He never traded me around with his friends as some did."Įven the man's wife eventually accepted the arrangement, lavishing attention on Kamal and treating him as a member of the family. Kamal is reluctant to talk about the sexual component of his relationship to his bacha baz. "I wasn't the most beautiful of the boys, but I had one thing most of them didn't have.I had talent."
Kamal remembers attending parties where other boys were on proud display, their masters vying to see who had the most attractive boy. He told people I was his adopted son."īacha bazi flourished in the years leading up to the rise of the Taliban, particularly among warlords and mujahideen fighters. "I was his little prince," Kamal recalled. It would be more than a decade before he saw his family again. When Kamal's mother and siblings fled to Pakistan, his master (or bacha baz) agreed to take care of the youth.
The Soviets had withdrawn from the country and a bloody civil war was under way. "He was someone I knew and trusted," Kamal says of the man he once called master.
He had never heard of bacha bazi, the practice of wealthy or powerful men conscripting adolescent boys into sexual slavery. When he was 14 his father died and his mother placed him in the care of a family friend. Then they began clapping with the music as the middle-aged dancer spun around them in a blur of light and color. He was no dancing boy, but a man of about 40, his face starkly made up, his blue dress covered with tiny bells and sequins.įor a moment the baffled partygoers only stared. At around midnight the host threw back a curtain and a dancer leapt through the doorway. Jokes went around about the reception a delicate youth like the Chinoise could look forward to in a Kabul jail.īut a last-minute substitute was found. Then someone's phone rang: The boy had been arrested by Afghan police while dancing at a wedding. He was the jealously guarded "property" of a wealthy Kabul businessman who had promised to bring him around later in the evening. Many had seen him dance at other parties. The 16-year-old Hazara youth was known as "the Chinoise" for his striking oriental features. Some were drinking while others were smoking hashish in open windows, looking down into the street of the middle-class Kabul district of Karte-Char as they anticipated the boy's arrival. The girl forwarded the two videos to the others in her group.The 20-odd men who had come to the party were expecting a dancing boy, or bacha bereesh. The group laughed at the victim and later returned his clothes. The victim managed to break their hold and hid near a bush where it was dark.Ī second video capturing the victim’s shirt being removed was recorded by the accused's 16-year-old friend. While the victim’s lower torso was naked, the group again restrained him and removed his shirt. The girl began recording a video using her handphone. The group hung the victim’s pants on a sheltered walkway and hid his underwear in the bushes, ignoring his plea for them to stop. The other 16-year-old friend undid the victim’s belt and pulled down his pants and underwear. The 16-year-old boy then held the victim’s arms while the 20-year-old pinned his legs. He shouted, “faster come and pull his pants”. The 16-year-old accused then came up with the idea to pull down the victim’s pants, and his two male friends agreed to join in.Īt about 12.45am the next day, the 20-year-old man restrained the victim, pulling him to the ground. The court documents did not state if the victim was acquainted with anyone in the group. The victim, who passed by the pit on his e-scooter, approached the group to say hello. On 3 March last year, at about 11pm, the trio, a 14-year-old girl, and a male known as “Ninja”, were celebrating one of their birthdays at a barbecue pit in Yishun. None of the parties can be named to protect the identity of the victim. The 16-year-old accused pleaded guilty to a charge of molest on Tuesday (23 November) and a probation suitability report was called for him. The trio then recorded two videos, one of which was circulated on social media. They then hid his underwear and hung his pants along a walkway. The 16-year-old Singaporean boy restrained the victim, also 16, with two male friends, 20 and 16, while one of them undid the victim's belt and pulled down his pants. SINGAPORE - A teenager hatched a plan to pull down another boy’s pants and got his friends to join in the bullying.