Kandahar: Closely Watched Pashtuns. (Essay).(media coverage of homosexuality in Afghanistan)

SOON AFTER American troops entered Afghanistan following the events of 9/11/2001, reports began to appear in major press outlets documenting a phenomenon that had previously received scant attention: widespread homosexual activity among Afghan men, in particular among the Pashtun of the southern region of Kandahar. It seemed that Western forces sent into Afghanistan to liberate Afghan women had unwittingly liberated Afghan homosexuals, and Western journalists weren't sure what to make of that. The idea of homosexuality among rugged Afghan fighters was treated--often within the same article--both as a cultural curiosity and as an instance of abusive pedophilia. In the end, ...