by Rachel Johnson

Created on: September 06, 2010

It is a shocking event to learn that in parts of Afghanistan there is an industry that is made of child exploitation. As the world becomes a market for vast exchange in ideas, and culture practices are exposed we learn more about the world around us. In a culture where women are so vastly separated from men and tradition forbids socialization between women and men it is mind boggling to learn that one practice goes unhindered.

In the southern parts of Afghanistan there are places where no male child is safe from the practice of pedophilia. Since men are not able to approach women and sex between men and women who are not married is forbidden, men seek comfort in the only place that they have available. One has to ask the question, what depths of desperation brought on such a horrific act, and why does it continue to be perpetuated.

Local laws that forbid social interaction between men and women and homosexuality do not include ones covering "non-homosexual" behaviour. Since boys are not men, and the men abusing the boys are not in love with them it is not considered homosexual behaviour. So in the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan there are places that specialize in the sex industry specifically aimed at abusing little boys for the pleasure of grown men. Men who don't feel as drawn to normal intimate behaviour between them and their wives practice this abuse freely. That is largely due to the perspective that women are unclean and that they can not be touched during certain times. Women are for procreation and not recreation. So even a man approaching his wife has to take caution to only derive from his sexual encounters with her what the law allows. Marriage, however, comes long after overexposure to sexual abuse.

This form of abuse is perpetuated generation after generation. Every day  another young boy is exposed to this abuse. More often lighter skinned boys and ones considered more attractive to adult males are prime targets. It is hard to define the mentality of the abusers or the abused, because of the nature of the acts, and the social standing that it holds. It is likely that not one boy survives to adulthood unscathed by this abuse since it is widespread, and most unfortunately, common practice. So abused children grow to be abusers.

Young boys are often dressed as girls and painted with makeup to make them look more attractive to the predators looking to impose this form of sexual abuse on them. They are taught to behave like girls even

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