We learned from PBS ‘Frontline’ that Afghan war lords keep boys, 11 to 14 years old, in their harems and teach them to do erotic dances at weddings and so forth. Probing deeper we learned that the tribes also hold ritual contests every year in which a boy from each tribe is selected to challenge a boy from another to fight to the death of their manhood.

The victor of each fight has the privilege or the sad duty, if he and the loser are friends or even lovers, of destroying the loser’s manhood by crushing his testicles like ripe plums. The methods vary and are often quite creative. Bare hands, fists, feet, even teeth are Ok, but weapons or other implements may not be used. The losers are expected to endure their emasculation without complaint, and to present themselves for the ritual destruction of their virility in whatever way the winner demands.

A typical method is to require the loser to lie naked on the floor of the arena with legs spread and genitals pushed back between them. The winner then stomps on the other boy’s nuts with his bare feet until they are crushed. Or the loser might be required to kneel before the winner naked with his penis held to his belly while the winner simply kicks him in the groin repeatedly until his bruised and swollen organs are rendered useless. Sometimes the winner will simply crush the loser’s nuts with his bare hands, clutching them in his fists, or twisting and rolling them between his hands until the spermatic chords and blood vessels are torn loose within his scrotum.

The losers all return to their respective harems to be eunuch servants and guardians of the women and the still virile boys. The winner of the final and decisive fight graduates to be an apprentice war lord and eventually takes over a tribe and harem of his own. The following year the ritual is repeated and a new apprentice is ‘discovered’ so that only the strongest and cleverest of boys ascend to the leadership of the various tribes, renowned throughout the land for his invincible fighting prowess.

Naturally this also results in a lot of eunuchs being produced as well, some of whom continue to serve their lord faithfully within his harem, others of whom graduate out of the harem and into ‘civilian’ life where they may prosper or not, but always, obviously, without propagating their own genetic line. ‘Survival of the fittest’ the Afghans always say!

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The above story was posted in response to the challenge of writing one in 420 characters, except this one is 420 words!