Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
The Question: The producers of the movie “The Kite Runner” had to evacuate three boy actors from Afghanistan because they were involved in a scene portraying homosexual rape. Who’s at fault here: the movie producers who exposed the boys to danger, or the Afghan culture that threatens them?
It’s easy to say, “A plague on both your houses,” to The Kite Runner’s producers for exposing the Afghan child actors to danger and to the Afghans who are threatening those boys.
Naive doesn’t even begin to describe The Kite Runner’s filmmakers. Yes, it was commendable for the novel’s author Khaled Hosseini to smash a taboo like male rape in his novel. But by recruiting Afghan child actors who actually live in the country to carry out that taboo-smashing, the filmmakers left it to children to absorb the anger of those who hate self-criticism of any kind.
We are talking about a country where the Taliban are resurgent in some areas, but more importantly where their brand of ultra-orthodox zealotry is shared by many and cuts across sects and ethnic groups.
The Taliban did not invent the tribal nature of Afghan society, nor did they invent its honor-based foundations. And while I find the Taliban’s super-zealotry abhorrent, I am just as appalled by the hypocrisy too readily apparent in such honor-based systems. The price it exacts to maintain its façade of honor is most often paid by the weakest – usually women and children. In the case of the film adaptation of , the filmmakers basically offered those child actors on a platter.
But those who are threatening the child actors are cowards. Rape is not exclusive to Afghan culture and blaming children for acting out scenes in a film is hypocrisy that is too easy to dismantle.
While the sorry drama surrounding The Kite Runner was playing out, Reuters News Agency ran a story that demolished any accusations that The Kite Runner’s homosexual rape scenes had “invented” anything about Afghan culture. The Reuters story was about “bacha bereesh”, or boys without beards – teenage boys who dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan.
The ancient practice has led to some of the boy dancers being turned into sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons, often former warlords, who dress the boys up as girls, shower them with gifts and keep them as “mistresses”, Reuters reported. Those warlords and wealthy patrons are the worthy targets for the misguided anger over The Kite Runner.
As a Muslim, I know that many of my co-religionists would rather pretend homosexuality didn’t exist or that it’s some kind of “western” disease. I am reminded of the film adaptation of the Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building, which also featured scenes of homosexual rape as well as consensual male sex.
Again, that book and film smashed the taboos that surround homosexuality in Egypt – but unlike in The Kite Runner, the males involved were all adults. Watching the scenes that made it past the censors’ scissors brought Egyptians face-to-uncomfortable-face with an issue many would rather ignore.
And finally, the homosexual rape in The Kite Runner was a kind of “punishment” meant to hurt and humiliate that is obviously not exclusive to Afghan culture, but will remain a weapon unless courageous victims speak out.
Last year in Egypt, a young activist and blogger was badly beaten in Egyptian police custody and sodomized with a piece of card. He smuggled a letter out of jail about his ordeal. Although Egyptian authorities denied his claims, the courage of Mohammed El Sharkawy opened the door for other men to speak about their trauma of being sodomized in Egyptian police custody.
In November, an Egyptian judge sentenced two police officers to three years in jail for sodomizing a bus driver with a stick. The rape was to “punish” the driver for interfering in an argument the police were having with his cousin. Ultimately, the main piece of evidence against those officers was a film clip they made using a mobile phone during the assault. But it was the courage of the bus driver, Imad El Kabir, to face down the shame and humiliation of that assault and to testify against his attackers that turned the case around.
The only good thing that could come out of The Kite Runner fiasco is if it helps to bring a similar reckoning to Afghanistan. Otherwise, the exile in the United Arab Emirates of those child actors would be just another drop in the ocean of tragedy that has flooded Afghanistan of late.
Initially posted on Washingtonpost.com’s PostGlobal
Comments (3)
Frank said:
Mona,
Vacation, remember? When one is on vacation, one vacations. Go see the sights! The blog can wait a few days.
December 22nd, 2007, 5:12 pm
Frank said:
OK, Mona, I give you “permission” to go back to work now.
You sure picked a red-hot topic, didn’t you? When my unit deployed to the Middle East, like 17 years ago now, we had classes on Arab culture, including a bit of the language. We were told that it was relatively normal to see two Arab males walking or standing arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand. That this was not homosexual behavior. Further, that it was normal for males to kiss each other, even in public.
We were pointedly instructed specifically NOT to discuss homosexuality with any Arab under any circumstances. We did anyway, and to our surprise, some of them shared our views and would not hold hands in public with other men. Admittedly, most of the Arabs we were this familiar with were somewhat Westernized, being our Arabic interpreters.
We met a few women, but, in general did not speak to them very much, if at all. Certainly we did not discuss homosexuality.
I wonder how many of us actually believed what we were told about these kinds of customs and how many just accepted it because we were told to. From the time of my arrival and by the time I left the region, I was probably kissed by more men than Mona has been in her life.
Now, I tolerated it, though I did not find it especially comfortable. I have spoken to other soldiers who were kissed and slipped the tongue by an Arab or two, one of these a young woman who appeared a bit boyish in her BDU’s. I have not had that experience… which is just as well as I might have found it necessary to stomp such an individual into red paste.
As a group, US military personnel, despite what the Western media would have you believe, almost universally despise homosexuality, at least male homosexuality and male homosexuals. Female homosexuality is probably tolerated more because the job of soldiering does tend to attract female homosexuals for some reason and therefore there are more of them in the US military than is widely known.
I refuse to use the word “gay” to refer to a male homosexual because, while I have met several male homosexuals, I have never met one that seemed especially happy, which is what the word actually means. As a young man, I had another man come and watch me take a shower once, in an Army latrine, purely for his own enjoyment. Disconcerting. Uncomfortable. Disgusted. These are all words that applied at the time. Yet, there was really nothing I could do as he hadn’t made any advances and communal showers were and are the norm in the military.
As the media and liberal lawmakers slowly forced our society to start “accepting” homosexuals in society in general and in the military in particular, there really was no acceptance, merely much discussion around the tables while we cleaned weapons (many things are discussed and solved by soldiers during this activity… the world leaders ought to be issued weapons and cleaning supplies at summits they attend).
We decided (at least the males decided) that it would be preferable to have communal showers for both sexes rather than to openly allow homosexuals in the military with us. The theory as applied to myself was that a young woman’s interest in my body, should I be so fortunate as to attract the attention of one of the few female soldiers, would be perceived as normal, while the previously mentioned young man’s interest was definitely not perceived as normal.
Slingshot forward in time to the present when such topics in Arab societies are now the subject of film and broadcast media. Wow.
I’m sure that the leadership of almost every country in the region would like to pretend that there are no Arab homosexuals. News flash gentlemen, there are.
Since Arab culture allows for things like hand-holding and same-sex kissing, it would be far more difficult to drag anyone “out of the closet”, though. Much easier to arrest people of the opposite sex who are in the same car after sundown.
Afghanistan is a country that I have thus far managed to avoid visiting. I would just as soon continue avoiding it if the practices Mona mentions really are commonplace there.
Truly, I have not completely solved the issue of homosexuality in my own mind. I am not homosexual and I despise their practices, but I am unwilling to say that they should all be put to the sword. Certainly what they do is prohibited by God. Then again, I do things every day that are prohibited by God. As a human being, I can’t avoid that and neither can anyone else.
Not being able to tell the draft board one is homosexual to get out of military service is something I do look upon with some acceptance. Homosexuals can get shot, bleed, and die just like anyone else.
Who to blame for the danger to the boys hired to play the part of rape victims? I’m inclined to blame neither the producers of the film, nor the society in general, though in reality, both should be held accountable to some degree. The ones I would blame are the parents of the boys hired.
Society is society. Culture is culture. Takes centuries to change. Not gonna happen for just one Western film maker.
The producer can claim ignorance. How is a Westerner to know the reactions of a radically divergent branch of Islam to what he might perceive as play-acting.
The parents of the boys, though, should have been well able to anticipate the reaction of the society they live within and are a part of. Did they think themselves immune? More likely, they simply didn’t care, reasoning that the money paid them was worth the price their children would have to pay.
Is my conclusion disturbing? Good! It certainly should be.
December 27th, 2007, 2:05 pm
visitor said:
Perhaps what is worse than this whole fiasco, is that two children were allowed to participated in simulated rape scenes for the sake of entertainment. I think this is a much more despicable act and in my book counts as child abuse. I am stunned that you didn’t find this fact reprehensible enough to comment on.
December 29th, 2007, 4:55 am
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