Nov 14, 2010

Afghanistan's Little, But Neither Dirty Nor Secret

We read in class a piece from San Francisco Chronicle, titled "Afghanistan's dirty little secret," by Joel Brinkley. It was a sociology class, and we were discussing sex and gender. The piece talks about bashabazi (pedophilia) in Afghanistan. The writer assumes having revealed a "dirty secret" from Afghan culture. However, I must say, as an Afghan and I would be able to assert that many other Afghans believe so, that pedophilia in Afghanistan is not a secret, but everybody knows about it. In addition, it is not considered "dirty." I do not say it is believed to be a good thing, however, the people, who does that, do not hide themselves and their tendency from public; the others, well, don't do it and don't like it either. Brinkley in this piece however does not want to open a sociocultural phenomenon while having a relativist, neutral, scientific manner. He talks about pedophilia with all hatred and disgust, as it is obvious from his title. He also says,
"So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles..."
It's very insulting. Is Afghanistan the only country on the Earth that some people have pedophilic tendencies?