Gość: Yidele
IP: *.warszawa.cvx.ppp.tpnet.pl
13.01.02, 15:59
SATURDAY JANUARY 12 2002
Kandahar comes out of the closet
FROM TIM REID IN KANDAHAR
Our correspondent sees the gay capital of South Asia throw off strictures of
the Taleban
NOW that Taleban rule is over in Mullah Omar’s former southern stronghold, it
is not only televisions, 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 arrived in
1994, the streets were filled with teenagers and their sugar daddies, flaunting
their relationship.
It is called the homosexual capital of south Asia. Such is the Pashtun
obsession with sodomy — locals tell you that birds fly over the city using only
one wing, the other covering their posterior — that the rape of young boys by
warlords was one of the key factors in Mullah Omar mobilising the Taleban.
In the summer of 1994, a few months before the Taleban took control of the
city, two commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both
wanted to sodomise.
In the ensuing fight civilians were killed. Omar’s group freed the boy and
appeals began flooding in for Omar to help in other disputes.
By November, Omar and his Taleban were Kandahar’s new rulers. Despite the
Taleban disdain for women, and the bizarre penchant of many for eyeliner, Omar
immediately suppressed homosexuality.
Men accused of sodomy faced the punishment of having a wall toppled on to them,
usually resulting in death. In February 1998 three men sentenced to death for
sodomy in Kandahar were taken to the base of a huge mud and brick wall, which
was pushed over by tank. Two of them died, but one managed to survive.
“In the days of the Mujahidin, there were men with their ashna everywhere, at
every corner, in shops, on the streets, in hotels: it was completely open, a
part of life,” said Torjan, 38, one of the soldiers loyal to Kandahar’s new
governor, Gul Agha Sherzai.
“But in the later Mujahidin years, more and more soldiers would take boys by
force, and keep them for as long as they wished. But when the Taleban came,
they were very strict about the ban. Of course, it still happened — the Taleban
could not enter every house — but one could not see it.”
But for the first time since the Taleban fled, in the past three days, one can
see the pairs returning: usually a heavily bearded man, seated next to, or
walking with, a clean-shaven, fresh faced youth. There appears to be no shame
or furtiveness about them, although when approached, they refuse to talk to a
western journalist.
“They are just emerging again,” Torjan said. “The fighters too now have the
boys in their barracks. This was brought to the attention of Gul Agha, who
ordered the boys to be expelled, but it continues. The boys live with the
fighters very openly. In a short time, and certainly within a year, it will be
like pre-Taleban: they will be everywhere.”
This Pashtun tradition is even reflected in Pashtun poetry, odes written to the
beauty and complexion of an ashna, but it is usually a terrible fate for the
boys concerned. It is practised at all levels of Pashtun society, but for the
poorer men, having an ashna can raise his status.
“When a man sees a boy he likes — the age they like is 15 or 16 — they will
approach him in the street and start talking to him, offering him tea,” said
Muhammad Shah, a shop owner. “Sometimes they go looking in the football
stadium, or in the cinema (which has yet to reopen).
“He then starts to give him presents, hashish, or a watch, a ring, or even a
motorbike. One of the most valued presents is a fighting pigeon, which can be
worth up to $400 (Ł277). These boys are nearly always innocent, but such is the
poverty here, they cannot refuse.”
Once the boy falls into the man’s clutches — nearly always men with a wife and
family — he is marked for life, although the Kandaharis accept these
relationships as part of their culture.
When driven around, ashna sit in the front passenger seat. The back seat is
simply for his friends. Even the parents of the boys know in their hearts the
nature of the relationship, but will tell people that their son is working for
the man. They, like everyone else, will know this is a lie. “They say birds
flew with both wings with the Taleban,” Muhammad said. “But not any more.”
