|
|
John
|
 |
Getting started |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 3
|
|
|
From an article from the Times of London 1/12/02 by Tim Reid entitled "Kandahar comes out of the closet" Quoting the first three paragraphs: "Now that the Taliban rule is over in Mullah Oman's former southern stronghold, it is not television, kites and razors which have begun to emerge.
Visible again, too, are men with their ashna, or beloveds: young boys they have groomed for sex.
Kandahar's Pashtuns have been notorious for their homosexuality for centuries, particularly their fondness for naive young boys. Before the Taleban arrive in 1994, the streets were filled with teenagers and their sugar daddies, flaunting their relationship.
It is called the homosexual capital of south Asia."
The rest of the article goes into detail about the custom and how it is carried out and in a concluding sentence states "Once the boy falls into the man's cluthches-nearly always men with a wife and family-he is marked for life, although the Kandaharis accept these relationships as part of their culture."
Also their are articles detailing the poor farmers of the country returning to the one cash crop that will keep them alive opium poppies.
The coalition has ridded the country of the Taliban. At what expense?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Who is to say? An acceptable practice in one country reviled in another. Why must we force everyone in the world to conform to one behavior (usually one that we find acceptable).
Hugs, Charlie
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
cossie
|
 |
On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
|
|
|
I'm not quite sure of the issues here. As regards the Pashtun fondness for boys, it's news to me and without more information I hesitate to pass judgement. There's a danger of importing our own 'standards' when considering aspects of a culture in which those standards have no historic relevance. Sometimes we are clearly right to do so - as, for example, in the case of certain circumcision practices which feature elsewhere on Tim's site - but sometimes the rights and wrongs are much less clear-cut. The streets of Kandahar are very different from those of London or New York (or even San Francisco!)
As regards the growing of opium poppies, it's a big and emotive issue, but the villains are not the breadline farmers who till the poppy fields. What would you or I do in their situation? Suppression of drug production in Afghanistan depends upon rebuilding the country's economy in a way which provides alternative opportunities to keep body and soul together.
You say 'at what cost?' I'd suggest that the cost was modest. Problems may remain, but a severe blow has been struck against religious fundamentalism, and for my money that is the greatest moral evil in today's world. I'm not even sure whether I truly believe in a God, but I certainly do believe that I am closer to Him, if he does exist, than the fundamentalists of any religion - Muslim, Jewish, Christian or whatever - who have the overweening arrogance to believe that they, and only they, can read His mind.
Faith, Hope and Love - and the greatest of these is Love!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
No Message Body
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm really glad to see that people are trying to take cultural differences seriously, and get beyond slogans.
Obviously, this practice never stopped, even during the Taliban repression. Evidently the boys are not forced into it. (I have this info from a straight newspaper reporter who is there right now, I am a friend of he and his wife). At least not "forced" in the "love slave" sense. Girls have always been "forced" into more problematic situations, to my view.
In Thailand, loads of straight guys choose to work in the sex industry, and do it for the money. They choose, and aren't forced, or sold into anything like slavery. I don't know anything about the Afgan practices to compare it with. Just that there are vast chasms of cultural differences which THEY see and we don't.
Whatever realistic choices there are in life in one set of circumstances, I'm in favor of allowing people to make. And I try not to judge anybody about the choices they make. As long as there are real choices to be made.
And in the absence of a viable choice, who's to say what each one of us would do?
Thanks Charlie for starting an interesting strand of debate.
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
In the furor that surronds these issues there always seems to be an element that it is more objectional for a boy to have to trade sexual services for survival than for a girl. If the concern is about harm to the young person, is it any less harmful to girls? Killing oneself to protect one's virture never made sense to me.
In societies of economic abundance everyone has a right to expect food, clothing and shelter without having to sell themselves. I don't even pretend to understand what life is like in societies where there simply is not enough to go around.
Richard
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
tim
|
 |
Really getting into it |
Location: UK, West of London in Ber...
Registered: February 2002
Messages: 842
|
|
|
It sounds more like a slogan on a march than a real and considered thought. It woudl make a great placard for Jerry Falwell
How do you know how these boys are treated? Their culture is different from ours, certainly, but is part of a long tradition of caring.
I do not presume that all long traditions are good by any means. Binding the feet of girl babies on "old China" was a bad thing. To me circumcision is a bad thing. But I do believe in rational and informed debate, not sloganeering
Now, let's bring facts to bear on the debate, not slogans.
|
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
