If gay marriage would be permitted in Afghanistan, this horrible problem would go away.
We shouldn't waste any more blood and treasure on that place. We should leave, now.
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ARGH! Why are these children being turned away from their homes? This is beyond heartbreaking.
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Us soldiers did were NOT reticent to intervne. They were ordered not to interneve.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
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And this is why we die, kill and waste our money? To preserve this "nation" that has nothing to do with us, we are foolish monsters.
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This sick, outrageous behavior has been well known to American authorities for decades and yet it persists. It must end now!
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While I applaud the NY Times for publishing this article, unfortunately, this is not "new" news. This has been going on for hundreds of years.
Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi's documentary on "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan" was aired in London and the U.S. in 2010.
In 2011 two American soldiers beat up an Afghan commander for abusing the boys. One was relieved of his command and the other was dismissed from the military.
This was also a known problem under the Obama administration, and US military personnel were instructed to "look the other way."
So, it's not new.
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From the October 8, 2001 Times editorial cheering on our invasion of Afghanistan:
Mr. Bush has wisely made providing humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people an integral part of American strategy.
The American people [...] will support whatever efforts it takes to carry out this mission.
This is a deeply troubling piece. Thank you for the reporting. “Mr. Afghanzai ... said three boys who had reported rapes were later killed by the Taliban, who condemn the sexual abuse as anti-Islamic.” So, the Taliban condemns the abuser, but actually kills the abused. My heart breaks for the son forced from his home because his father is ashamed. If he were a daughter, he’d be dead, because that would restore the family’ good name. How will the leaders we hope to take the reins of an independent Afghanistan come from schools where the Principal and teachers rape students, and the victims are murdered by their own families? We can’t fix Islam if this is how they roll. We can scarcely control extremist Christians who want to make America white again and get women back in their place. Afghanistan has proved it can withstand annexation attempts since Hannibal. Bring our soldiers home.
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This is a terribly disturbing article, not just because of the horror sustained by the victims during the actual attacks but the aftermaths of resulting antiquated social barbarism. How deeply subjugation and exploitation are embedded in Afghan culture is extremely difficult for most Westerners to get their heads around. This culture is veritably schizophrenic in the way it officially condemns the act and surrounding rituals of forced sodomy yet through revictimizing victims, denial, and inaction, robustly prioritizes their perpetuation.
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This long established practice was written about in the very fine book The Kite Runner, the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. For any Afghan government official or any one else in the country to claim that it is not happening is to lie. Gorbachev warned the Americans not to get involved in Afghanistan. He was being a friend.
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Homosexual rape of adolescent boys as a culturally accepted norm? Sometimes the behavior of my species is enough to sabotage all hope of redemption.
One has to hold onto the concept that if such extremes are possible on the dark side, that the potential of cultural evolution is just as strong on the other- that our better angels can lead the choir of our behavior.
Culture is not primarily rooted in the permanence of DNA and needs to be guided by artificial means- that is, the arbitrary choice of society as a whole. We need to constantly struggle for a kinder society.
I hope the Afghans are up to the task, because the kind of cruelty involved in this story needs to be rooted out of the culture of human behavior- we know better now but our most base instincts are always potentially a part of us.
We used to call them Satin.
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@alan haigh Yes, we projected our "evil" outside and called it something else. But we also have an instinct for kindness. We seem to instill it more deeply in girls and women. It is high time we begin to see it also as a cultural value in boys and men - those who, for whatever reason, commit the vast majority of violent acts on the planet. As you so clearly said, let our "better angels lead the choir of our behavior." All of us.
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Bacha bazi, female circumcision: not exactly what one would support as examples of things one should tolerate in the name of supporting multiculturalism. Afghanistan was broken before we got there, we probably made it worse. What are we doing there?
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@honeybluestar
Take your pick:
Opium
Natural resources (including rare earth minerals)
Pipeline right of way
'Terrorists' - whatever that means
It's a square on the global chessboard
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This is the country we are fighting and dying for? These are the people we've spent trillions on?
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@Jon Harrison That's the "royal we" since it was not something many American People wanted, but something that "good central planning" did because too many think an overly powerful government is better than liberty and equal protection.
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@Jon Harrison
This is the Northwest Territories of India during the Raj—lawless, corrupt, indifferent to human life and our values. Nothing has changed there in 150 years except they now have cellphones and Kalishnikov rifles.
Same indifference to the value of their children, except as a commodity to explit, as they always did.
Nice rugs though.
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@Jon Harrison How naive! You cannot change a culture by invading the country. Nobody has been even inspired to change by violence and war. At least, under communists, Aghan women got access to education. Mujaheddin rolled it back, as well as progress in many other areas. We don't go to other countries to make it better for them. It is all about our geopolitical interests and not letting communism advance, or Russians, or Chinese.
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