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...boys are for pleasure, or so the Pashtuns believe.

Afghan Men Struggle With Sexual Identity, Study Finds

Published January 28, 2010 | FOXNews.com

As if U.S. troops and diplomats didn't have enough to worry about in trying to understand Afghan culture, a new report suggests an entire region in the country is coping with a sexual identity crisis.

An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns -- though they seem to be in complete denial about it.

The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually -- yet they completely reject the label of "homosexual." The research was conducted as part of a longstanding effort to better understand Afghan culture and improve Western interaction with the local people.

The research unit, which was attached to a Marine battalion in southern Afghanistan, acknowledged that the behavior of some Afghan men has left Western forces "frequently confused."

The report details the bizarre interactions a U.S. Army medic and her colleagues had with Afghan men in the southern province of Kandahar.

In one instance, a group of local male interpreters had contracted gonorrhea anally but refused to believe they could have contracted it sexually -- "because they were not homosexuals."

Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification."

The group of interpreters who had contracted gonorrhea joked in the camp that they actually got the disease by "mixing green and black tea." But since they refused to heed the medics' warnings, many of them re-contracted the disease after receiving treatment.

The U.S. army medic also told members of the research unit that she and her colleagues had to explain to a local man how to get his wife pregnant.

The report said: "When it was explained to him what was necessary, he reacted with disgust and asked, 'How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean, when one could be with a man, who is clean? Surely this must be wrong.'"

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[ZIFA]

They've been dumbed-down by years of the Taliban.

Zero education and a society broken by civil war will do that to a person.

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The tribe and its customs have existed for centuries before the Taliban ever appeared on the scene.

[NohopeSeriously]

[rollo]

Boys dont get pregnant and create a feud situation between families. But yeah this is an old tradition. Perhaps one reason the Russians had such a bad time in AFghanistan is that when the Afghans took prisoners they did not torture them but they would often select a young handsome prisoner to be the "wife" of the unit. this probably led to a decline in the zeal to go fight in Afghanistan.
Also this is tied up in the way women are viewed. This is not really Islamic but old tribal beliefs being tied to Islam.

[caniff]

[Kuros]

[caniff]

Well maybe not after I was waterboarded, but still - being passed around by a pack of Afghani rebels would have to leave some bad memories.

[Konglishman]

I blame this on Alexander the Great.

[ZIFA]

"women are for children".

Lol.

I'll be sure to tell that to my western female co-workers as i ignore whatever they have to say with a wave of the hand.

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[NovaKart]

Book me a ticket to Afghanistan. Sounds like a gay man's paradise. I do question their hygiene though.

[Konglishman]

[NohopeSeriously]

[caniff]

Great culture they've got going on over there.

(I'm not all that wound up about the American one either, but c'mon.)