Boy Soldiers, Boy Brides

In Afghanistan child soldiers, boys, are increasingly being used and abused.

Afghanistan's Child Soldiers

And in another old tradition child brides are not just girls in Afghanistan but boys as well, who are used by patriarchal warlords, police chiefs and other older men as boy brides.

Young boys are being sexually abused in Afghanistan

"Some men enjoy playing with dogs, some with women. I enjoy playing with boys," said 44-year-old Allah Daad, a one-time Mujahedin commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz

The practice of "bacha baazi", meaning "boy-play", is enjoying a resurgence in the North of Afghanistan where ownership is seen as a status symbol by militia leaders according to Afghan news site, e-Ariana.

While condemned by clerics and human rights groups, authorities are doing little to end it.Dancers, known as "bacha bereesh" or "beardless boys", are under 18, with 14 being the "ideal" age.

Owners or "kaatah" meet at bacha baazi parties in large halls where the boys dance late into the night, before being sexually abused.

Of course these manly he men are not gay, since there are no homosexuals in Islam. Nope of course not after all these are just boys dancing in drag.

This is not a new phenomena but a rather old one nor is it restricted to Afghanistan.


It was first reported on in the 19th Century by Sir Captain Richard Burton, who went undercover into the Hindu Kush and discovered the tradition of boy brides amongst the peoples of the region. He also discovered that British officers were using boy brides for their entertainment. His report got him summarily punished by the High Command who were embarrassed by his findings.

In revenge it is told that Burton held a dinner party and invited his commanding officers to attend. When they did they were treated to boy brides being present. Typical of Burton's rapacious wit and nasty sense of humour when the officers protested that they were scandalized by his use of boy brides, he assured them they were no such thing. He revealed they were in fact monkeys in drag.

Burton had actually worked on developing an early form of communication with the monkeys, which was lost when his collected notes and works were burnt posthumously by his widow.

Boy brides, child brides, child labour and child soldiers, the legacy of our war in Afghanistan.

It reveals the hypocrisy of the Conservatives claim we are there fighting for the rights of women and children.

This sobering image, showing a 40-year-old groom sitting beside his 11-year-old future bride in Afghanistan, brought Stephanie Sinclair top honors in the annual Photo of the Year 2007 contest sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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Afghan tradition allows girls to access the freedom of boys

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV and ELENA BECATOROSan hour ago


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In a Kabul neighborhood, a gaggle of boys kick a yellow ball around a dusty playground, their boisterous cries echoing off the surrounding apartment buildings.

Dressed in sweaters and jeans or the traditional Afghan male clothing of baggy pants and long shirt, none stand out as they jostle to score a goal. But unbeknown to them, one is different from the others.

At not quite 8 years old, Sanam is a bacha posh: a girl living as a boy. One day a few months ago, the girl with rosy cheeks and an impish smile had her dark hair cut short, donned boys’ clothes and took on a boy’s name, Omid. The move opened up a boy’s world: playing soccer and cricket with boys, wrestling with the neighborhood butcher’s son, working to help the family make ends meet.

In Afghanistan’s heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, bacha posh, Dari for “dressed as a boy,” is the one tradition allowing girls access to the freer male world.

Sanam, a bacha posh, a girl living as a boy, center, celebrates a goal as she plays soccer with boys from her neighbourhood, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. In the heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society of Afghanistan, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, there is one tradition which allows girls access to the male world: bacha posh. A girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, allowing her to play and to work as a boy would be able to do, until she reaches puberty. 

(AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

Under the practice, a girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, with all the freedoms and obligations that entails. The child can play sports, attend a madrassa, or religious school, and, sometimes crucially for the family, work. But there is a time limit: Once a bacha posh reaches puberty, she is expected to revert to traditional girls’ gender roles. The transition is not always easy.

It is unclear how the practice is viewed by Afghanistan’s new rulers, the Taliban, who seized power in mid-August and have made no public statements on the issue.

Their rule so far has been less draconian than the last time they were in power in the 1990s, but women’s freedoms have still been severely curtailed. Thousands of women have been barred from working, and girls beyond primary school age have not been able to return to public schools in most places.

With a crackdown on women’s rights, the bacha posh tradition could become even more attractive for some families. And as the practice is temporary, with the children eventually reverting to female roles, the Taliban might not deal with the issue at all, said Thomas Barfield, a professor of anthropology at Boston University who has written several books on Afghanistan.

Sanam, a bacha posh, a girl living as a boy, stands next to her father at their street stand selling masks, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. In the heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society of Afghanistan, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, there is one tradition which allows girls access to the male world: bacha posh. A girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, allowing her to play and to work as a boy would be able to do, until she reaches puberty. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

“Because it’s inside the family and because it’s not a permanent status, the Taliban may stay out (of it),” Barfield said.

It is unclear where the practice originated or how old it is, and it is impossible to know how widespread it might be. A somewhat similar tradition exists in Albania, another deeply patriarchal society, although it is limited to adults. Under Albania’s “sworn virgin” tradition, a woman would take an oath of celibacy and declare herself a man, after which she could inherit property, work and sit on a village council - all of which would have been out of bounds for a woman.

In Afghanistan, the bacha posh tradition is “one of the most under-investigated” topics in terms of gender issues, said Barfield, who spent about two years in the 1970s living with an Afghan nomad family that included a bacha posh. “Precisely because the girls revert back to the female role, they marry, it kind of disappears.”

Girls chosen as bacha posh usually are the more boisterous, self-assured daughters. “The role fits so well that sometimes even outside the family, people are not aware that it exists,” he said.

“It’s almost so invisible that it’s one of the few gender issues that doesn’t show up as a political or social question,” Barfield noted.

Sanam, not quite 8 years old, gets a boy's haircut, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. In the heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society of Afghanistan, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, there is one tradition which allows girls access to the male world: Bacha posh. A girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, allowing her to play and to work as a boy would be able to do, until she reaches puberty. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

The reasons parents might want a bacha posh vary. With sons traditionally valued more than daughters, the practice usually occurs in families without a boy. Some consider it a status symbol, and some believe it will bring good luck for the next child to be born a boy.

But for others, like Sanam’s family, the choice was one of necessity. Last year, with Afghanistan’s economy collapsing, construction work dried up. Sanam’s father, already suffering from a back injury, lost his job as a plumber. He turned to selling coronavirus masks on the streets, making the equivalent of $1-$2 per day. But he needed a helper.

The family has four daughters and one son, but their 11-year-old boy doesn’t have full use of his hands following an injury. So the parents said they decided to make Sanam a bacha posh.

“We had to do this because of poverty,” said Sanam’s mother, Fahima. “We don’t have a son to work for us, and her father doesn’t have anyone to help him. So I will consider her my son until she becomes a teenager.”

A photo of Najieh dressed as a boy at a young age lies in a grass, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. In the heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society of Afghanistan, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, there is one tradition which allows girls access to the male world: bacha posh. A girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, allowing her to play and to work as a boy would be able to do, until she reaches puberty. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

Still, Fahima refers to Sanam as “my daughter.” In their native Dari language, the pronouns are not an issue since one pronoun is used for “he” and “she.”

Sanam says she prefers living as a boy.

“It’s better to be a boy...I wear (Afghan male clothes), jeans and jackets, and go with my father and work,” she said. She likes playing in the park with her brother’s friends and playing cricket and soccer.

Once she grows up, Sanam said, she wants to be either a doctor, a commander or a soldier, or work with her father. And she’ll go back to being a girl.

“When I grow up, I will let my hair grow and will wear girl’s clothes,” she said.

The transition isn’t always easy.

Najieh, who grew up as a bacha posh, sits at her house during an interview, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 1, 2021. In the heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society of Afghanistan, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, there is one tradition which allows girls access to the male world: bacha posh. A girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, allowing her to play and to work as a boy would be able to do, until she reaches puberty. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

“When I put on girls’ clothes, I thought I was in prison,” said Najieh, who grew up as a bacha posh, although she would attend school as a girl. One of seven sisters, her boy’s name was Assadollah.

Now 34, married and with four children of her own, she weeps for the freedom of the male world she has lost.

“In Afghanistan, boys are more valuable,” she said. “There is no oppression for them, and no limits. But being a girl is different. She gets forced to get married at a young age.”

Young women can’t leave the house or allow strangers to see their face, Najieh said. And after the Taliban takeover, she lost her job as a schoolteacher because she had been teaching boys.

“Being a man is better than being a woman,” she said, wiping tears from her eye. “It is very hard for me. ... If I were a man, I could be a teacher in a school.”

“I wish I could be a man, not a woman. To stop this suffering.”

 

Video: In Afghanistan's heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, bacha posh, Dari for "dressed as a boy," is the one tradition allowing girls access to the freer male world. (AP Video/Mstyslav Chernov)

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Stalled progress toward eliminating child marriage in India

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Friday, December 15, 6:30 PM ET

Key points:

• Using national data between 1993 and 2021, researchers observed that India’s national prevalence of child marriage—defined by the study as marriage before age 18—declined throughout the study period. 

• The decade between 2006 and 2016 saw the largest magnitude of reduction in child marriage, while the years between 2016 and 2021 saw the smallest. During these latter years, six Indian states/union territories saw increases in the prevalence of girl child marriage and eight saw increases in boy child marriage.

• The study is among the first to examine how the prevalence of child marriage has changed over time at a state/union territory level. 

Boston, MA—Child marriage has declined in India—but across the country, one in five girls and nearly one in six boys are still married as children, and in recent years the practice has become more prevalent in some states/union territories, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Child marriage is a human rights violation and a recognized form of gender- and sexual-based violence. India’s success in reaching zero child marriage is critical to achieving United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5.3.

The study will be published on December 15, 2023, in The Lancet Global Health.

“This study is among the first to estimate how rates of girl and boy child marriage have changed over time at a state/union territory level. Boy child marriage in particular is often overlooked; to date, there’s been almost no research estimating its prevalence,” said lead author S. V. Subramanian, professor of population health and geography. “Our findings offer a big step forward in understanding the burden of child marriage in India—one that will be critical to effective policymaking.”

Though India legally defines child marriage as marriage before age 18 for girls and before age 21 for boys, for the purposes of the study the researchers defined it as marriage before age 18 for both sexes. Using data from all five waves of India’s National Family Health Survey, from 1993, 1999, 2006, 2016, and 2021, they estimated the number of men and women ages 20-24 who met that definition across state/union territories. 

The study found that between 1993 and 2021, child marriage declined nationally. The prevalence of girl child marriage decreased from 49% in 1993 to 22% in 2021, while boy child marriage decreased from 7% in 2006 to 2% in 2021. (Using the Indian legal definition of boy child marriage, the prevalence was much higher: 29% in 2006 and 15% in 2022.) However, progress towards stopping the practice of child marriage has stalled in recent years: The largest reductions in child marriage prevalence occurred between 2006 and 2016, with the lowest magnitude of reduction occurring between 2016 and 2021. In fact, during these later years, six states/union territories (including Manipur, Punjab, Tripura, and West Bengal) saw an increase in girl child marriage and eight (including Chhattisgarh, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab) saw an increase in boy child marriage.

By 2021, the researchers counted more than 13.4 million women and more than 1.4 million men ages 20-24 who were married as children. The results showed that one in five girls and nearly one in six boys are still married below India’s legal age of marriage.

“Child marriage is a human rights violation,” said first author Jewel Gausman, research associate in the Department of Global Health and Population. “It is both a cause and a consequence of social and economic vulnerability that leads to a range of poor health outcomes. The state/union territory stagnation in reaching zero child marriage that we observed is a significant concern—and is a call for India to reignite progress.”

Rockli Kim, visiting scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, was also a co-author.

Funding for the study came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-002992).

“Prevalence of Girl and Boy Child Marriage: A Repeated Cross-sectional Study Examining the Subnational Variation across States and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021,” Jewel Gausman, Rockli Kim, Akhil Kumar, Shamika Ravi, S.V. Subramanian, The Lancet Global Health, December 15, 2023, doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00470-9

Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings.

###

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

---

JOURNAL

The Lancet Global Health

DOI

10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00470-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Prevalence of Girl and Boy Child Marriage: A Repeated Cross-sectional Study Examining the Subnational Variation across States and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Dec-2023

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Tradition of Afghan girls who live as boys may be threatened

Analysis by Lisa Selin Davis 1 hour ago

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, after the Soviet--Afghan War of the 1980s, life for women and girls was ghastly.

IRONICALLY IT IS AN AFGHAN TRADITION 

(LONG AGO RECORDED BY SIR CAPTAIN ROBERT BURTON)  

FOR PATRIARCHIAL LEADERS TO HAVE BOY BRIDES!!!!

© Loulou d'Aki/The New York Times/Redux Ali, 14, wears jeans and a shirt while her sister Setar, 16, wears a traditional outfit for men, in Kabul, in a practice known as "bacha posh," in a picture taken in June 2017.

As a report from the Congressional Research Service put it, "Taliban prohibited women from working, attending school after age 8, and appearing in public without a male blood relative and without wearing a burqa. Women accused of breaking these or other restrictions suffered severe corporal or capital punishment, often publicly."

Afghanistan routinely edges toward tops lists of the worst places in the world for women and girls, but some things had improved after the United States invaded in 2001. The maternal mortality rate decreased (though it is still alarmingly high). More women held jobs like doctors, politicians and journalists. And more girls were educated: The World Bank showed almost no girls receiving a primary education in 2000, but more than 85% going to school by 2012. Some even got to be on a robotics team.

Even so, a 2018 UNICEF report said 1 in 3 Afghan girls is married before age 18. Only 19% of girls under 15 are literate. And 60% of the 3.7 million children out of school that year were girls — for whom going to school has always been dangerous.

For some girls, there has historically been a path to live, before puberty, as a boy. "Bacha posh," which in Dari means girl "dressed up as a boy," is an ancient tradition that pre-dates the Taliban in which a family designates a girl to live as a boy. That could either allow her a boy's freedoms — like education, athletics and the right to be outside alone — or impose a boy's duties on her, like working.

Some parents designate a bacha posh if the family has no sons, to alleviate what a family might consider its shame and vulnerability — not having a male child to protect the family or make money for it — with the hope that the shift will cause the next baby born to be a boy. The girls are expected to return at puberty, to become wives and mothers, whether they want to or not -- and many don't, according to Jenny Nordberg, author of a book about the bacha posh, "The Underground Girls of Kabul."

It is, argues Nordberg, a tradition rooted in inequality. Yet it is one of the only ways some girls get even a taste of freedom — a practice that will be much riskier, but at the same time perhaps even more relevant, she says, as we are already seeing women facing discrimination when the Taliban promised they wouldn't.

CNN asked Nordberg what may lie ahead for girls in Afghanistan, including the bacha posh.

This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

CNN: What was the situation for girls in Afghanistan before the United States invaded in 2001?

Jenny Nordberg: Most of them did not go to school. They were illiterate. There were some secret girls' schools, which basically meant a makeshift study group. Women or older sisters who may have had some education under the Russians would teach their younger sisters or younger children. They would say that they would teach the Quran, and then they would actually try to teach other stuff like math or language.

A girl was a weakness to the family because she couldn't defend a family as a boy could. Growing up as a little girl meant that you were groomed for one thing only: to be married off to another family. And in order to be good marriage material, their movements were very limited. Little girls shouldn't play too much. They shouldn't be out much. They should definitely not read a book, not play sports, not be too loud. Be very demure, very, very quiet, always lowering their gaze. Even very liberal, educated, progressive parents didn't want their girls to be abducted by the Taliban or to face any danger. This was a way to protect them.

Once a girl begins to menstruate, when she can conceive and get pregnant, she is married off and becomes the property no longer of her father but of the husband. And this could be a man whom she hasn't met or whom she has only met once and never spoken to.

CNN: How had things changed in the 20 years that Americans were in Afghanistan?

Nordberg: There has been a new mostly urban generation, in big city centers like Kabul, a whole generation who went to school and university. They had big plans for themselves, both men and women. They have smartphones. They know what's going on in the rest of the world. These are the ones who, in the fantasy of a new functioning democracy of Afghanistan, were going to take over the state and push the country forward.

Americans were trying to cultivate the most ambitious, the most talented, the most spirited people to run their own country. Which is sort of like a colonialist fantasy.

CNN: The Taliban have said that they will protect women's rights "within the limits of Islam." Does that give you hope?

Nordberg: That statement means nothing because that will be subject to interpretation. There is zero correlation between what we think are reasonable rights for women, and what they think are reasonable rights for women. Oppressing women is not some side story. It's the main story. It's part of the recruitment strategy. Women are only useful for having children. And women need to be controlled and kept very, very small, very diminished.

A woman who gets an education gets a lot of ideas. Maybe she wants to make some of her own decisions about her own body or whether or when she should have children, whether she should get married. They want none of that. They want to hold all the power over women.

Look at the last few days. Why would people be so desperate to get out if they believed the Taliban were a softer version of themselves? Why would women go into hiding, scared for their lives, if they thought that there was any chance that there was some kind of negotiation or a conversation with the Taliban about human rights for women? Short of another invasion, who is going to hold them to that? The Taliban have now taken over in such a swift and brutal and devastating way. They have no reason to compromise. Why would they want to compromise on anything?

Their credibility, in my view, is zero for actually granting women and girls basic human rights.

CNN: What's going to happen to the women who have been educated and were promised a better future?

Nordberg: Women who are useful in one way or another will be allowed to keep working, but they will have no rights of their own. A female surgeon is under the spell of her husband or her father. And she will need to obey a Taliban society and Taliban rules. They'll parade around some women for a few weeks to say, "Oh, look, we're completely fine and normal. We got this. Don't worry." And then when the eyes of the world have moved away, they'll crack down hard. But they'll keep a few token women to show off as public figures. The rest will be completely brutalized. (As CNN recently reported, "As Taliban leaders tell international media they 'don't want women to be victimized,' a more sinister reality is unfolding on the ground. Girls are being forced into marriage, female bank workers marched from their jobs, and activists' homes raided in a clear message that the freedoms of the last 20 years are coming to an end.")

CNN: Who are the bacha posh?

Nordberg: A bacha posh is a girl who lives as a boy, almost like a third gender. In order to reach for what we think of as some very basic human rights, a girl can put on a pair of pants and a shirt and cut her hair off and pass as a boy. This will increase her range of movement. She doesn't need to be kept indoors. She could play sports. She could escort her mother or do errands. She'll see more of the world outside the house, essentially. And in areas where education is only afforded to boys, she could get an education and could also safely get to school, if it's dangerous for a girl to travel or to walk to school.

It's an ancient tradition and custom that is a sign basically of a deeply dysfunctional, segregated society where women and girls are second-class citizens. If girls had rights, there would be no need to pretend to be the more privileged gender. This is a society where boys and men have almost all the rights. In an extremely segregated society, there will always be those who try to get over to the other side.

CNN: Why do some girls become bacha posh?

Nordberg: It can be done for a number of reasons. If the family doesn't have a boy, it is not just perceived as weak but is actually weak, because there will be no one to defend the family and support aging parents. It could be that people know that you have a bacha posh instead of an actual son, but it's still considered better than to have just daughters. It's viewed favorably by most Afghans.

It could also be that if the family is poor, you will have a bacha posh as labor, working for the family business or working outside the home as a shop assistant, bringing some money in if the father can't work or if the mother is widowed.

It could also be that the parents really want a girl to get an education. If you have two sons and a daughter and then you dress the girl just like the boys, and you send all three of them to school.

CNN: Is it liberating for the girls who are living as bacha posh?

Nordberg: It depends. Is it a burden? Is it so that you can work and bring home money to the family? Or is it a privilege where you're afforded an education or some freedom of movement or you can ride a bike or travel with your father? It can be either or it can be both. It's very complicated psychologically for each individual bacha posh. And it mostly depends on two factors. What was the reason for your being a bacha posh, and how long did it go on for?

CNN: Will it still be allowed under Taliban rule?

Nordberg: This existed in Afghanistan long, long before the Taliban came to power, and it will exist until the day women have their own human rights. That said, there will be a greater need to hide, a greater need to disguise yourself if you want to do certain things. But it will also be more dangerous to do it, because I believe the Taliban do not approve of this. It was always risky and it will be more dangerous under a harsher regime. It will be making a mockery of the Taliban and their view on women.

CNN: What are our moral obligations to the girls and women of Afghanistan?

Nordberg: I hesitate to even use the term "moral obligation." Can we even talk about that anymore? In my opinion, we just needed to get as many people as possible out. What was done wasn't enough, by far. Every ambassador, any country that was involved in this failure of a generation, should have issued emergency visas and opened their borders to the people who we have put in incredible danger by promoting and cultivating and encouraging and educating them. These are our people. and we are part of that country now, as they are part of us.

We encouraged these women to get an education, get a profession, choose your own path, become more like us, build your own country. And those are the ones who are now in extreme danger. These are the journalists, academics, teachers, university students, artists, politicians. The airlifts are now over, but other, more underground efforts, will continue

Get them out and get them out now because the gate is closing on something that will be a horrible, horrible country for women for many years to come.

© Magnus Forsberg/Crown/Penguin Random House Author Jenny Nordberg spoke about the bacha posh to CNN.

© Crown/Penguin Random House Jenny Nordberg documented the "bacha posh" in her book, "The Underground Girls of Kabul."

ON THE OTHER HAND

China bans ‘sissy’ and ‘effeminate’ men under new macho media rules
Josh K. Elliott 

Macho, macho man

.

© CG/VCG via Getty Images Singer/actor Roy Wang Yuan of boy group TFBoys performs during his first solo concert 'Yuan' at Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on August 31, 2019 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.

China wants to be a country of macho men, and it’s trying to make that happen by banning “sissy” boybands and “effeminate” males from all media in the nation.


Broadcasters must “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics,” the National Radio and TV Administration wrote in a new set of rules released Thursday. It also used the term “niang pao," an insult for effeminate men that means “girlie guns.”

Read more: China’s censors to establish do-not-play list of ‘illegal’ karaoke songs

The new rules call for broadcasters to enforce a "correct beauty standard" and to boycott "vulgar" internet celebrities and celebrations of wealth, while promoting "traditional Chinese culture, revolutionary culture and socialist culture." They also ban all "idol audition shows" and recommend blacklisting anyone who has broken the law or offended public morals.

Additionally, the rules say that broadcasters should avoid airing anything that is "overly entertaining."

The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department announced the new media masculinity rules on Thursday, in its latest effort to police morality through censorship.

President Xi Jinping has essentially pledged to Make China Great Again with a “national rejuvenation,” which he is trying to pull off through strict control of all business, education, culture and religion in the country.

The CCP has racked up a long list of censorship and human rights abuses in recent years, from the persecution of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, to the complete denial of the 1984 massacre at Tiananmen Square, to new rules that ban certain karaoke songs or limit children from playing more than three hours of online video games a week.

Even Winnie the Pooh has been banned, after the character was once used to mock Xi.

Read more: China limits children to no more than 3 hours of video games a week

China has also targeted its own celebrities who it deems to have stepped out of line. Actors Fan Bingbing and Zheng Shuang have been handed steep fines in the past, and the wildly popular actor Zhao Wei was recently erased from all Chinese media without explanation. Actor Zhang Zhehan was also wiped off the Chinese internet after photos surfaced of him at a controversial shrine for Japanese soldiers.

The new media rules could have a major impact beyond China’s borders, particularly in Hollywood, where studios in the past have kowtowed to Chinese demands in order to show their films in the lucrative market.

Tech companies are also facing pressure under the propaganda department's new rules, as they are being held responsible for enforcement.

Weibo, China's version of Twitter, suspended thousands of entertainment news and fan club accounts over the weekend amid the broader crackdown.

It's unclear how the rules will impact the LGBTQ2 community within China, or how they might affect foreign athletes when they go to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics next February.

— With files from The Associated Press

Dog Fighting In Afghanistan.

Our troops are fighting in Afghanistan to defend abuse of women, children and now animals.

Assignment Kandahar: Dog Fights, then a Bloodbath
A suicide bomber killed scores of Afghans attending a dog fighting "festival" being held just outside the city.

There is no official word if the suicide bomber was a member of PETA.

No report on the number of dogs killed.

And apparently the bodyguards were responsible for as many deaths as the suicide bomber.

Men and boys were enjoying picnics or watching dog and cock fights when the blast happened. Six children and thirteen auxiliary policemen were among the dead. Many of the wounded were critically injured and the death toll was expected to rise. Witnesses claimed panicking bodyguards fired wildly after the explosion, hitting dazed survivors.

Faizullah Qar Gar, a resident of Kandahar who was at the dog fight, said the militant commanders' bodyguards opened fire on the crowd after the bombing.

"In my mind there were no Taliban to attack after the blast but the bodyguards were shooting anyway," he said.

And let's remember that in North America dog fighting is illegal and will get you kicked out of the NFL and put in jail. But in Kandahar, well it's a 'tradition', gee just like Burka's and boy brides.. Still haven't got rid of those either in liberated Afghanistan.

Ironically , like opium production, dog fighting was banned by the nasty Taleban.

Dog-fighting competitions, which were banned under the Taleban regime, are a popular pastime in Afghanistan.

Can you say medieval patriarchal society? The enemies of my enemy may not be any better....





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Afghanistan: LGBTQ people fear for their lives under Taliban rule

Less than a month after they returned to power, the Taliban have begun going after LGBTQ people in Afghanistan. Members of this group reflect on their fears and the brief moments of freedom they used to have.



The LGBTQ community in Afghanistan has always lived a secret life because homosexuality is considered immoral and un-Islamic in the country

On the afternoon of August 26, 20-year-old college student Rabia Balhki (name changed to protect her identity) was pushing her way through the crowd outside the Kabul airport. Nearby, Taliban fighters occasionally fired warning shots into the air while beating people with sticks.

In panic, people fled in all directions, making it even more difficult for Rabia to access the airport. But she remained undeterred. Rabia told DW that she was desperate to flee Afghanistan as she was a woman and also a lesbian.

For the Islamic fundamentalist group, the LGBTQ community's presence is not acceptable.

After overcoming all the difficulties, Rabia finally reached the airport entrance, but the Taliban officer who was guarding the gate refused to let her through. She had no choice but to turn back and leave. An hour later, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in the crowd and one of Rabia's relatives died on the spot.

Rabia is glad to have escaped the attack, but she doesn't know if she will survive the Taliban's hunt for LGBTQ people. "The Taliban think we are like the waste in society," she said. "They want to eliminate us."

No space for the LGBTQ community

The LGBTQ community in Afghanistan has always lived a secret life, since homosexuality is considered immoral and un-Islamic in the country.   

YES BUT BOY BRIDES ARE NOT

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BOY BRIDES (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

If convicted of engaging in gay or lesbian sex, a person can be imprisoned for life under the nation's 2017 penal code, and under Sharia — Islamic law — even the death penalty is technically allowed.

According to the LGBTQ advocacy group ILGA-World, successive Afghan governments have not enforced the death penalty for gay sex since 2001, but the Taliban might deal with the issue differently.

In the new Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, there is little to no space left for LGBTQ people.

In an interview with the German newspaper Bild in July, Gul Rahim, a Taliban judge in a province in central Afghanistan, said: "For homosexuals, there can only be two punishments: either stoning, or he must stand behind a wall that will fall down on him. The wall must be 2.5 to 3 meters (8 to 10 feet) high."

LGBTQ people face life threats

A few days after the Taliban entered Kabul, a 25-year-old gay man, Faraz (name changed to protect the identity), learned about the death of a gay friend. He isn't sure which penalty his friend received. All he knows is that the Taliban are serious about going after gay people and he might face the same fate.

"He was caught by the Taliban through complaints filed by others. The Taliban took him somewhere, killed him, and then brought his body back to his family," Faraz told DW.

"There is a specific group within the Taliban that searches for gay people," Faraz said. "They go from street to street, and when they find out who is gay, they don't hesitate to kill them."

Afghan-American LGBTQ activist Nemat Sadat told DW that in the first two weeks after the Taliban takeover, he received 357 messages from members of the Afghan LGBTQ community, but only one of them had managed to leave the country. She was able to leave for Spain.

Sadat compiled a list of LGBTQ individuals and submitted it to the US State Department, but since the US had ended its evacuation mission on August 31, the plan to evacuate LGBTQ people has become more difficult to execute. "It's going to be a long fight," Sadat said. "It's going to be a multi-year project."

But Sadat is not sure how much time his fellow Afghan LGBTQ brothers and sisters still have.

"The Taliban said they can grant amnesty to journalists and people who have helped Western governments and allow women to continue their education. People are still suspicious of them, but at least they gave a promise," Sadat said. "But for the LGBTQ community, the Taliban didn't even bother to pretend to give a promise."
Raising awareness about homosexuality

Born in Afghanistan in 1979, Sadat moved overseas with his family when he was 8 months old and eventually settled in the US. In 2012, he returned to Afghanistan to teach at an American school as an assistant professor and began raising awareness about LGBTQ issues.

"There was hardly any LGBTQ-related discussion at the time. I arranged debates in class, asking students to speak for and against the LGBTQ community," Sadat said.

Sometimes he would work with international organizations and do presentations on LGBTQ topics.

"We were careful not to leave any document," Sadat said. But even so, he still received a backlash from the then-Afghan government, leading to his dismissal from the job and his return to the US in the summer of 2013.

At the time, he was forced to come out publicly, making him one of Afghanistan's first openly gay activists.

After that, Sadat began to receive letters from LGBTQ people in Afghanistan. This way he discovered that even though the local LGBTQ community was repressed, it still played a key role in driving social progress on various fronts.

Low-key LGBTQ scene in Kabul

Over the past two decades, Afghanistan made some progress in accepting LGBTQ people, say rights activists. They managed to enter professions in mass media, helped produce talk shows and arranged youth education programs dedicated to sensitive topics, among other things.

"People say Afghanistan didn't change, but I disagree with that," Sadat said. "These LGBTQ people have put efforts into changing Afghan society."

For Faraz, the previous Afghan government was oppressive toward the LGBTQ community, but if they were caught by the police, they were at best jailed or fined. This resulted in creating some space for a low-key LGBTQ scene in Kabul.

"There are still some places for gay men to meet in the city, and I also use dating apps to meet people," Faraz told DW.

But he says he is wary of using those apps now, because he's afraid that the Taliban will use different tricks to lure gay men in. He pointed to instances when the Taliban had approached gay people through social media by posing as journalists.

Isolated and depressed at home

Faraz also said that many gay people have now turned off their cell phone location, fearing that the Taliban could track them through their mobile phones. LGBTQ people have also stopped meeting others who know about their sexual identity.

"I don't have much connection with others. I don't have people to complain with," Faraz said.

Rabia, the lesbian woman, has left her house only twice in the past three weeks: one time to the airport and the other time to the bank to withdraw money.

She's afraid of running into members of the Taliban on the street. She's also scared that if they learn about her sexual identity, they'll come after her.

"It's so boring at home. I tried to read some books so that I don't feel depressed," Rabia said.

AFGHANI LGBTQ  DREAM

North Carolina is child bride destination; bill could end it

THERE ARE 13 STATES WHERE CHILD MARRIAGE IS LEGAL!

Gary D. Robertson
The Associated Press

Stafft

Published Sunday, August 15, 2021 


Judy Wiegand speaks during a House Judiciary Committee meeting in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Wiegand, who was married when she was 13, was speaking in favor of Senate Bill 35, which would raise the minimum age to be married to 16. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Known for its coastlines, mountains and the state that was "first in flight," North Carolina has also developed a more dubious reputation recently: as a regional destination for adults who want to marry children.

State lawmakers are nearing passage of a bill that could dampen the state's appeal as the go-to place to bring child brides -- but would still leave it short of a national push to increase the age to 18. The proposed legislation would raise the minimum marriage age from 14 to 16 and limit the age difference between a 16-year-old and their spouse to four years.

"We will have moved the needle and made North Carolina no longer at the very bottom of the barrel of states," said Drew Reisinger, the register of deeds in Buncombe County. But, he said, "we're still going to be putting a lot of children in harm's way."

Reisinger said the county, which includes the popular tourist city of Asheville, is a destination for many adults and child brides from nearby states such as Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee -- all of which have raised the minimum marriage age in recent years.

Two-thirds of the marriage applications in Buncombe County last year that involved at least one person under 18 originated from people who lived outside of North Carolina, Reisinger said, noting that a 49-year-old man and 17-year-old girl recently came from Kentucky seeking a license.

"North Carolina is one of the friendliest states in the South to give them safe haven," he remarked.

The state is currently one of 13 that allow children under 16 to wed, according to Unchained at Last, a nonprofit organization that advocates ending child and forced marriages in the U.S. Nine of those states have no set minimum age, the group says, relying instead on case law or a judge's ruling.

Under current North Carolina law, children as young as 14 can get married if they become pregnant and if a judge allows it. Otherwise, children can wed as young as 16 with parental permission. Alaska is the only other state whose law expressly allows marriages as young as 14.

A study by the International Center for Research on Women, a research institute and rights group for women and children, estimates that nearly 8,800 minors were listed on marriage licenses in North Carolina from 2000-2015 -- placing the state among the top five with child marriages during that period. The group said that 93% of the marriage applications it reviewed for the years 2000-2019 involved a marriage between a minor and an adult.

"It disrupts the notion that if child marriage happens, it is the Romeo-and-Juliet scenario of two 17-year-olds who just can't wait to love each other," said Lyric Thompson, one of the study's co-authors.

But change has been slow in North Carolina, where some lawmakers still remain convinced that certain marriages involving a child are still acceptable.

"It's a generational divide," said Sen. Vickie Sawyer, a Davidson County Republican. "It was older members -- both Democrat and Republicans -- that had those personal stories of family members who had been married and it turned out OK."

Sawyer sponsored a bill that would have raised the age to 18. Instead, a compromise measure that won unanimous support from the Senate in May and the House this week would raise the minimum marriage age to 16 with no exceptions, including pregnancy. And even those 16 or 17 would need parental permission or a judge's decision that the marriage would "serve the best interest of an underage party."

Rep. Kristin Baker of Cabarrus County, who helped shepherd the bill through the House, explained that "as a conservative Christian, I am a strong supporter of the sacrament of marriage."

"As a child psychiatrist, I am determined to protect our vulnerable youth, enhancing their chances for healthy, happy futures," she said. "I believe this bill works to achieve those ends."

The bill's proposed maximum age gap of four years partially mimics statutory rape laws that make it a serious felony for a minor to have sexual intercourse with someone who is significantly older. The legislation needs one more Senate vote before heading to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk, probably this week, where it's likely to be signed into law.

Unchained at Last and the International Center for Research on Women are among groups pushing states to raise the marriage age to 18, with no exceptions. Six states have reached that standard -- most recently New York last month.

The groups have enlisted the help of former child brides including Judy Wiegand of Kentucky, who appeared before a North Carolina House committee in June to encourage legislators to change the law.

"It is the responsibility of the government to protect all of the children," Wiegand told lawmakers. Wiegand was 13 when she and an older teenage boy -- the father of her baby -- married in the 1970s. She said that until she became an adult, the law left her largely unprotected against an abusive spouse.

Lobbyists working on changing the law say former child brides in North Carolina whom they have contacted remain too traumatized by their experiences to speak before legislators publicly. Women like Wiegand have filled in instead: "I'm speaking in favor of the bill because I feel nobody did it for me," she said.


Another woman willing to speak out is Jean Fields, who in 1965, at age 15, married a man in his 20s. Fields had three children by the time she was 21. She eventually got divorced after what she said was years of her husband's verbal abuse and belittlement.

Fields, now 72, goes by another married name but doesn't want to disclose it to spare her extended family any anguish. In a phone interview, she said that after leaving her marriage, she raised her children, returned to school and has since owned two businesses. Despite her ultimate success, however, she discourages others from marrying young.

"I regret I never had the opportunity to be a teenager," she said.

Afghanistan's first buzkashi league gets roaring reception

DRAGGING A GOAT CARCASS AROUND, IN THE LAND OF BOY BRIDES AND DOG FIGHTS

AFP / WAKIL KOHSARHorsemen compete during Afghanistan's first buzkashi league, in Kabul on March 12

The fear of terror attacks or coronavirus did little to deter thousands from packing a Kabul stadium Thursday to watch horsemen play polo with a headless goat carcass in Afghanistan's first buzkashi league.

The standing-room-only crowd cheered, hooted and whistled as riders dressed in bright uniforms raced across the muddy field, each man trying to ensure that his team had custody of the 50-kilogramme carcass.

Buzkashi, which means "dragging the goat" in Persian, involves grabbing the carcass, galloping across the field and dropping it into a "circle of justice", drawn in chalk and located at either end of the ground.

"I am here to support my team," said government employee Shafiq Rahman, whose home province of Badakhshan in the northeast was facing off against central Bamiyan province on Thursday -- two of the 14 teams playing in the league.

AFP / WAKIL KOHSAROrganisers say they want to make the week-long buzkashi league an annual affair, with plans to stage it in different cities each year

"My parents told me not to go because of security concerns but I have a passion for this sport," the 25-year-old told AFP.

"You only live once, you have to enjoy your life," he added.

As hawkers jostled for attention, carrying baskets piled with boiled eggs, samosas, pastries and pomegranate seeds, spectators jeered and laughed when an unfortunate rider fell off his horse, before clambering back on.

Haji Jawad Noori, a chapandaz -- as buzkashi players are known -- with the Kabul team, told AFP the sport was "very difficult".

"You have to be very fast and flexible. The carcass is also very heavy," the 28-year-old said.

AFP / WAKIL KOHSARThe Taliban banned buzkashi during its five years in power

Noori, whose family has been in the game for several generations, said the league, which kicked off on Wednesday, represented a landmark moment for buzkashi.

"It's never been played on such a scale. I am very excited to see so many people here," he added.

- Security fears -

Organisers say they want to make the week-long league an annual affair, with plans to stage it in different cities each year.

AFP / WAKIL KOHSARBuzkashi, which means "dragging the goat" in Persian, involves grabbing the carcass, galloping across the field and dropping it into a "circle of justice"

"We want to promote buzkashi. It's our national sport and we want to make it a globally recognised sport," said Ghani Modaqiq, deputy director of state-run RTA channel which has a five-year contract to broadcast the matches live.

Like much else in Afghanistan, the league's success will depend on the security situation -- the Taliban has attacked sporting events in the past and had banned buzkashi during its five years in power.

With the insurgents now poised for a potential comeback, and foreign forces leaving Afghanistan, many are nervous about what that means for the country.

Jawad Taraki's family fled to Kabul from eastern Nangarhar province -- a former stronghold of the Islamic State Group -- in 2018 after his uncle was killed by the jihadists.

"They committed so many atrocities... caused so much suffering", the 25-year-old told AFP.

But on this frigid Thursday afternoon, as he watched the horses complete a lap of the ground, with snow-flecked mountains looming in the distance and traditional Afghan music playing, those painful memories were far from his mind.

"It's my first time watching buzkashi live... I feel very relaxed being here", he said.

"For a few minutes I could forget about everything else," he told AFP.

"I have been here since morning and I think I will attend matches on the other days as well," he said.

BEFORE THE GOAT CARCASS THEY USED ......

LibriVox recording of The Man Who Would Be King, by Rudyard Kipling.

Read by Philippa. https://archive.org/details/man_wwb_king_0810_librivox

The Man Who Would Be King tells the story of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. It was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the "white Raja" of Sarawak in Borneo, and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who claimed the title Prince of Ghor.

The story was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Tales (Volume Five of the Indian Railway Library, published by A H Wheeler & Co of Allahabad in 1888). It also appeared in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories in 1895, and in numerous later editions of that collection.It is the basis for John Huston’s 1975 film of the same name, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as the "kings", and Christopher Plummer as Kipling. (Summary from Wikipedia adapted by Philippa)

For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats or languages (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.

For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org.

BBC RADIO DRAMA https://archive.org/details/ManWhoWouldBeKingThe

https://archive.org/details/acn3561.0001.001.umich.edu/page/3/mode/2up