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US State Dept. called ownership of Afghan 'dancing boys' a 'culturally sanctioned form of male rape' The Afghanistan interior minister was so concerned about an incident where DynCorp, a US contractor charged with training Afghan police, bought drugs and paid for young "dancing boys" that he asked the US embassy to work to "quash" the story, a secret US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks indicates. In Afghan society, "dancing boys" are little boys dressed as girls, commonly abused and kept by some men as possessions.
"Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome and good-looking boy," a former mujahideen commander told Reuters in 2007. "Sometimes we gather and make our boys dance and whoever wins, his boy will be the best boy." Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun. Brinkley's sources say that one or two members of Karzai's family had taken boy lovers, but that was unconfirmed. According to the newly leaked cable, the then-Ministor of Interior Hanif Atmar worried that if the story became public then lives would be in danger. Atmar also warned that a video of the incident might be released by the media, "On the Kunduz Regional Training Center (RTC) DynCorp event of April 11 (reftel), Atmar reiterated his insistence that the U.S. try to quash any news article on the incident or circulation of a video connected with it," the cable said. "Atmar said he insisted the journalist be told that publication would endanger lives. His request was that the U.S. quash the article and release of the video," the cable continued. "Amb Mussomeli responded that going to the journalist would give her the sense that there is a more terrible story to report."
Atmar then disclosed the arrest of two Afghan National Police (ANP) and nine other Afghans (including RTC language assistants) as part of an MoI investigation into Afghan "facilitators" of the event. The crime he was pursuing was "purchasing a service from a child," which in Afghanistan is illegal under both Sharia law and the civil code, and against the ANP Code of Conduct for police officers who might be involved. He said he would use the civil code and that, in this case, the institution of the ANP will be protected, but he worried about the image of foreign mentors.
The Kite Runner is a 2007 film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is tormented by the guilt of abandoning his friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of Afghan refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.
Tracing Sohrab to an orphanage, they learn that a powerful Taliban official who regularly demands children for nefarious purposes (in return for much needed donations) has recently taken Sohrab. Reluctantly Amir accompanies Farid to a football match, witnessing a half time stoning of accused adulterers, in order to see this official. Amir arranges an appointment at the official's heavily guarded home and discovers that this is none other than the bully Assef. Despite the ban on music and dancing, a numbed Sohrab is presented as Assef's dance boy.