824053751/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/theater/boy-who-danced-on-air-review.html}}</ref> Jonathan Mandell, writing for ''New York Theater'', said that the Jahander subplot was "one of the ways [Rosser and Sohne] are trying to compensate for their Western perspective and the show's focus on the fictional romance. But their efforts at filling in the background don't strike me as sufficient."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mandell|first=Jonathan|date=28 May 2017|title=The Boy Who Danced on Air Review: Afghan Slaves in Homoerotic Musical|work=New York Theater|url=https://newyorktheater.me/2017/05/28/the-boy-who-danced-on-air-review-afghan-slaves-in-homoerotic-musical/|url-status=live|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=24 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824053831/https://newyorktheater.me/2017/05/28/the-boy-who-danced-on-air-review-afghan-slaves-in-homoerotic-musical/}}</ref> ''TheaterMania''{{'}}s review called it "both emotionally and intellectually stirring. Anyone who cares about the future of the American musical should run out and see it now—as should anyone who cares about the country in which the United States is presently fighting the longest war in our history."<ref name="WD"/>
After an online stream of the original production was released in July 2020,<ref>{{Cite news|last=BWW News Desk|date=22 June 2020|title=Diversionary Announces Online Stream Of 'The Boy Who Danced On Air'|work=Broadway World|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-diego/article/Diversionary-Announces-Online-Stream-Of-THE-BOY-WHO-DANCED-ON-AIR-20200622|url-status=live|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=1 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001232154/https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-diego/article/Diversionary-Announces-Online-Stream-Of-THE-BOY-WHO-DANCED-ON-AIR-20200622}}</ref> the work received significant backlash from Afghans,<ref>{{Cite news|date=16 July 2020|title=Afghan Diaspora Organizations and Members Condemn Racist Musical|publisher=Afghan Diaspora For Equality & Progress|url=https://adeprogress.org/2020/07/16/afghan-diaspora-organizations-and-members-condemn-racist-musical/|url-status=live|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=24 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824053801/https://adeprogress.org/2020/07/16/afghan-diaspora-organizations-and-members-condemn-racist-musical/}}</ref> particularly LGBTQ Afghans, who perceived it as romanticizing child sexual abuse and criticized the white American writers for orientalism and misrepresenting ''bacha bazi'' as an accepted "tradition" in Afghanistan. The backlash led many to apologize for their involvement with the production and stream; the stream was removed ahead of schedule. After consulting with members of the Afghan community, creators Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne acknowledged in a statement that "no Afghan voices were empowered in the creation of the show," and chose to end all distribution of the music and donate previous proceeds to Afghan charities.<ref name=OutrageBBCNews>{{Cite news|last=Haidare|first=Sodaba|date=11 August 2020|title='Bacha bazi' outrage after pandemic takes play to the small screen|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53396586|url-status=live|access-date=22 January 2021|archive-date=28 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128145240/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53396586}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Prostitution|Uzbekistan|Afghanistan}} * Child sexual abuse * Emirate of Bukhara * Russian conquest of Central Asia * Human rights in Afghanistan * {{lang|fa-Latn|Bacha posh}}, cross-dressing a daughter as a boy for increased social freedom in Afghanistan * ''The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan'' (2010 documentary) * {{lang|ar-Latn|Khawal}}, cross-dressed male dancers in pre-20th century Egypt * {{lang|tr|Köçek}}, cross-dressed male dancers in Ottoman Turkey * Ubayd Zakani, a 14th-century Persian poet{{dubious|date=May 2025}} * Nazar ila'l-murd
==Notes== {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} ==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last1=Abdi |first1=Ali |title=Bachah-bāzī: A Socio-Erotic Tradition |journal=Afghanistan |date=2022 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=153–171 |doi=10.3366/afg.2022.0091|s2cid=252611948 }} * I. Baldauf (1990): "Bacabozlik: boylove, folksong and literature in Central Asia", Paidika: The Journal of Pædophilia 12:2.6, pp. 12-31. * [https://www.newsweek.com/confessions-afghan-boy-sex-slave-337381 Confessions of an Afghan Boy Sex Slave], ''Newsweek'' (2015). * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140409011848/http://hagarinternational.org/international/new-hagar-study-sheds-light-on-male-child-trafficking-in-afghanistan/ Forgotten No More: Male Child Trafficking in Afghanistan], ''Hagar International'' (2014). * [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/world/kandahar-journal-shh-it-s-an-open-secret-warlords-and-pedophilia.html Kandahar Journal; Shh, It's an Open Secret: Warlords and Pedophilia], ''The New York Times'' (2002).
==External links== {{commons category|Bacha bazi}}
*[https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/this-is-what-winning-looks-like/ This is What Winning Looks Like] (2013 Vice documentary) *[https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan/ Frontline: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan] (2010 PBS documentary) *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ff0hh The Documentary: Afghanistan's Dancing Boys] (2011 BBC documentary)
{{crossdressing footer}}{{Pedophilia}} Category:Child prostitution Category:Child sexual abuse in Afghanistan Category:Dance in Afghanistan Category:Forced prostitution Category:Human rights abuses in Afghanistan Category:Human trafficking in Afghanistan Category:Male erotic dancers Category:Male prostitution Category:Prostitution in Asia Category:Sex trafficking Category:Sex workers Category:Sexual slavery Category:Sexuality in Afghanistan Category:Violence against men in Asia Category:Cross-dressing Category:Slavery in Afghanistan Category:Rape of males