Afghanistan is one of the world's most conservative countries, yet its sex trade appears to be thriving. Sex is sold most obviously at brothels full of women from China who serve both Afghans and foreigners. Far more controversial are Afghan prostitutes, who stay underground in a society that pretends they don't exist.
Customs meant to keep women "pure" have not stopped prostitution. Girls are expected to remain virgins until their wedding nights, so some prostitutes have only anal sex. Police make two to three prostitution arrests each week, according to Zia ul-Haq, the chief investigator in the Interior Ministry's department of sexual crimes. Tradition is honor, and if we talk about these taboos, then we break tradition.
The girl is now 13, and her features have just sharpened into striking beauty. She is the breadwinner in her family of The Associated Press learned her story in a dozen meetings over four months, as well as interviews with police and aid workers. For months she insisted she was a "good girl" - a virgin.
But in March, she confessed to having anal sex with men for years, starting with the legless beggar. She looked down as she spoke, her face and hands sooty from car exhaust. She tucked her hair repeatedly under her head scarf. The girl grew up in Pakistan, where her family fled during a bloody civil war in Afghanistan in the early s. She cleaned cars for money. Five years ago, her family and a flood of other refugees returned to Afghanistan after the U.
So she sold chewing gum and newspapers and cleaned car windows in the muddy, potholed streets of Kabul. Uncle Lang was a land mine victim. When the girl and a friend brought him tea and food, he forced himself upon them, police say.
