Afghanistan Omen for U.S. - What CIA FactBook Does Not Tell, but firing Juan Williams does

Afghanistan suggests a harsh land of Muslim sharia law that forbids adultery and homosexuality. Few westerners are aware of Afghanistan's 5,000 year-old tradition of enslaving boys for sexual exploitation. In the U.S. this practice would be indictable as child sexual abuse or pedophilia.

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In Afghanistan, the custom is known as Bacha Bazi (literally 'boy play'). Once banned by the Taliban, Bacha Bazi re-emerged after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

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A documentary film by award winning Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi about the practice aired on PBS's Frontline in the United States, and True Stories in the UK.

Since it was first reported on CNN last Nov. nothing has changed as far as deterring such tradition of sexually exploiting young boys. Reports for the past few days say that it is still very much in practice and young boys are exploited by older Afghan men in the country.

The CIA Factbook never mentions arcane, local customs much less practices such as Bacha Bazi.

...in the Afghan context, no they are not gay. They have sexual relationships with men, but then if you ask them if they are gays, they say no. Most of the time even when they keep a dancing boy or a bacha bazi or they have sexual relationship with another man, they have a wife, they have a family, they have children, and then they keep this other relationship.

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The bacchá tradition, historically more common than in present day, waned in the big cities after World War I, forced out for reasons that historian Anthony Shay describes as "Victorian era prudery and severe disapproval of colonial powers such as the Russians, British, and French, and the post colonial elites who had absorbed those Western colonial values."[6]

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From a U.S. perspective, citizens must ask themselves in which direction our country has been headed. The slippery, liberal-progressive agenda (e.g. current push to end DADT) makes Bacha Bazi sound farfetched today, but consider that the chief enabler of such exploitative customs in Afghanistan (political correctness) has also become a norm for U.S. journalists. Average citizens can easily be next.

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Afghanistan is a democratic country. However, our country has not yet reached the depth of democracy and freedom of speech.

There is self-censorship among the journalists. There is fear, and life is precious for everybody. Everybody wants to stay alive and progress in their lives. When our journalists graduate, they promise to comply with the journalism code of conduct and they commit to [reporting] the pains and sorrows of our people. [But] despite all the promises, they tend to be doing a lot of self-censorship. They get threatened and do not tell anybody who threatens them, so they would rather be careful.

If a journalist were to investigate who is involved in such crimes, and if he was to name any names to reveal the person, even if he has proof, who is going to protect him? Would [President] Hamid Karzai or the home minister protect him? I do not think people in power would be able to protect him. - Najibullah Quraishi, Interview: Nazer Alimi, March 25, 2009

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Submarines are always silent and strange.