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 was an unwise decision by the movie producers to take the boy actors back to Afghanistan. At the very least, it shows that they misread Afghan culture, tribal hostility and the country’s political situation.
This is a country where children engaging in a kite competition can easily ignite tribal feuds. If one believes the situation of the Hazaras as demonstrated in The Kite Runner, it is dangerous for a Hazara and a Pashtun to share the same space – let alone become friends. The Taliban’s mass killings of the Hazaras in 2001 were just a hint of the Sunni Taliban’s resentment toward the minority Shiite Hazaras.
Add to this the tendency of Afghans (and in fact of the entire Muslim world) to view any criticism from the U.S. as an anti-Muslim conspiracy. Fiction or not, any finger-pointing at Muslim follies is in fact viewed as a hostile and anti-Islamic act by most Muslims. Salman Rushdie’s Verses of Satan, Tasleema Nasreen’s Lajja (Shame), Naguib Mahfouz’s Children of Gebelawi, Alaa Abu Hamid’s The Void in a Man’s Mind and others are but a few examples of fictional works that were met with resentment and loathing in the Muslim world. No one in his right mind who was familiar with the misery and banishment in which Tasleema Nasreen lives would ever think to bring the boy actors of The Kite Runner back to Afghanistan, or even to Pakistan.
Unfortunately, in the Muslim world, the boundary between fiction and reality is blurred. It is a world where people like to perceive themselves as perfect, follies are hushed up, and people are allowed to swim in all kinds of sins as long as they can gloss them over with a religious veneer. Homosexuality is no exception; in fact, it is the norm in many places. It’s the subject of daily anecdotes and jokes. People are fine with it as long as they can bury their heads in the sand. But the moment someone discusses it in a public forum, it suddenly becomes a taboo and a scandal. People who indulge in all kinds of vices then suddenly become custodians of religion. Even the most morally corrupt person might start the jihad rally.
It is a very absurd world that only those who live in can understand. It is a world where the individual must tiptoe through minefields, where he is under perpetual censorship and is constantly reminded to respect the boundary of conformity: a false but an obligatory house of cards.
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