Two gay Afghan men have told RFE/RL they live in constant fear under Taliban rule and have to meet their partners in secret. In a January report, Human Rights Watch found LGBT people in Afghanistan faced a “desperate situation and grave threats to their safety” with reports of killings, gang rapes, and mob attacks.
CNN: It’s not clear yet how severely the Taliban will enforce its strict religious laws against Afghanistan’s LGBTQ citizens. No official statement has been made, but in an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper in July, one Taliban judge said there were only two punishments for homosexuality — stoning or being crushed under a wall. Click
Business Insider: The Taliban raped and beat a gay man after duping him into meeting them, a report from ITV says. The outlet said that Hanan, a pseudonym given to protect his identity, had been speaking to a man on social media who promised to help him find a safe way out of Afghanistan. Click
BBC News: Two Americans attempted something unconventional. Lyricist Charlie Sohne and composer Tim Rosser created a musical about a subject even Afghans would consider too sensitive and unsettling – “bacha bazi” or “boy play”. The show has also faced criticism for promoting bacha bazi as a tradition that is accepted in Afghanistan. “Bacha bazi is
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 12, 2017 Ahmad seems like any other teenager in the Afghan capital, Kabul. He goes to school, hangs out with friends, and lives at home with his parents. But the 18-year-old is hiding a dangerous secret that could get him imprisoned or killed: He is homosexual. Homosexuality is
AP: To be homosexual in Afghanistan is to live in fear. Naveed and Rameen, young gay men in the capital Kabul have lost count of the number of times they’ve been lured into dangerous situations on what they believed to be dates. Both men describe being robbed, beaten up and blackmailed, and receiving death threats. They’ve
BBC News: Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Afghanistan, rarely discussed in the media and widely condemned as immoral and un-Islamic. As a result there are no statistics indicating the size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the country. The BBC spoke to four Afghans with different sexual orientations. All told stories of
The Daily Beast: Soon after the American invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11th, I read of the seeming paradox of Taliban killings of men who had sex with men, while they simultaneously engaged in the same behaviors themselves. As a gay journalist, I decided to venture into Afghanistan to learn more firsthand… Click
Univision: Omar Mateen, the Muslim gunman who committed the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, was “100 percent” gay and bore a grudge against Latino men because he felt used by them, according to a man who says he was his lover for two months. “I’ve cried like you have no idea. But the thing that makes me
The Diplomat: There is now widespread interest in what Islam and Muslim-majority cultures say about homosexuality and the traditional manner in which homosexuality is approached in Muslim-majority societies, in particular Afghanistan. Contrary to popular perception, some Islamic cultures have a long, vibrant history of tolerance for homosexual behavior. Click here to read more (external link).