Situational homosexuality, child-abuse, cross-dressing and dancing: what is the Bacha-Bazi phenomenon?
Bacha-Bazi literally translates as 'boy play' in Urdu and is a Central Asian cultural tradition, where prepubescent boys or bacha bereesh ('boys without beards') - the preferred age is 14 - are 'bought' from poor families by rich, powerful patrons to be trained to sing, dance and play musical instruments. The boys are then dressed in female clothing, wear bells on their ankles and wrists, and dance at weddings (remember, weddings are always segregated) and other all-male gatherings, and are regarded as status symbols with the prettiest being the most valued. The boys may or may not – opinion varies on this - have sex with their owners and / or their owner's friends. In return for this they are fed, clothed and given a monthly allowance. Many are showered with gifts.
This relationship can stretch from as young as 11 to 18, or whenever the boy 'matures', at which point he ceases to be of interest. After this, he's either left to his own devices or his owner may continue to look after him, arrange his marriage or set him up in a business.
It's being going on for centuries throughout Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakstan, Afghanistan, Turkistan – almost any of the -stan countries where gender-segregation is practised). Strangely, although bazi bacha is an Urdu phrases, there seems litle evidence of the practice in Pakistan itself. Of course, Pakistan only came into existence officially as a country fairly recently, at the partition of India, so we're talking about a cultural rather than an ethnic or religious phenomenon. Like, the photo below is from Samarkand in the early 20th century – now in Uzbekistan, but formerly ruled by everyone from Persians to Turks.
During Russia's rule of these countries, the practice was suppressed but continued regardless. Along with kite-flying, the Taliban outlawed bacha-bazi in Afghanistan as unIslamic but since the fall of the Taliban it is experiencing a revival.
The boys have always been a source of prestige and pride. Now money's playing more of a part, with a thriving and highly lucrative DVD industry stemming from footage shot at bacha bazi parties. Like this, only presumably better quality.
Some of the boys run away. Some are beaten. Some just disappear: there's a particularly disturbing story in Jamie Doran's excellent documentary on the subject. But many stay and learn to love - and are in return loved by - their owners.
"I very much enjoy hugging a boy. His smell and fragrance kills me," says said Mohammad Yawar, a former mujahideen fighter against the Taliban and resident of the northern Afghan town of Pul-e Khumri.
---The 38-year-old businessman claims he recruited a 15-year-old boy three years ago to help him with his work.
---"I have had him for at least three years, since he was only 15. He was looking for a job and I gave him somewhere to stay," says Yawar, showing the boy's picture.
---"I don't have a wife. He is like my wife. I dress him in women's clothes and have him sleep beside me. I enjoy him and he is my everything," he said, kissing the photograph.
In Afghan culture with its strict segregation of the genders, men have always danced. With its emphasis on keeping women and girls pure for marriage, these bacha bazi relationships could be viewed as an example of situational homosexuality, like what happens in prisons. Individuals like Mr Yawar above seem the exception to the rule: the majority of patrons are married, with many of the wives well aware their husbands keep a boy. For me, bacha bazi has a lot in common with the mentoring male / male relationships of Classical Greece. And a lot of us still haven't got our heads round what was going on there.
Understandably, Human Rights organisations and the Afghani authorities - keen to keep the Western Aid coming - are extremely unhappy about bacha bazi, but the practice is proving increasingly difficult to stamp out. Maybe because, right now, there are too many advantages on both sides of the bacha bazi relationship?
It's easy to be appalled by what is, basically, child-slavery. It's equally easy to be a woolly liberal and wax lyrical about respecting other people's traditions. After all, nothing's more enslaving than grinding poverty – something most of these boys escape, at least for a few years – or an early death: in Afghanistan, life expectancy currently stands at 44.
But I find it impossible to judge the guys who practice bacha bazi and I'm fascinated by the boys themselves. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get any of them to talk since they're rarely without their owner by their sides.
But 'The Guardian' here in the UK did a good piece on bacha bazi last year.
You can also watch Jamie Doran's excellent documentary on the subject online (US citizens only, I'm afraid)
To end with, here's a selection of bacha bereesh and their audiences. Apologies for the quality, a lot of the footage is shot on mobile phones.
Bacha bazi's not confined to Central Asia: here's a clip from Saudi Arabia.
False breasts seem to be optional.
Some of the boys are really young.
Some are older and also sing.
Some are really good dancers.
----
*
p.s. Hey. This fascinating post by the terrific writer and longstanding distinguished local Jax was actually his birthday gift to the blog re: the big 5th anniversary celebration of a week and a half ago, so consider it a late breaking surprise package. Obviously, it's a thought provoking thing, so please lend it some of your thinking process today, and pass along your mental machinations to your guest-host, thank you. And big thanks to the great Jax. Speaking of him, I'll just throw in the happy news that a radio script written by Jax has just been shortlisted for this year's Nick Darke Award, which is of course really awesome, and please join me in crossing your fingers that he snags that baby. Oh, in my rush yesterday, I forgot to alert you Kathy Acker fans and curious that if you haven't found and visited Kathy. Ack., it's pretty amusing and worth a look. Almost lastly for now, I'll note that on this coming Saturday, the blog will be holding its 7th writers workshop featuring a short fiction piece by the writer and d.l. Joseph (Goosey), so please plan on giving a little time this weekend to reading and commenting on his work. Thanks a lot. Lastly, it's nice to be back in Paris, and less nice to be facing the usual Wednesday Recollets cleaning crew exile situation as the p.s. and I forge ahead with just a bit of haste. ** First, let me talk to Slatted Light since my scrambling yesterday killed my timely chance. So, Slatted Light, Sorry about yesterday. The Elfride Jelinek quote is quite interesting, of course, and I guess I semi-agree or something. I'm too interested in the dilemma of how to precisely unearth and represent emotion in the context of our pieces to be very into her clothes in a fashion show comparison. That rubbed me the wrong way. But, yeah. It's interesting because the criticism I mentioned getting yesterday would seem on the surface to have come from someone who shared Jelinek's position on theater, and perhaps it did. The woman's attack on my texts was framed as an attack on my attempt to ruin the imagery and abstractness of the piece with my verbal squibs that intend to pierce the work's dream with emotional confusion and horror and fragments of a skeletal narrative. To me, that disruption and the inherent failure of the attempt are important, a twisting off -- or rather twisting not quite off -- of the safety valve that has made imagery-heavy avant-garde theater so easily readable and gentle years after its practice has become acceptable and created hard expectations. Jenilek seems to be speaking against realist theater, reiterating the great argument and position that made artists like Robert Wilson so significant. In the work I'm doing with Gisele, that argument is sort of disgested and old hat. I guess I see myself as trying to finesse the representation of psychological realism in a context that might err on the side of depersonalization and generalizing, to make its 'replusiveness' useful in a specific way. Does that make any sense? ** Bill, I only wish Steim would have existed back when I lived in Amsterdam. The closest, and it was more oriented toward theater than music, was the late, great Mickery where you would see, oh, early Branca and other experimental musical acts mixed in with the vital era Wooster Group, Mabou Mines, and Dutch and European performance groups. Anyway, it seems heavenly. Very interested to hear how everything goes. ** David Ehrenstein, Damn, she really does have a lot of explaining to do. More like apologizing and then going far away. ** David, Yeah, between Franz Ferdinand and a certain anally invasive procedure that sprang to my mind and that I think you might have been referencing, those were quite the initials. I didn't quite decode your Flit goss, but I got the gist that he's doing okay, yes? That link to Nick's and Shane's blog lead to a general milkboys page on which there was no mention of it. Has it suddenly vanished, or was the link faulty? The Collier Schorr link didn't lead anywhere either. Weirdness. ** Nerstes, Hey, man! Great to see you! Yep, I'm back in Paris, and its temperature has very kindly dropped fifteen degrees to welcome me. I don't like hot skies much. How are you? What's up? Are you writing? Are you feeling any better about your writing, I hope? ** Kier, I need coffee too. I had my usual amount, but it didn't work so well. Can coffee become decaffeinated from sitting in a sun-drenched backpack for four and a half hours? ** STOPHEREYES, Thanks a lot. Happy to help the great Kathy Acker please you. ** Abigail Winthrope (Mrs), That song is not quite as awful as Cyndi Lauper's semi-similarly titled and sort of concurrent 'Time After Time', I'll give it that. ** Paul Curran, So true, so true. Thanks, Paul. ** Bollo, Hey. No, I don't know the precise venue. Something smallish since it's supposed to play to a quite small audience in the ideal situation. Gallery/ museum/ white walled-type spaces are the goal, but we aren't often granted them. The Mego haul: the new Oneohtrix Point Never, new Cindytalk/ Robert Hampsom 10", Pita 'Mesmer' tape, a couple of Tujiko Noriko things I didn't have (she sings the song I co-wrote with Stephen O' in the theater piece), the new edition of Fennesz' 'Endless Summer'. And Stephen gave me an early Xasthur album I don't have, 'Gateway Through Bloodstained Mirrors', that was originally on Southern Lord. No, I don't know Andrew Coltrane's stuff, I don't think. Oh, he runs Hermitage Tapes. Interesting, Okay, I'll seek out some stuff. So many ways to go Acker-wise. Hard to pick. My favorite of late is 'Great Expectations'. ** Chilly Jay Chill, I wouldn't say 'Memphis Underground' fell short, I liked it a lot. I just meant it wasn't one of my absolute top faves of Stewart's. They would probably be, mm, 'Slow Death', 'Come Before Christ and Murder Love', and '69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess', I guess. But Stewart hasn't written anything that I don't like a ton. Gisele gets back to Paris today, and I'm sure she'll call me in the next day or so to fill me in. Basically, I think your read on the woman's position/ problem is on the money. It's up to Gisele though, ultimately, so I await her thoughts. ** Sypha, Hey. ** Heliotrope, Hey, Mark! That whole Floyd Landis thing is the big cycling news over here at the moment. There too, I'd guess? I wish the new Massive Attack album wasn't so very blah. Am I wrong? Things are okay with me. The theater stuff is consuming, stressful, nerve wracking, but that's to be expected. I don't know the documentary 'Rash' at all. Hm. I'll see if some wag uploaded it onto Youtube or somewhere. Love to you and J, man. ** Magick Mike, Harold Robbins was this total trashy pop fiction merchant, very big and successful in the 60s and 70s. Steamy, plotty junk, kind of camp fun at times now if you're into campy, dated trash. Most famous book was 'The Carpetbaggers'. I got caught shoplifting it as a kid. I'd heard it was sexy. It wasn't, even to a 12 year old or whatever I was. But I was kind of weird even back then. ** JW Veldhoen, Why did they ask if you're JW? What occasion? I'm on Facebook maybe 12 seconds a day or I wouldn't have asked you a question. ** Syreearmwellion, Interesting about how you started writing. I was kind of similar in a way. As a kid, I wrote parodies. Parodies of my schoolmates. Batman parody comic books. I edited and put out a comedy magazine called Flunker when I was 11. That was my thing: parodies. And then Rimbaud and Sade and all those guys came along and wrecked what could have been a very lucrative career. I could have been Lorne Michaels or George Carlin or someone, you never know. ** Christopher/Mark, 50 years since 'Breathless', Jesus, wow, scary, interesting. And Godard is still getting people all worked up and argumentative with his new film. Incredible. ** Casey McKinney, Vimeo's my favorite. It's very specific, though. Pretty good for art. If you're into looking at animation student projects, it's a windfall. And Vimeo lets you remove all the texts from the videos when you imbed them. Youtube videos are all uglified with their didactic titles. I wish Daily Motion was a little more popular with uploaders than it is. It's okay too. Ted Berrigan, sure. Yeah, that's an awesome comparison. Berrigan's sonnets are the shit. You can get his 'The Sonnets' pretty easily. And there's a decent 'Selected Poems' book, but I can't remember its title. Maybe 'So Going Around Cities' or something like that? Thanks, C. Love from me. ** Walter Helena, Hi, welcome, and thank you. You're doing a fine thing on your blog as well. Let me alert people. Everyone, Walter Helena has a blog where, once a month, he generously gives away a beautiful photographic print via a contest. Check it out and try your hand if you like. It's here. Thanks a lot, man. ** Justin, Hey. John Schatz? Oh, you mean Jonathan Schatz, our guy? Yeah, he's awesome and complicated and really talented in many respects. He makes very interesting experimental music and performances of his own too. I'll try to showcase some of his work here at some point. I like Gio Black Peter's stuff, but, type-wise, he's a little too extroverted or attention-starved or something to be my type, I think. ** Steevee, I'm guessing the Acker doc is the one I had the trailer imbed for yesterday? Unless there's another. I think I'm in that doc for a second, or so I hear. Haven't seen it yet. ** Little foal, Rice dream, mm, that sounds good. I think I'll snag me some today. Depending on how absent you need to be or how you define absence, the doped/absent thing isn't that difficult, I guess. It's not as easy as it is in fiction though, I guess. ** Joseph, No, I didn't read 'Reality Hunger'. There's some about Shields' stuff that stinks to me from a distance. Like Paul Auster, but moreso. I haven't felt much need to dig in. Blake Butler's recent thoughts on 'RH' on HTMLG only warded me further off. GBH, wow, Nice. Yeah, I want to hear about it. Good old GBH. ** Will Decker, Yeah, I'm pretty happy to be in Paris again. Haven't seen my pals yet, but later today, no doubt. Well, there's a biography of Tony Duvert that was just published here in France. 'L'enfant silencieux' by Gilles Sebhan, published by this press Denoel. My French is too shitty to even try to read it, but someone sent me a copy. There's a publication party for it next week, and I might go. Otherwise, all I know that's happening in English is a Duvert novel that one of the blog's d.l.s, Dorna, is in the early stages of translating. ** Alan, Yeah, good Acker piece, isn't it? It might be her most behind-the-scenes piece too, I think. ** Misanthrope, If an Acker-like writer appropriated my work as a strategic move in an obvious way, I wouldn't mind at all. If some crappy writer stole something of mine without admitting to the borrowing and got a bunch of success and praise for having written it, I can't imagine I would be to happy about it. Aren't flip-flops sandals? Like really cheap sandals? I was just guessing they were. But maybe that's like saying seitan is meat. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Not caring probably isn't as easy as it seems. I suspect not caring comes with its own special kind of self-torture. The ruined chateau looked better than ever. I'd never been there when it wasn't wintery. Dude, the flowers alone, whoo. Yeah, I didn't like that curator at all. I hope Gisele didn't either. Maybe you can get to be like me and have nothing but nightmares but never remember them. I wish I knew why I don't remember my dreams. If I did know, maybe I could write a self-help book about it and get rich. Bendy's California, nice. Nice title or whatever. Maybe he's right. I bet the word I say too much is 'great'. I use it as 'yes' a lot in addition to using it as a praise thing. You have to watch 'Rubber' and tell me about it if I don't come across it. That just sounds too, too good. My day: Well, I spent most of it on a train reading magazines and jumping out to smoke cigarettes when I could and watching France zoom by. I read the new issue of The Wire and the latest Vanity Fair, which was pretty bad even by its standards, with bleah articles on the real life of the girl who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter movies and another take down of Tiger Woods and other not so interesting things. The only remotely interesting thing was first when I was walking to the train station in Brest, this guy was walking behind me, and then I got on the train, and I saw he was sitting in my train car, and then when I got on the metro in Paris, he was in my metro car, and then he not only got off at the same stop I did, he also walked to the Recollets before finally proceeding somewhere else. That was weird, but I'm pretty sure it was just a crazy coincidence. I unpacked, I bought some food, I felt tired, I ate, Yury came home from work, we reunited and all that, and I went to sleep. Not much of a day even though I covered a lot of ground. Hm. Wednesday? ** Chris, Very glad you're very happy. Did you record the gig sonically or via videocam or anything? ** Frank Jaffe, Hey, lovebird. Gay food, ha ha. I wonder what the cows would think about that if there was a cow heaven that had a really powerful telescope. I bet they'd think it was cool. I bet they'd high-five each other with their hooves or whatever. I've only read, mm, I think two Stephen King books, believe it or not. I think he has great ideas, but I can't take his writing very much. I guess I'm kind of a prose snob. So I usually just wait and watch the movies based on his books. Do you have a favorite SK book that you can recommend? I'd be into trying him again. Thanks for the image. I'll go look for it. Cool. Have a marvelous day, Frank! ** Lasersec India Pvt. Ltd., Wow, spam that's actually kind of interesting. Who'd have thunk. Still, don't try that again. ** L@rstonovich, Nice about your trip. You travel a fair amount, or it seems like you do. Odd and, you know, cool about your friend's wife liking my stuff. What are the odds of that? Glad you're home. I just got home too. Hey from one homey to another. ** Killer Luka, You were in New Orleans? Nice. And about the Anne Rice doll museum thing. I'll tell Gisele about that. I don't know if she knows that exists. She might. Maybe a Smokey the Bear hologram is what the piece needs. It's sorely lacking in humor. It's a dreamy downer of a piece, for better or worse. Gosh, really, about 'Sebastiane'? Maybe I should try it again too. I only saw it once a long time ago, and I thought it was completely awful. It's the one Derek Jarman film I can find no use for whatsoever. I basically mostly like his later stuff the best. 'Last of England' especially. Welcome back, pal. ** Math, Hey, buddy. Yeah, I don't about that curator. Maybe she's an genius or something. I'm just going to twiddle my thumbs a bit anxiously until Gisele tells me her verdict. That story is crazy. You're awfully nice to have lent that guy your computer. I think I would have bolted. Great story, though. It was worth it. You were right. Wow. Oh, ha ha, I clicked over to the image, which is awesome by the way, and there's Charles Guislain again! Between you and me and whoever else, we're going to make that boy as famous he's trying so hard to be. I think I told you he gets eaten in my novel. He's the novel's only celebrity meal. Okey-doke, Math, take care. So, are you managing to enjoy SF? When do you go to LA? Will you be working while you're there too? ** All right. I managed to beat the cleaning crew with flying colors today. Hooray for me. I'm curious to see what Jax's terrific post inspires, and I'll be glad to see you all again tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment