Still In Plain Sight: The Plight of Afghan Boys

How long does it take for someone to consider a widely known instance of systematic child rape to be a problem? Clearly it is not ten years because that is how long the West has known about the plight of Afghanistan’s boys.

I first wrote about the bacha bazi or dancing boys in 2007. Ten years later, there are still articles claiming that this situation is hidden. How could it possibly be hidden when I, a practical nobody who lives thousands of miles from Afghanistan, have read and heard about it every year for the past decade? “Hidden” is not the appropriate word. “Ignored” would be more accurate.

An article featured on the Hindustan Times covers the topic yet again, with much the same horrific details about the treatment of these boys by their community. From the article:

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At Wisconsin Juvenile Prisons, Children Face a Nightmare of Solitary Confinement and Abuse — At the Lincoln Hills School for Boys (LHS), a juvenile correctional facility in far northern Wisconsin, two entire buildings called the Krueger Unit and the Roosevelt Unit exist solely for the purpose of holding children in solitary confinement for 22 to 23 hours a day. Each unit holds two-dozen isolation cells, which measure seven by ten feet and contain only a metal sink, a toilet, a mattress, and an odor of sweat and urine.

Falsely Accused of Rape, Brian Banks Recounts How He Was Railroaded Into Prison by His White Lawyer — Former football standout Brian Banks reveals how an innocence kiss in a known makeout spot ruined his life for years and how his lawyer helped orchestrate it by telling him an all-white jury would convict him because “he was a big Black teenager.” When Banks was 16 years old, he went to the spot with a young woman he found attractive. He’d known her since middle school and one day, they decided to go to the secluded location.

Former teacher at top London private school jailed for sexually abusing boys and teenagers — Patrick Marshall, 70, was today convicted of the abuse of ten boys in the sixties and seventies while he was employed first at Windsor Grammar School and then at St Paul’s School in Barnes, south-west London. Marshall, a rowing coach and geography teacher, used his position to gain the trust of the boys’ families, before plying the youngsters with alcohol and presents and making them perform sexual acts.

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“Can’t Breathe From Guilt, Pain”: Teen Boy Shares Date Rape Story — “Was it because I got my hair coloured?” thought aloud the 19-year-old Delhi boy whose conversation with his California-based friend Arnav Barbaad, sharing his ordeal of being drugged and raped, recently went viral on Facebook. In a series of conversations with The Quint, Arnav relays selective details of the survivor’s plight, with his permission.

Child sex abuse link to male victims of domestic abuse — Michael Lynch, from Men’s Action Network (MAN) spoke at the La Dolce Vita Project’s Conference about men who were victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence locally. He said that MAN had a team of 18 counsellors seeing around 70 men every week, around 10 per cent of whom would have experienced sexual or domestic violence.

Court: OK to move teen into adult system to protect him — State prosecutors took the unusual step of acknowledging Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison is too dangerous for juveniles as they argued to move a teen into the adult system for his own protection, according to court documents released Wednesday. Racine County Circuit Judge John S. Jude agreed that the prison was too dangerous and waived the boy into the adult system last February. The 2nd District Court of Appeals affirmed Jude’s decision Wednesday.

Royal commission hears of abuse at juvenile detention center

Dylan Voller testified in December 2016 before the Northern Territory royal commission concerning the abuse he allegedly suffered while at the Don Dale detention center. I previously wrote about Voller’s situation, which came to light during the summer. Several videos taken from security cameras showed some of the abuse Voller experienced. However, it was footage showing Voller strapped to a restraint chair that broke the story.

The Australian government did its best to respond to the coverage, primarily by trying to minimize what was seen in the videos. As previously mentioned in those posts, there were prior reports of abuse at the Don Dale center and other juvenile facilities. The Northern Territory appears to have a higher rate of this abuse, particularly against Aboriginal youths.

The royal commission was held in an attempt to get a better insight into what the victims claim happened. Voller offered the following testimony:

Voller alleged guards charged detainees “rent” for staying at Don Dale, taking $1.5o a day from money the detainees had earned through good behaviour.

He also said he was forced to defecate into a pillowcase after guards at the Alice Springs juvenile facility refused to let him out of his cell to go to the toilet during the night. He said detainees would repeatedly be forced to urinate through the cell bars.

He was first strip-searched at about the age of 11 or 12, he said, and it would occur every time he was moved between facilities or in and out of isolation cells, or when he coming back from the bathroom because he had been throwing toilet paper at cameras to cover the screen.

Voller also alleged officers repeatedly stripped him of clothes and bedding for hours as a form of punishment, and denied him food and water.

One youth justice officer at Alice Springs noticed he was hungry in the middle of one night and threw muesli bars and fruit through to his cell, Voller said.

It did not stop there.

Boy dies after nine officers fail to prevent abuse

I continue to marvel at how bizarrely we treat child abuse.

On one hand, any person can report child abuse against someone else and cause the services to step in and remove the child, often without any evidence of abuse or neglect. The services will put both parent and child through a series of exams, court hearings, therapy sessions before allowing the child back with his parents. Throughout the process, evidence that there is little reason for child protective services to be involved will be ignored.

Such cases would imply that child protective services and police are overzealous due to concern over child abuse. On the other hand, something like this happens to remind people that is not always the case:

Gabriel Fernandez was an 8-year-old boy who was tortured to death by his parents. His abuse was reported multiple times by his teacher and others who witnessed his horrifying injuries. However, the system that is ostensibly in place to prevent such abuse ultimately failed. Not one, but nine police officers tasked with investigating Gabriel’s abuse, refused to write so much as a single report that could’ve saved his life.

Not one officer, but nine. How many times does one need to see an abused child before one thinks someone should stop the abuse?

The Reality of Child Trafficking Rings

Sargon of Akkad created a video about child sex trafficking rings. He did so in response to some readers insisting that he cover “Pizzagate”. Pizzagate is an internet conspiracy theory suggesting that Hillary Clinton and some of her aides operated a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizzeria. The accusation and wild reactions online led to an armed man taking it upon himself to investigate the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria.

The accusations about child rape appear to be false. There is no evidence showing that anyone involved with the pizzeria committed any sex offense, let alone that they run a child sex ring or that Clinton is involved in any way.

Sargon argues in his video that some people have responded to this lack of evidence by saying that this sort of child sex ring simply cannot happen. He lists a number of well-investigated examples showing that to be false.

Stop the Abuse: Hagar International

Often times people want to help others but do not know how. This cannot be any truer than when it comes to helping abused men and boys. The resources sometimes are not apparent and are often difficult to find. Sometimes the resources are hidden or even barred by other groups who wish to polarize the issue. The intent here is to provide those who wish to help male victims with the opportunity to do so.

Please remember that you do no have to empty your wallets to help. Even a small donation can go a long way. And for those on the other side of the issue, it would go a long way to demonstrating real concern for all victims if you donated as well.

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Hager International

Hagar restores to wholeness the lives of women and children in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam that have been torn apart by human rights abuse. Walking the whole journey of protection, recovery, empowerment and integration with each individual is the whole reason for Hagar.

Established in Cambodia in 1994, Hagar launched programing in both Afghanistan and Vietnam in 2009.

In 2004, the U.S. State Department named Hagar founder Pierre Tami as one of the its six international heroes in the struggle against the modern-day slave trade.

Because we believe that broken lives can become whole again.

Hagar’s name derives from the biblical story of Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21. Read the Hagar Biblical Story.

Currently, Hagar supports 1,200 women and child victims of trafficking, domestic violence and exploitation in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. They were among the world’s most broken and despondent people… but not now.

Please donate and help make a difference.