Bacha bazi

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Bacha bāzī ^[1] (/ˈbɑːtʃɑːbɑːˈzi/, Pashto and Dari: بچه بازی, lit. 'boy play') refers to a pederasty practice in Afghanistan in which men exploit and enslave adolescent boys for entertainment and/or sexual abuse.^[2][3][4][5] The man exploiting the young boy is called a bacha baz (literally "boy player").^[3] Typically, the bacha baz forces the bacha to dress in women's clothing and dance for entertainment.^[3][6] The practice is reported to continue into the present as of 2025.^[7][8][9]

Often, the boys come from an impoverished and vulnerable situation such as street children, mainly without relatives or abducted from their families.^[3][10][11] In some cases, families facing extreme poverty or starvation may feel compelled to sell their young sons to a bacha baz or allow them to be "adopted" in exchange for food or money. ^[3] Facing social stigma and sexual abuse, the young boys, who often despise their captors, struggle with psychological effects from the abuse^[12] and suffer from emotional trauma for life, including turning to drugs and alcohol.^[3]

Bacha bazi was outlawed during the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan period.^[13][14][15] Nevertheless, it was widely practiced. Force and coercion were common, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan stated they were unable to end such practices and that many of the men involved in bacha bazi were powerful and well-armed warlords.^[16][17][18] The laws were seldom enforced against powerful offenders, and police had reportedly been complicit in related crimes.^[19][20] While bacha bazi carried the death penalty,^[21] the boys were sometimes charged rather than the perpetrators.^[10] Bacha bazi carries the death penalty under Taliban law.^[21] Article 170 of the first General Penal Code of Afghanistan, which was adopted in 1921 and called for a fine and jail time for keeping bachas, was the first law on bacha bazi in the history of modern Afghanistan.^[22]