It was 2014 when the #BringBackOurGirls campaign captured the world’s attention and focused on 276 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The international response was systematic, and the United States (with the help of Michelle Obama, celebrities, and world organizations) garnered financial and organizational support to bring unprecedented attention and action to the plight of girls in war-torn countries. Two years later, a report in the Wall Street Journal addressed the 10,000 kidnapped boys of Boko Haram who were trained in boot camps and prepared for war and other militant action. But for the most part, the reaction was tepid, as boys in war-torn regions remained largely absent from contemporary narratives. There is a negligence on the part of government organizations and non-government organizations to put forward serious policy actions and financial support to recognize boys and men in war-torn countries.

As the situation in Afghanistan worsens and people fear even greater instability in the larger region, the plight of boys and young men continues to go largely ignored. A country, whose median age is 18 years old, is rife for the trafficking of boys into militant groups, sexual abuse, and other activities designed to support terrorist causes.

The language regarding boy soldiers has shifted over the last decade or so and has been replaced with the words child soldiers to account for girls who are taken by terrorist groups. It should not, however, obscure our realization that boys are kidnapped for the purpose of becoming soldiers in far greater numbers. Although girls are trafficked more for sexual abuse, the attention to boys as victims of sexual abuse does not receive enough attention and may account for the rising number of boys trafficked for sexual exploitation. The World Health Organization has reported that sexual abuse of males remains largely understudied.

The U.S. Government, too, has remained silent regarding the incidence of sexually abused boys (Bacha bazi) in Afghanistan until a U.S. soldier came forward and reported the abuse that was ignored by higher-ups in the chain of command. “One incident that gained media attention involved Army Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, a Green Beret who admitted he lost his cool during a 2011 deployment to Kunduz province. Martland and his captain struck an Afghan police officer, who allegedly had confessed to raping a boy and then beating the child’s mother for telling authorities.”