Afghanistan and Porn seems to be mutually exclusive
Searching on Afghanistan and porn one name comes up, Yasmeena Ali, perhaps the only Afghani pornstar. Yasmeena is a stand-out adult performer, not because of any sexual feat, but because she has very successfully managed to market herself as a person of interest to the mainstream media. Never having met the young woman, I jumped down a rabbit hole of minor incongruities in excerpts published about her since 2018 up until this year. This is unsurprising since half of the articles misspell her name. Having read everything I could find including court documents, the following is what we know about her. As a child, she came with her family to the UK in 2000, which would make her 7, but many articles claim she was 9 in an effort to make her link to Afghanistan more substantial. For example, she has recently lamented how awful it was that she couldn’t go to school, but we are speaking of a war-torn country and she would have only just been starting first grade. Yasmeena turned her back on her family and Islam in 2013 at 20. She headed to Paris and met up with her boyfriend, an atheist of Jewish descent. The pair shacked up and she became a muse for the fledgling photographer. More Hijab and Burka honeys to come?
An Afghan Porn Star is Born
She made her official porn debut in 2017 at 24. In 2018, with a successful effort to bolster interest in her, she courted the mainstream media with tales of how she was striking a blow for women’s rights against a repressive Islam, putting behind her life in Afghanistan and choosing porn as her new lifestyle. Those that told her story embellished how she also converted to Judaism, rubbing the proverbial salt in a wound dealt with Islamic adherents. The ramification of the disgrace this public disclosure brought on her family has cemented her as an exploitable commodity. The foreseeable aftermath was her being sought out by her father, with an intent, unfortunately, to cut the family ties irreversibly, even if that meant killing her. But while her siblings take on responsibility for her mother’s well-being, Yasmeena will hereafter be addressed as a female activist, and always have someone willing to listen to her, even long after her youthful charms have abandoned her.
I’ve rubbed elbows with some people a lot higher on the food chain than I am. Since 2009, a persistent rumor about Afghanistan and porn kept popping up its ugly head in my business circles. That rumor was that porn played a role in helping to destabilize Afghanistan. Flat-screen TVs were given away and men were taught how to access or download videos from porn tube sites. Little porn theaters were then set up in private homes, where men frequented them. If these micro venues were anything like Western porn theaters, then it was heterosexual porn on the screen while an audience of horny men fellated one another. To understand how pornography can upset a society, compare the devastating effects of alcohol on the Native North American Indians. In both instances, an addictive unknown substance was introduced to a society without the forbearance to deal with it.
Yasmeena Ali and I share a few things in common.
She and I are both sex workers, we both have a background in Islam and at one time, we were both bad Muslims. Only these days she’s an outspoken atheist and I’m still a rotten example of a good Muslim. However, when it comes to Afghanistan and porn, I envy the ease with which Yasmeena has turned her childhood link into a marketing goldmine. No doubt that her self-promoting as being perhaps the only Afghan making adult videos has inflicted some minor damage to that nation’s current rulers, while at the same time grabbing some helpful media attention for herself. Where she and I differ is that I don’t want the media attention, at least not for my past or personal life. Besides, my personality can be upsetting enough on it’s own without seeking to thumb my nose or flash my ass at a whole culture. On the other hand, the idea of setting up a studio in a place like Afghanistan and producing some skin flicks has always titillated me.
The Taliban vs Yasmeena Ali, Porn and rape
The mother of Yasmeena Ali told her that under the Taliban there is no such thing as rape. Without having access to Afghanistan’s legal system, there’s no way to know how they define this form of assault. But Afghanistan and porn don’t mix well, not even when it comes to what we think of as rape. Since Yasmeena and I are pornstars, it’s the unofficial jizz biz definition of rape that applies: which is any unwanted sexual contact that’s not financially compensated. Obviously, this doesn’t include knocking out and fucking some random stranger, then stuffing 50 bucks in his/her pocket as an afterthought. One must understand that very little is faked in the adult video industry because it’s just too costly. So pornstars frequently agree to be punched in the face and sexually brutalized for extra money; the negotiation being a form of consent. A nation with a healthy sex industry can significantly impact non-consensual sex rates by allowing people who fantasize about it to purchase it.
My vision of Afghanistan and porn brings some economic prosperity to its sex workers. From single women to young boys, every sex worker within the country should be able to get more than a bag of couscous for a blow job or a handful of eggs for being fucked. As it stands, I don’t know of any place which doesn’t have some sort of sex industry. But when the poor are as prevalent as in Afghanistan, the only way to improve the situation for their local sex workers is to expose them to the world market. Since most households cannot even afford internet, it is more expensive than rent, this would perhaps be one of those rare occasions where filming pop shots might do some good. Pornstars can command significantly more money for private shows and many of their clients are wealthy foreigners who hide their sexual tourism as a business trip. Interestingly, in Yasmeena’s case, if she were actually living in Afghanistan, a mere two hours in front of a webcam (according to her rates) would be enough to live comfortably an entire month.
Perhaps there will be a day when humanity will stop acting like moronic primates when it comes to sex.. When that day comes, maybe Afghanistan and porn won’t be mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, until then Yasmeena Ali will probably be the nation’s only official pornstar and clandestine backroom porn theaters filled with sexually immature, traumatized men, will be the norm. And tragically, from my perspective, sex workers will continue to take unnecessary risks and sell full-service for a handful of potatoes when desperation gets the better of them.
