A 20-year-old Afghan man says he has been sexually abused dozens of times since he was a teenager, despite the Taliban’s official prohibition of bacha bazi, the exploitation and rape of young boys. Mustafa, who was 14 when he says he was first attacked, described to the Daily Mail how he was lured to a garden by friends before seven men restrained him.
"My friends told me to come to a garden where we would eat fruit and drink nice juices," he said. "When I arrived seven men were waiting. I tried to resist. I shouted and screamed but they tied my hands and legs. Then they used the knife on me and everything went black. I don’t remember anything else until I woke up hours later in the desert. That was the first time."
Mustafa said the abuse continued after the initial attack. He told reporters that men would sometimes offer him about 3,000 Afghanis to dance at gatherings, but he would then be raped. "When payment time comes, they tell me that they will pay me, but I have to do something else." He said that on other occasions, men would force him into vehicles and take him to villas or gardens, where he would be held for several hours. "They don’t say where we are going and they cover my eyes [so I] don’t know where exactly I am," he said.
Mustafa estimates he has been subjected to bacha bazi approximately 70 or 80 times. He said four or five friends experienced similar abuse, with a local NGO eventually helping them reach safety in Pakistan.
Bacha bazi involves boys being made to dress in feminine clothing and dance for adult men, with victims also subjected to sexual abuse, coercion and trafficking. The practice was criminalized by the Afghan government in 2017, with tougher penalties for officials and security personnel. The Taliban officially prohibit the practice, but a 2023 US State Department report described a “pattern of sexual slavery by the Taliban” and said reported bacha bazi incidents had increased.
Taliban authorities reported zero trafficking investigations, prosecutions or convictions in 2024, according to the source material, making the current scale of the practice difficult to establish. Zahra Joya, editor in chief of Rukhshana Media, said victims face severe stigma.
"It’s a horrific practice: to be forced to dance and to be abused by these men" she said. "And the victims suffer twice. In Afghan culture it is a horrible stigma to be used like this." Mustafa said he does not believe reporting the abuse to Taliban authorities would protect him.
"In the eyes of the Taliban, we are more guilty than the people who do this. They would ask me why I went to the parties," he said. "If bacha bazi boys report these crimes to the government, they kill us."
"My friends told me to come to a garden where we would eat fruit and drink nice juices," he said. "When I arrived seven men were waiting. I tried to resist. I shouted and screamed but they tied my hands and legs. Then they used the knife on me and everything went black. I don’t remember anything else until I woke up hours later in the desert. That was the first time."
Mustafa said the abuse continued after the initial attack. He told reporters that men would sometimes offer him about 3,000 Afghanis to dance at gatherings, but he would then be raped. "When payment time comes, they tell me that they will pay me, but I have to do something else." He said that on other occasions, men would force him into vehicles and take him to villas or gardens, where he would be held for several hours. "They don’t say where we are going and they cover my eyes [so I] don’t know where exactly I am," he said.
Mustafa estimates he has been subjected to bacha bazi approximately 70 or 80 times. He said four or five friends experienced similar abuse, with a local NGO eventually helping them reach safety in Pakistan.
Bacha bazi involves boys being made to dress in feminine clothing and dance for adult men, with victims also subjected to sexual abuse, coercion and trafficking. The practice was criminalized by the Afghan government in 2017, with tougher penalties for officials and security personnel. The Taliban officially prohibit the practice, but a 2023 US State Department report described a “pattern of sexual slavery by the Taliban” and said reported bacha bazi incidents had increased.
Taliban authorities reported zero trafficking investigations, prosecutions or convictions in 2024, according to the source material, making the current scale of the practice difficult to establish. Zahra Joya, editor in chief of Rukhshana Media, said victims face severe stigma.
"It’s a horrific practice: to be forced to dance and to be abused by these men" she said. "And the victims suffer twice. In Afghan culture it is a horrible stigma to be used like this." Mustafa said he does not believe reporting the abuse to Taliban authorities would protect him.
"In the eyes of the Taliban, we are more guilty than the people who do this. They would ask me why I went to the parties," he said. "If bacha bazi boys report these crimes to the government, they kill us."
