Sexual Schizophrenia in Afghanistan

Trigger warning: this article covers themes of pedophilia and sexual abuse.

The Orwellian police state imagined so eloquently by George Orwell in his classic Dystopian novel 1984 is not just a fictional tale of what one day may come to pass. Rather, it is a very real warning about many totalitarian regimes that exist in the world today. One such purveyor of Double Speak and Thought Policing is modern Afghanistan. Sadly, this situation is not likely to improve under the Taliban. This bizarre, contradictory and insidious style of governance leads people to behave in a schizophrenic manner: abiding by and struggling against the rules imposed by their culture at the same time. 

Living in this confused and muddled state of mind leads people to pretend that what they are doing isn't taboo, even though from any rational perspective it would be seen for what it is: monstrous. No other word would adequately describe the state sanctioned pedophilia and violent sexism so prevalent in Afghanistan. By no means is Afghanistan the only perpetrator of such horrors, and certainly both pedophilia and sexism can be found in all societies. But it is societies that knowingly permit such behavior that we are concerned with here. And Afghanistan is one such state. 

What does being immersed in a toxic culture and society actually do to the human being? Among other tragic consequences, such an existence creates a false sense of reality around itself. A distorted place, where all one can do is hope for a better future while grinning and bearing reality. 

We know that in Afghanistan women's freedom is an oxymoron. A state in which women are used to give birth to the opposite sex, for the opposite sex and then be ignored as though their participation in the act was dispensible. The inequality of women worldwide is an absolute travesty but at least in some Western regions, the role of women in society is understood as being necessary for the growth of the nation as a whole. Much like the African proverb says so eloquently: If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Its no wonder that the ones who benefit in primitive countries are often times individuals and not whole communities or the nation. 

Bacha Bazi 

The societal invisibility of women in Afghanistan makes the sexual abuse of young boys culturally acceptable. Whether cultures say it's okay or not, sexual desire still exists (and will always exist), and since there is no room for boys and girls to date, an illicit underground society naturally springs up, an ill society of older men who prey upon young boys.  

Because girls are unable to dance at parties, and because sick people can't be content to simply entertain themselves, young boys are thus exploited and used as entertainment. These boys are forced to be dancers, a sort of perverse jester for pedophilic men. 

These boys are forced to dress, act and dance the way girls would. They are subjected to sexual molestarion and rape from older men at these events. Some of the predators are police officers, politicians, warlords and other figures of authority. This only serves to further skew the sickening power imbalance. 

For the bacha bazi, it is much more lucrative to sell themselves at these parties of the elites than to work as a typical street vendor. As well, once these boys turn 25, they are deemed as being too old and are shunned from the bacha bazi community. So, for someone brought up in harsh economic conditions, being a bacha bazi is a chance to make decent money while one can. 

Bacha bosses are the older men who prey on impoverished young boys, employing them to fill these spots as sex workers and dancers. The bosses know that the boys’ vulnerabilities lie in their homelife, as so many everyday people in Afghanistan live below the poverty level. 

The bacha bazi are considered “of working age” from 12 to 25. Under 12 is too young according to the bacha bosses. It seems these playboys who like to take advantage of vulnerable youth decided to draw the line there. 

The official Afghan government claims to have banned these actions, however there are still many high ranking officials who pay big dollars to spend an evening with these boys. 

Men communicating with single women outside of marriage can lead to imprisonmant and social condemnations, however homosexual activity is permitted in this theocratic, homophobic country. Makes little sense to me. 

In a strict Islamic country, where alcohol is prohibited and punishable by imprisonment, many of the boys are, regardless, freely offered alcohol at these events, adding to the gross hypocrisy of the country’s authorities. It seems laws and rules are dispensed with when it comes to the bacha bazi.

I’ve yet to know a country that manages to be sexually repressed, sexually fluid and sexually perverse, all at the same time like the underground pedophilic sex rings in Afghanistan.

Bacha Posh 

In today’s Afghanistan, women are not free.* If you are born a woman, you are forced into the rules and restrictions that society imposes on you, until you either die or depart the country. 

Due to this institutional and cultural sexism, there is tremendous pressure on Afghan women to rear sons. If, however, no sons are born to a family, then oftentimes one girl “chooses” (see: is tacitly forced) to “become a boy,” or a bacha posh. 

A bacha posh is an anatomical girl who dresses in boy’s clothing and assumes male roles in Afghan society. Having all daughters is seen as a shortcoming in most of Afghanistan and often comes with the derogatory label of “mada-posht,” referring to families who only have daughters. 

You can imagine the psychological torment that comes from being tacitly forced to identify with a gender you don’t actually identify with. Many bacha posh struggle with lack of confidence, depression, anxiety and suicidal ideations. Many report feeling isolated and alone in society, as though living someone else’s life and not their own. 

The added social stigma and the fact that their own family cannot accept them for who they biologically are contributes further to mental health challenges. 

In Afghanistan, women are not allowed to go out into the world unaccompanied by a man, so sometimes that man must be a young girl dressed in boy’s clothes. 

In the schools, bacha posh only have to wear a head scarf when they are in class, and they are free to play the sports that only boys may play. 

To be fair, there are instances of girls who become bacha posh by choice. There may even be a boy in the family, however, because being a girl outside of the house is repressive and lacks opportunity, some girls, very few, will dress and act like boys in order to attain more freedom for themselves. I would then ask, why wouldn't most of the girls do this as a way to have pre freedom? Don the clothing of boys and men in order to have a life of their own? The sad and most likely answer is that, this wouldn't be a life of their own. Even as oppressive as this is, most girls still love the idea of getting married and pregnant and starting their own families, even if the idea only ever exists in their minds. 

When bacha posh girls reach their teens, they go back to dressing as girls and their parents then try to marry them off. These bacha posh rarely look happy in photographs and the interviews i've seen them in. Deep down, both they and their families know that there is little to smile about in such a sexually repressive and repressed society. 

There are dark areas in all places around the world that we need to shed light on. Many people in Afghanistan do not condone these behaviors, nonetheless, they have been birthed from a society that gives little room and freedom to its inhabitants. Much like a prison, prisoners are not provided a rank however they will be given one through their environment and the intimidation of those who settled there first. 

This is what society has done to us. 

*It should be noted, that during the lead up to and brief rule of Afghanistan’s socialist Saur Revolution in 1978, women were able to dress and behave liberally in urban Afghan society. Kabul was a bustling hot spot for music, fashion and culture. In the cities, women and girls could go to school and be full participants in society. The United States, in order to draw the Soviet Union into “their own Vietnam,” funded, armed and assisted the most reactionary, theocratic and radically religious elements of Afghanistan’s society (referred to as the “Mujahideen”) to repel the Soviets and thus disband the country’s fledgling socialist project. The rest, as they say, is history. The reactionary, sexist, repressive Taliban regime now has complete control of Afghanistan, more so than they did when the U.S. invaded 20 years ago.