Bacha bazi

Bacha bazi or bacheh-baazi or bacchá or bacha bi-reesh is an Afghan practice translated roughly as "playing with kids" or "boy play". A "bacha bereesh" is a boy without a beard. Wikipedia describes the practice as "sexual slavery and child prostitution in which prepubescent and adolescent boys are sold to wealthy or powerful men for entertainment and sexual activities." Antiwar.com describes it as "an old Afghan tradition of taking young boys, dressing them up like girls, and making them perform for older men in tea rooms, weddings, and other private venues." According to the documentary The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, some of these young boys not only consent, but also dream of having their own dancers later on. The documentary depicts Afghan policemen in attendance at the dancing boy events. A Wikileaks cable revealed that foreign contractors in Afghanistan had been involved in these events as well.

Libertarians would argue that if the boys are indeed consenting of their own free will, then they should be allowed to do so without government interference; and if the boys are indeed being enslaved then one way in which the U.S. could help would be by opening its borders to allow those children to flee into asylum, and permitting those children to seek gainful employment in America, or enter into other kinds of relationships (e.g. romantic relationships with an older person) that would enable them to be provided for.

External links

• The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan.