Afghanistan is to lay out stringent penalties for “bacha bazi” — sexual slavery and abuse of boys — officials said, in a move against the deeply entrenched practice.
Reports last year said the Taliban was exploiting rampant bacha bazi in police ranks to mount deadly insider attacks, exposing a hidden epidemic of kidnapping of young boys for institutionalized sexual slavery.
The revelations intensified longstanding demands by campaigners for Kabul to enact an incisive legal provision to curb bacha bazi — literally “boy play” — which has seen a resurgence in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
A raft of punishments will now be listed in Afghanistan’s revised penal code — from up to seven years in jail for sexual assault to capital punishment for “aggravated cases,” such as violating more than one boy.
“There is an entire chapter on criminalizing the practice in the new penal code,” said Nader Nadery, a senior adviser to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
“The code is expected to be adopted any time this month. This is going to be a significant step towards stopping this ugly practice,” he said.
A draft of the chapter titled: “Driving children toward moral corruption,” states that those affected by bacha bazi cannot be prosecuted, a significant caveat in a nation where sexual-assault victims often face punishment.
Afghanistan’s criminal law previously only prohibited pederasty and sex outside of marriage, which human rights campaigners said did not sufficiently address the problem of bacha bazi.
“This chapter clearly defines bacha bazi as a crime, leaving no room for ambiguity,” Ghani’s legal adviser Nasrullah Stanekzai told reporters, waving printed copies of the revised penal code in his hand.
Aside from police commanders, warlords, politicians and other members of the Afghan elite often keep “bachas” as a symbol of authority and affluence.
The young boys, sometimes dressed effeminately with makeup and bells on their feet, can be used as dancers at private parties and are often sexually exploited.
Reports said that the Taliban were using the boys — keen on revenge and easy prey for recruitment — to infiltrate security ranks and mount crippling insider attacks on police in southern Afghanistan.
The insurgents deny the claim.
Before the penal code, rights advocates pushed for years for special legislation on bacha bazi, with scant hope of getting it through parliament, as they suspect the practice is prevalent among lawmakers themselves.
“I have received calls from MPs that say they will never let a bacha bazi law pass in parliament,” said Soraya Sobhrang from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. “This is a battle to save 21st-century slaves.”
The penal code is likely to be passed by presidential decree during the ongoing parliamentary recess.
However, Sobhrang says that some lawmakers might try to water it down when it is later subjected to a parliamentary review.
Afghanistan has a poor record of enforcing similar provisions, including a law to eliminate violence against women and another to ban the recruitment of child soldiers, especially when the perpetrators are powerful.
“Explicit criminalization in law of the heinous practice of bacha bazi is commendable, but implementation of laws in Afghanistan has been questionable,” said the All Survivors Project, a global fact-finding effort into sexual violence against males in conflict zones.
“How is the government planning to monitor, investigate and hold accountable those responsible for abusing boys under this new legal provision?” it said.
As Afghanistan’s conflict escalates, critics have said there appears to be no will to act against abusive security officials who are seen as the lesser of two evils in the fight against insurgent groups.
Western officials have privately said that some Afghan commanders accused of bacha bazi are “too strategic to be removed” from their posts.
However, growing public scrutiny of the practice, once shrouded in shame and silence, is forcing authorities to act in some areas.
Earlier this month, the government sacked Shah Mirza Panjsheri, police chief of the volatile Dasht-e-Archi district in northern Kunduz Province, after a video of his “bacha bazi party” surfaced on social media.
“He was kidnapping young, beautiful boys and forcing them to dance in bacha bazi gatherings,” a Kunduz government spokesman told reporters.
“When we heard about this, we dismissed him immediately,” he said, adding that Panjsheri was the first high-ranking police official in Kunduz to be sacked for the practice.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese