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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Kandahar comes out of the closet
FROM TIM REID IN KANDAHAR - The times
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 (£277). 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.”
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