Homosexuality In Post-Taliban Afghanistan
THEY no logner crush gays with tanks:
One of the rarely remarked upon consequences of Taliban rule in Afghanistan was its treatment of gays. Though their official policy—execution—wasn’t that out of the ordinary compared to Iran (or many other Muslim countries), their method, pushing a wall over, using a tank, and seeing how long the victim would survive, was especially brutal.
But what of gays in Afghanistan now? Traditionally, Islam hasn’t been especially hostile to homosexuality—well regarded classical Islamic poets have written lengthy love sonnets to the young boys they chased after, and were celebrated for it (while in the West we classify ephebophilia as a criminal sickness indistinguishable from pederasty, the line is much more distinct in other societies, including pre-modern Islam). Even in neighboring Pakistan, in Pashtun-majority areas no less, so-called male brides—in which a teenage boy is married off to an older man—happens today. And in Saudi Arabia, discrete homosexuality is virtually encouraged (or at least assented to) by the harsh religious police, which criminalize male-female relations but ignore same-sex relations.
Even the Taliban’s brutal repression of gays can’t be seen as simple hatred. A recent set of rules for Taliban fighters included prohibitions against taking boys into their tents alone, among other bizarre rules on sexuality (such as the power of the woman’s ankle). The excellent, if depressing film Osama includes a scene in which a Taliban elder instructs a room full of boys, at length, in how to properly wash their genitals. And Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban in the 90’s, was once known as the gay capital of South Asia.
Any lesbians?
Posted: 14th, June 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- coolandcalm on Flexetarians Are Meat-Eating Vegetarians
- Graeme (aka eggman) on Flexetarians Are Meat-Eating Vegetarians
- Graeme (aka eggman) on US Forced Fort Hood Murderer Nidal Hasan To Join The Army
- agw on David Haye’s Mouth Takes On Nikolai Valuev’s Hairy Back
- magnetite on Fort Hood Shootings Latest News: US Soldier Nidal Hasan Shoots 13 Dead
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
…i think we just must respect avery culture ideology, but this about making sex with kids,sometimes when they are younger than 15 i think is not correct…if you do this, do it with guys over 18, age that i think is when they know already what to do and if they want it or not…of course, there is a economic reazon for that, and the country situation and cultural history related to it…i don’ t know! It’ s like when we learned from our parents that girls like “Pink” and boys likes “Green”.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I’m so shocked to hear that this is true. Just today i spoke to one of my best friends in the military he’s in the Korengal Valley Afghanistan and he mentioned to me that these Afghany military men look at them like their “Pamela Anderson’s”! They whistle at them constantly and even make passes at them. I couldn’t believe this! Its not upseting to me its just so weird.
July 5th, 2007 at 1:14 am
It is true that Kandhar has been the hub of Central Asian Gay Culture. A lot of famous pashtoon poets talk in length about young boys and good looking men and specially one famous poet - Mawlana Jalaluddin Balkhi, has thousands of poem about his lost love - another man - named Shams Tabreezie. In Afghanistan, every living soul, knows about Kandhar and infact there is a saying in farsi that even when birds fly over kandhar, they cover their asses…. (meaning even animals/birds get ass raped by Taliban aka Pashtoon Kandharis!).
June 16th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
See Family Research Institute and Family Reseach Council:
http://www.familyresearchinst.org
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BK04A01
June 14th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Do you have any contradicting sources to offer? Just saying “That’s completely wrong!!” looks like a desperate denial.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
This article is completely wrong. The writer doesn’t have any information about the Isalmic/Afghan culture nor does he knows about the homosexuality in Afghanistan. I am not saying that there is no homosexuality in Afghanistan, but his information is very weak.