Column: Taliban's return means ath for gay Afghans. Bin, will you help? - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• ‘A VIRTUAL ATH SENTENCE’: GAY AFGHANS BRACE FOR UNCERTA FUTURE UNR TALIBAN
• MEN OM AFGHANISTAN'S SECRET GAY MUNY SAY THEY ARE LIVG THROUGH A 'NIGHTMARE' AND FEAR THAT THE TALIBAN WILL EXECUTE THEM AT ANY MOMENT
• ‘JT LIKE THE NAZIS’: GAY AFGHANS FACE ‘EXTERMATN’ UNR TALIBAN
• GAY AFGHANISTAN, AFTER THE TALIBAN. HOMOSEXUALY AS TRADN
• GAY AFGHANISTAN: HOMOEROTICISM AMONG KABUL'S WARRRS
• THE TALIBAN RAPED AND BEAT A GAY MAN KABUL AFTER TRICKG HIM TO A MEETG WH A PROMISE OF PE OM AFGHANISTAN, SAYS REPORT

‘A VIRTUAL ATH SENTENCE’: GAY AFGHANS BRACE FOR UNCERTA FUTURE UNR TALIBAN

(New York) – Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) Afghans and people who do not nform to rigid genr norms Afghanistan have faced an creasgly sperate suatn and grave threats to their safety and liv unr the Taliban, Human Rights Watch and OutRight Actn Internatnal said a report released today. A Taliban judge told the German tabloid Bild shortly before the fall of Kabul, “For homosexuals, there n only be two punishments: eher stong, or he mt stand behd a wall that will fall down on him.

” A manual issued by the Taliban Mistry of Vice and Virtue 2020 stat that relig lears shall prohib same-sex relatns and that “strong allegatns” of homosexualy shall be referred to the mistry’s district manager for adjuditn and punishment.

MEN OM AFGHANISTAN'S SECRET GAY MUNY SAY THEY ARE LIVG THROUGH A 'NIGHTMARE' AND FEAR THAT THE TALIBAN WILL EXECUTE THEM AT ANY MOMENT

A gay man said that Taliban members taed him at a checkpot, beat him, and gang-raped him, tellg him, “From now on anytime we want to be able to fd you, we will. The parents returned to Hamid’s hoe, sayg they had heard mors that Hamid was gay, and feared their son might have been killed bee of their relatnship.

Faraz, who asked to be intified by only one name, is a 25-year-old gay man who said he fears for himself and his three sons. Among those seekg to flee are LGBTQ Afghans like N and homosexualy has long been crimalized Afghanistan, advot fear the suatn for gay Afghans will bee even more perilo unr the Taliban, who may choose to apply the ath penalty for same-sex nduct, which they reportedly did durg their first stt power om ’s nsired ‘at risk’?

‘JT LIKE THE NAZIS’: GAY AFGHANS FACE ‘EXTERMATN’ UNR TALIBAN

Homosexualy was crimalized unr the prev Afghan ernment, and LGBTQ people reported facg vlence and harassment, cludg om state officials. “LGBTQI persons are uniquely vulnerable to forced displacement and are targets of state-sponsored homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, ” he said.

GAY AFGHANISTAN, AFTER THE TALIBAN. HOMOSEXUALY AS TRADN

Currently, at least 67 untri crimalize nsensual same-sex nduct, of which the ath penalty may be applied up to 11, cludg Afghanistan, acrdg to a report by the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA) for those who are able to flee their untri of orig, challeng rema. "I jt hope that somebody and wak me up om this bad dream, " the 37-year-old gay Afghan told Insir durg a phone, who works for the Uned Natns, once enjoyed Afghanistan's vibrant "unrground" gay scene. Even though homosexualy was illegal, he said he felt relatively safe makg his weekly vis to a clanste karaoke bar Kabul to sg and dance wh other members of the untry's hidn LGBTQ muni.

"If we get ught, the Taliban will kill , " he told Insir durg a phone Taliban is expected to implement a strgent terpretatn of Sharia law, which means homosexualy would be punishable by ath.

In July, German newspaper Bild reported that a judge om the radil Islamist group vowed to sentence gay men to ath by stong or by beg cshed by a ne-foot wall.

GAY AFGHANISTAN: HOMOEROTICISM AMONG KABUL'S WARRRS

Sayed*, a 36-year-old gay man om northern Afghanistan's Balkh provce, told Insir via Facebook Msenger that he is also sperately seekg asylum om the new hardle Islamist, he said, has dramatilly changed for the worse the space of a week. Homosexual sex has technilly been punishable by ath Afghanistan for s, but acrdg to the UK Country of Orig Report on Afghanistan, has not been applied sce the end of the Taliban's first regime 2001.

"It's clear to me that as soon as the Taliban know that I am a gay man, they will kill me whout even thkg about , " he said. Nemat Sadat, the first public figure Afghanistan to advote for LGBTQ rights, told Insir that he is helpg gay Afghans like Sayed apply for asylum and leave the was an anizer of a nascent LGBTQ rights movement Afghanistan while workg as a polil science profsor at the Amerin Universy of Afghanistan Kabul. 'It's not hyperbolic to say that gay people will get weed out'He is urgg the ternatnal muny to act quickly to help vulnerable people pe persecutn at the hands of the new regime.

THE TALIBAN RAPED AND BEAT A GAY MAN KABUL AFTER TRICKG HIM TO A MEETG WH A PROMISE OF PE OM AFGHANISTAN, SAYS REPORT

"It's not hyperbolic to say that gay people will get weed out and extermated by the Taliban, jt like the Nazis did, " he said. Hamid Zaher, 47, who was one of the first Afghan men to e out publicly, told Insir that while LGBTQ Afghans have always faced risks of vlence and imprisonment at the hands of the thori, those dangers pale parison to the btaly and tolerance of the left Afghanistan 2001 and, after livg Turkey, was able to claim asylum Canada said that, even unr the US-supported ernment, was "a very bad time" for gay men. Given trends around the Middle East, [] North Ai… we n anticipate that homophobia, transphobia, will jt epen unr this regime.