Afghanistan sees rise in ‘dancing boys’ exploitation

View Photo Gallery — The exploitation of Afghanistan’s ‘dancing boys’: A growing number of Afghan children are being coerced into a life of abuse as a result of the practice of wealthy or prominent Afghans exploiting underage boys as sexual partners.

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By Ernesto Londoño, Published: April 5

DEHRAZI, Afghanistan — The 9-year-old boy with pale skin and big, piercing eyes captivated Mirzahan at first sight.

“He is more handsome than anyone in the village,” the 22-year-old farmer said, explaining why he is grooming the boy as a sexual partner and companion. There was another important factor that made Waheed easy to take on as a bacha bazi, or a boy for pleasure: “He doesn’t have a father, so there is no one to stop this.”

Afghanistan: Cảnh cùng cực của những cô gái đi tù vì bị hiếp

Cập nhật 17/01/2012 08:00:00 AM (GMT+7)

Hai trường hợp bạo lực thu hút sự chú ý của dư luận đã gây phản đối kịch liệt cả ở trong và ngoài Afghanistan về sự đối xử với phụ nữ nước này. Tuy nhiên, các nhà hoạt động lo ngại rằng chiến dịch quân sự của phương Tây giảm bớt đồng nghĩa với việc cộng đồng quốc tế không còn quan tâm đến điều đó nữa.

Liệu có bao nhiêu phụ nữ ở Afghanistan vẫn phải chịu đựng trong câm lặng, dù đã 10 năm sau khi Taliban bị lật đổ?

Clausewitz: America and Pakistan - Sorry story

Defence, security and diplomacy

Clausewitz

• America and Pakistan

  Sorry story

  Dec 22nd 2011, 15:43 by M.J.S.

  WHEN the news came through on November 26th that up to 24 Pakistani soldiers had been killed in a cross-border incident involving American and Afghan forces, your correspondent was at ISAF HQ in Kabul preparing to interview General John Allen, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. The mood at ISAF was one of deep shock combined with a sense of foreboding. The timing was awful. General Allen had only just returned from a visit to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of Pakistan’s army general staff, in a bid to improve relations that were already under the severest strain. As well as closing the land corridor that provides ISAF with up to half of its supplies, Pakistan announced that it would boycott the following week’s international conference in Bonn on the future of Afghanistan. The only (grim) smiles were caused by a reporter from a German news magazine who took a German general at ISAF to task for what he seemed to think was a deliberate attempt by America to sabotage his country’s hosting of a successful conference.

Jailed Afghan rape victim freed

By Nick Paton Walsh and Moni Basu, CNN

December 16, 2011 -- Updated 1652 GMT (0052 HKT)

Afghan rape victim freed

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Gulnaz was sentenced to 12 years in jail after she reported being raped by her cousin's husband
• She's under pressure to marry her attacker to restore her honor
• President Hamid Karzai intervened and ordered her release
• Women in her situation are often killed for the shame they have brought on the community

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An Afghan woman imprisoned for adultery after a relative raped her has been freed after President Hamid Karzai intervened on her behalf.