'Dancing Boy' Scandal Taints Both Americans and Afghans | | AlterNet

While in this country a culture of sexually abusing children is a taboo in other culture it is a familiar practice and everyone turns a blind eye. Wikileaks have explosed how Americans used this practice to pave the way to get what they want from villagers knowing that what they were doing is wrong but for the sake of greed and to make more money, they silenced their conscience. The god of money triumphs over moral values.

Children were abused on American military dollars. The cables are undoubtedly an embarrassment to the war effort. Whereas previously bacha bazi was used in the media to stress the necessity of the war effort – "these people need to be liberated," so the theory went – the WikiLeaks cables have completely reversed that notion. Americans are clearly not liberators if they are promoting child abuse instead of preventing and prohibiting it.

But the bigger picture remains that bacha bazi was there to be exploited.

It exists, and Pashtuns need to talk about it so they can make the changes from within. Pedophilia is not a phenomenon exclusive to one culture. It tends to thrive in any situation where males and females are segregated, whether that is a religious institution, a culture of segregated boarding schools, or a closed society. Bacha bazi is particularly troubling to many people because it is not only pedophilia but culturally accepted pedophilia – amongst those Pashtuns who accept and practice it openly. The sensitivities are even greater because of this but the fact that they exist suggests that many Pashtuns realize the practice is problematic.  Read the entire story

'Dancing Boy' Scandal Taints Both Americans and Afghans AlterNet