Well, obviously, this sort of thing can happen in ‘The West’ and obviously, not everyone (or even necessarily most) in the middle east condone this, but I think pointing out this distinction takes away from the point, which is that at this moment in history, this particular practice is disastrously common in the middle east.

The practice is called bacha bazi (boy play) and is an acknowledged and serious problem. American soldiers who have been deployed to the middle east have sometimes had to watch (or have willingly participated in) bacha bazi while on deployment. Two soldiers I know personally have spoken to me about it, which makes me think it’s more common than we want to think (I mean, what are the chances two soldiers from different branches who were deployed to different nations both witnessed it if it’s that rare?) and writer and veteran Benjamin Sledge wrote a story about it here on Medium. It receives pretty consistent media coverage according to the Wikipedia page linked above.