excerpts from an article by Kelley B. Vlahos, April 13, 2010
http://original.antiwar.com/...
(I TOTALY REDID THIS DIARY, ADDING SOME MORE OF MY OWN COMMENTS)
I had attended a different church and the Pastor had mentioned about how in Iraq & Afghanistan, men treat their wives as simply someone to have their babies and raise the family. I had always wondered what the men were doing, when they were away from their wives, for so long.
The Pastor said his son, was in the Army and he asked his son about this, because he had heard the men would have sexual relations with each other. Of course it's not homosexuality, which is against their religion, it's just they have needs and they help each other out.
I had wondered about this, but hadn't really given it much thought, so I went on the internet and checked into it and had come across a web site called antiwar.com and found the above article.
I had also come across a Canadian Reporter, who was imbedded in one of Canada's fighting units, where the soldiers were training Afghan & Iraqi Soldiers. It was a long video showing the Canadian soldiers interactions with the Afghan & Iraqi army recruits.
The Canadians were trying to train the men how to be good soldiers, but the recruits weren't really into it and didn't like being told what to do, especially when the Canadians tried to school them on their physical hygiene.
One of the things they were told was not to shoot, unless you could see the enemy. The Iraqi soldiers, as soon as they heard shots being fired at them, from some bushes, even though they couldn't see who they were shooting at, they rattled off multiple shots at the bushes, using up their ammo, figuring the Canadian Soldiers would give them more, but the Canadians told them no, they had to learn how to ration their ammo, for when they really needed it and could actually see the enemy.
From what the video looked like, they weren't too enthused about fighting, even though it was for their own country. It seemed like these certain recruits expected other countries to always help them out. They were very disorganized and didn't like to listen. It seems they were heavy into drugs, so a lot of the time they were stoned and didn't know what they were doing.
While embedded with these soldiers, the reporter learned something many of us never realized. Men having sex with other men was rampant and accepted, but of course they weren't homosexuals, because that goes against their religion.
"Straight guys find that their sexuality is flexible in these sorts of situations … soon [sex between men is] widely accepted with a wink and a nudge."
Follow me below the orange "hairball" for more.
See the complete article at the address below:
http://original.antiwar.com/...
The women must cover themselves, from head to toe, aren't allowed outside, unless accompanied by a male relative, then relegate themselves to having children and taking care of the family.
While their husband is gone, what does he do, now that he is away from his wife. They find that
their sexuality is flexible in these sorts of situations … soon [sex between men is] widely accepted with a wink and a nudge.
Bacha bazi is an old Afghan tradition of taking young boys, dressing them up like girls, and making them perform for older men in tea rooms, weddings, and other private venues.
These Bacha dancers are usually street orphans, or abused children, from families, who reject them. Some are even kidnapped, for the sole purpose of pleasuring their "lord". The men are referred to, by the boys, as "my lord" and they do whatever their "lord" wants them to do.
Other reports describe bacha bazi as an increasingly lucrative business, in which the boy slaves are seen as important status symbols of the elite. "Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome, and good-looking boy," a former mujahedin commander told Reuters back in 2007.
The men seem to think that women don't need to be educated, after all, their purpose is to pro-create, have children and take care of the family, while pleasing their husband.
Soldiers, who are there trying to train the Afghans & Iraqis, find it distressing when they see how prevalent raping boys is. Here they would be considered pedophiles, but there, it is pretty much accepted, because so many in authoritative positions, turn a blind eye to it.
Even though the Taliban is horrible and they also mistreat women, one of the things they would not tolerate, was homosexuality, especially the raping of young boys. Men who did it were dealt with severely.
In writing about the rape of boys and its implications on the sustained Western alliance with the Afghan government and military in the Long War, journalist Patrick Cockburn commented in September, "one reason Afghan villagers prefer to deal with the Taliban rather than the government security forces is that the latter have a habit of seizing their sons at checkpoints and sodomizing them."
The Taliban reportedly banned these practices when it was in power. Today, clerics we would consider radical openly and regularly condemn bacha bazi and sex with children. "Under Islamic law, those who practice this would be stoned to death," Mawllawi Mohammaed Sadiq Sadiqyar, a prayer leader and scholar in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, told Reuters.
Seeing everything, which is going on, in the Mideast, leads a person to wonder, will anything ever change, or is this just a vicious cycle which will continue on into eternity. Will religious fanatics, such as IS, have their way, murdering and beheading anyone, who disagrees with them? How will they take care of the people, if they manage to over run everywhere, when they don't have the knowledge, how to run a government or mainly to work with the rest of the world? Do they actually think they could take over the entire world and have them do their bidding.