Saturday, July 13, 2024

Which is the worst country for men?

I would place my bet on Afganistan.

Why? Because of this:

'A Bacha and his admirers' by Vasily Vereshchagin, 1868

It is a practice called Bacha Bazi.

The word bacha means boy(as most Indians would know) and the word bazi means play. So it translates to “boy play”.

Essentially people kidnap or buy boys from an impoverished area, dress them up as girls, and train them to dance. They are then brought in and made to dance in front of the men in male only parties (Afghanistan practices extreme gender segregation) and after that the men vie amongst themselves to get the boy that they fancy to sleep with (ie rape).

There's a common Afghan saying that, “Women are for child-bearing, boys are for pleasure”. The harrowing practice of bacha bazi is so entrenched in the local culture that men don’t see it as paedophilia, but as an ancient tradition symbolising power and social status.

A cultural tradition or child sex abuse: Afghanistan’s bacha bazi dancing boys

After they reach 20 years of age, they are no longer considered attractive and are discarded. Since the society is ultra conservative, such men can't just reclaim their real gender and end up as male prostitutes.

The shame also stalks parents who try to help their children, say medical professionals in southern Afghanistan who treat the brutally violated survivors.

“Increasingly parents will bring boys saying they have bowel problems,” said a surgeon in Helmand province, where bacha bazi is widespread, corroborating what two other health officials told AFP.

“But a closer examination shows the boys were raped and need to be stitched up. The parents break down in tears: ‘We want no publicity, just save my boy.’

Bacha bazi: The stolen childhood of boys turned into dancers, sex slaves in Afghanistan

It has been outlawed, though it still continues to be practiced. Interestingly even the Taliban, vile and evil as they are, banned this disgusting practice when they were in power. On the other hand some of the men involved in this are so powerful that even the American troops stationed in Afghanistan turn a blind eye to this practice[1]

Besides that, rampant poverty, terrorism, social strife and just the mundane fact of being landlocked makes this country a not so good place to live in, both for men and for women.

Footnotes

[1] Bacha bazi: The stolen childhood of boys turned into dancers, sex slaves in Afghanistan 

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