In the News: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan

December 5, 2010

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/story/2010/12/the-dancing-boys-of-afghanista.html

VIEW: An excerpt from FRONTLINE's undercover report last season, "The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan." The clip offers unique background on bacha bazi, an ancient practice in which young boys dressed in women's clothing are trained to dance and entertain men. It's widely acknowledged that the boys, sold by their families to wealthy merchants, warlords and military commanders, are often sexually exploited.

Wikileaks' November 2010 release of diplomatic documents includes a U.S. embassy cable detailing Kabul's concerns about a 2009 incident in which employees of the private contracting firm DynCorp bought drugs and hired dancing boys for the entertainment of Afghan police who were being trained by DynCorp in the province of Kunduz. (See the Guardian's report.)

The video is censored in the UK. Woopee!

But this is the reason the US government, in particular, doesn't like Wikileaks and why we all should.