Bacha Bazi Afghan

General Country Report on Afghanistan November 2016
pederasty, among other offences, are subject to punishment by ‘long-term’
imprisonment. Afghan law has no explicit provisions prohibiting discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation. 454
The Constitution states that if the law makes no provision on a matter, sharia may
be applied. Under sharia, sexual acts between people of the same sex are not
permitted. The maximum punishment for such acts is the death penalty. As far as is
known, no homosexuals have been sentenced to death in the formal judicial system
since the fall of the Taliban, but prison sentences have been handed out. There is
one known conviction in the parallel judicial system: in August 2015, a parallel court
sentenced two men and a 17-year-old boy to death by wall-toppling, in which a wall
is built and then made to collapse on those found guilty of a crime. Alleged and
actual homosexuals are the victims of discrimination, violence and detention in
Afghanistan, either from their own family, others around them or the government.
They may also become socially isolated because their family wants nothing more to
do with them, for fear of honour killing. Members of the Afghan Lesbian, Gay, Bi and
Transgender (LGBT) community reported that they were victims of discrimination,
taunting, rape and arrest. NGOs also reported arrests, detention, robbery and rape
of homosexuals by the police. The government provides no protection. 455
Homosexuals in Afghanistan usually keep their orientation secret, including from
their families, for fear of rejection or honour killing. Relatively speaking, they are
safest in a large city – especially Kabul – provided they are not open about their
orientation. 456
Bacha bazi, in which boys and young men (usually up to 18) are dressed up as
women and have to dance for a male audience and have sexual contacts with their
‘owner’ (usually powerful local businessmen or warlords, but also government
officials and members of the ANDSF) is a traditional practice and is in Afghanistan
not regarded as homosexuality. Many police commanders have their own bacha
bazi, who not only provide sexual services, but also do chores and carry weapons.
This practice is illegal but tolerated, especially in the conservative provinces of
Uruzgan, Helmand and Kandahar, but in recent years to an increasing extent also in
large cities and the north-eastern provinces such as Kunduz. How many children are
involved is not known, but it is not a marginal phenomenon. The Taliban sometimes
use the bacha bazi as infiltrators, whose task is to first seduce and then murder
someone. The AIHRC has called for the inclusion of a ban on bacha bazi in the new
Penal Code. 457
There are no human rights organisations openly campaigning for the rights of
homosexuals in Afghanistan. It would be legally impossible to do so, as they would
be unable to register, and would also be unable to do their work from a social
viewpoint. 458
454
See Article 427 of the Criminal Code; Home Office, FCO Country Information and Guidance Afghanistan: sexual orientation and gender identity,
February 2016; ILGA, State sponsored homophobia, a world survey of laws: criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-seks love, May
2015; UNHCR, UNHCR eligibility guidelines for assessing the international protection needs of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, 19 April 2016; US
Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 Afghanistan, February 2016.
455
UNHCR, UNHCR eligibility guidelines for assessing the international protection needs of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, 19 April 2016; US
Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 Afghanistan, February 2016; Home Office, Country information and
guidance, Afghanistan: sexual orientation and gender identity, February 2016.
456
Home Office, Country information and guidance, Afghanistan: sexual orientation and gender identity, February 2016; confidential source.
457
Confidential source; Dawn, Taliban use ‘honey trap’ boys to kill Afghan police, 16 June 2016; Radio Free Europe, Afghan dancing boys tell of
rape, abuse, 25 January 2016; Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2015 – Afghanistan; US Department of State, 2016 Trafficking in Persons
Report – Afghanistan; US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 Afghanistan, February 2016; UNICEF, Child
notice Afghanistan 2015; Pajhwok, Bacha Bazi victims need to be protected, says rights official, 11 August 2015.
458
US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 Afghanistan, February 2016; confidential source.

SOURCE: https://www.government.nl/binaries/government/documents/reports/2016/11/01/country-of-origin-information-report-afghanistan-november-2016/Country+of+origin+report+Afghanistan.pdf