Child welfare workers are scarce and given no support while foreign powers turn a blind eye. Women's rights make prominent headlines in our media, but it seems paedophilia barely rates a mention. Once the boys grow a beard - they are kicked out and become homeless.
The practice of wealthy Afghans exploiting boys as sexual partners, often dressing them up as women, is on the rise, writes Ernesto Londono in Dehrazi.
The nine-year-old boy with pale skin and big, piercing eyes captivated Mirzahan at first sight. ''He is more handsome than anyone in the village,'' the 22-year-old farmer said, explaining why he is grooming the boy as a sexual partner and companion.
There was another important factor that made Waheed easy to take on as a bacha bazi, or a boy for pleasure: ''He doesn't have a father, so there is no one to stop this.''
A growing number of Afghan children are being coerced into a life of sexual abuse. The practice of wealthy or prominent Afghans exploiting under-age boys as sexual partners who are often dressed up as women to dance at gatherings is on the rise in post-Taliban Afghanistan, according to Afghan human rights researchers, Western officials and men who take part in the abuse.
Over the past decade, the phenomenon has flourished in Pashtun areas in the south, in several northern provinces and even in the capital, according to Afghans who engage in the practice or have studied it. Although issues such as women's rights and moral crimes have attracted a flood of donor aid and activism in recent years, bacha bazi remains poorly understood.
The US State Department has mentioned the practice - which is illegal in Afghanistan - in its annual human rights reports. The 2010 report said members of Afghanistan's security forces, who receive training and weapons from the US-led coalition, sexually abused boys ''in an environment of criminal impunity''.
But foreign powers in Afghanistan have largely refrained from drawing attention to the issue. There are no reliable statistics on the extent of the problem.
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Sitting next to nine-year-old Waheed, who was wearing a pink pants-and-tunic set called a shalwar kameez, Mirzahan said he opted to take on the boy because marrying a woman would have been prohibitively expensive. The two have not had sex, Mirzahan said, but that will come in a few years. For now, Waheed is being introduced to slightly older ''dancing boys''.
''He is not dancing yet, but he is willing,'' Mirzahan said. Asked how he felt about becoming a dancing boy, Waheed responded shyly. ''I feel so happy,'' the boy said. ''They are so beautiful.''
Sitting nearby was 23-year-old Assadula, an Afghan soldier, who said he had been attracted to teenage males for as long as he could recall. Two years ago he took on a 16-year-old as his bacha. The relationship will end soon, he said, sitting next to his companion, Jawad, who is now 18.
''When he starts growing a beard, his time will expire, and I will try to find another one who doesn't have a beard,'' Assadula said.
Many of the men who have bachas are also married. But Assadula said he had never been attracted to women.
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