RASC News Agency: The British newspaper Daily Mail has reported a significant resurgence of bacha bazi a form of child exploitation among the Taliban’s local power brokers. According to the report, this practice has escalated since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The newspaper underscores that the Taliban’s rigid gender segregation policies and extremist ideology have restricted access to women, inadvertently fueling the rise of bacha bazi. The report, published on Thursday, February 29, highlights that following the Taliban’s return to power and the withdrawal of foreign forces, clandestine bacha bazi gatherings have become increasingly widespread among influential figures within the regime.
Daily Mail asserts that after seizing control in 2021, the Taliban sought to project a more progressive image to the world. However, their continued enforcement of draconian measures against women has instead laid bare the hypocrisy of their claims. The newspaper states that the systemic sexual exploitation and abuse of children, alongside other forms of brutality, have become emblematic of the Taliban’s moral corruption. The report further emphasizes that through the enforcement of their so-called Amr bil Ma’ruf laws, the Taliban have institutionalized “some of the most sadistic and senseless forms of oppression against women.”
The publication attributes much of this depravity including bacha bazi and child abuse to the extremist ideologies of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. It asserts that these abuses are not isolated incidents but rather an entrenched practice within the regime’s power structures. Additionally, Daily Mail reports that while the Taliban have used Islamic rhetoric to mobilize thousands for war and jihad, they have simultaneously engaged in the systemic sexual exploitation of young boys. This is not the first time Taliban officials have been accused of participating in bacha bazi, as previous reports have linked members of the group to similar offenses.
