A British newspaper has spoken to a gay man in Afghanistan who paints a very bleak picture for LGBT+ Afghans who are living in fear since the Taliban took over the country a few weeks ago.
Keeping his identity hidden, the man told of how his friend had taken his own life because he couldn’t live his life ‘like a shadow’. He went on to say: “The kill us very brutally. Not like the others who they kill with a gun or a bullet. They will use fire, or they will behead or stone us, and they will enjoy it – it’s acceptable to them.”
US Special Forces sniper Tim Kennedy spoke out this week saying that he had toured both Afghan an Iraq and had witnessed gay people being burned alive at the stake and thrown off buildings in the days since the Taliban took the capital of Kabul. Sharia law also details that homosexuality can also be punished by being crushed by a falling wall.
Officially Taliban chiefs have not yet commented on how LGBT+ people will be treated in the new regime. Stonewall CEO Nancy Kelley said: “For years LGBTQ+ Afghans have had to endure routine discrimination, abuse and persecution, including by the state. With the Taliban in power we expect this situation to deteriorate further.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfh2_t_LcT8
