"Bacha bazi, which the US State Department has called a 'culturally sanctioned form of male rape,' peels away the masculine identity of boys in a society where the sexes are tightly segregated. In conservative areas women are mostly invisible in public -- and often unattainable due to steep bride prices. Bachas supplant the role of women, adopting a feminine gait and sometimes wearing makeup and bells on their feet. Many...see bacha bazi neither as pedophilia nor homosexuality, which is forbidden in Islam. If social norms had a pecking order, violating boys would be seen as far more ethical than violating women."