By Nemat Sadat

When the Afghan government collapsed in August 2021, the world stumbled in disbelief as footage of the Taliban storming the Arg (presidential palace), as well as Afghan refugees falling off the wings of airborne planes emerged. People had not seen something like that before even in a Bollywood or Hollywood movie. It also rekindled memories of the September 11 terrorist attacks when Americans jumped out of the burning World Trade Center Towers.

There was one difference though: Afghans climbing onto military planes during takeoff were symbols of freedom against the reemergence of global Islamic fascism. People asked themselves, “Oh my God, what’s happening” after seeing 20 years of progress—particularly for the rights of women and journalists—erode before the last US troops withdrew. Afghanistan was set to go back to the Stone Age, as far back as the Dark Ages. The Afghans who did not conform to the norms of the Taliban or those who were perceived as collaborators of the West would be eliminated.

The group that found itself at greatest peril, the LGBTQI+ community—too often, the “canaries in the coal mine”—would have everything to lose under the Taliban. LGBTQI+ people have been fighting at the forefront of the war against terror and radical Islam. Prior to 2012, they were simply invisible and never mentioned in the national discourse and that was by design.

The transitional Afghan government that was set up in Bonn, Germany, also known as the “Bonn Accords,” ended up defining the future government of Afghanistan. At that time, they decided to create a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural framework within which everyone would be integrated into Afghan society. Two groups were not included. One group was the apostates, i.e., former Muslims, atheists, agnostics, pagans, secularists, Christians, etc. and the other group of people who did not belong were within this new framework LGBTQI+ people. They would remain criminalized and swept under the proverbial carpet.

However, from 2012 onward, LGBTQI+ people partook in performative acts, or gendered actions, that liberalized social norms and deeply impacted Afghan society, particularly in mass media and pop culture. As was to be expected, LGBTQI+ were criminalized under the regimes of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, but they had a chance to quietly live their lives and bring incremental change to a militantly parochial society that was radicalized by decades of war and poverty. 

When the US and UK left Afghanistan in 2021, they made a promise to assist those whose lives were in danger. Yet most LGBTQI+ people were left behind. They had no choice but to go into hiding on rooftops, basements, closets, and even in ditches. People who had been thrown out of their homes went into hiding underneath bridges. Afghanistan was not a hospitable place for gays, lesbians, and trans people even before the military occupation. But now Afghanistan, under the Sharia rule of the Taliban, became the worst place to be an LGBTQI+ person.

The Taliban have doubled-down on their insiduous heteronormative ideology thereby endangering the LGBTQIs who ushered social transformation. Those who were quasi-out and had exposed themselves—risked being tortured to death since the Taliban believed in a fixed, binary gendered system and sought to punish those who deviated from what they perceive as the “natural” gender order.

For LGBTQI+ people this meant that there was nothing left for them to create a meaningful life in Afghanistan. They could not leave the house anymore to pursue the professions they once had, and they found themselves with no money for food and shelter or other basic needs. Everything was gone. Afghanistan had reverted back to a jihadi state run by a tyrannical regime bent on the annihilation of LGBTQI+ people. There was no democracy left in Afghanistan and the mere listening to music from the privacy of your own home was banned—no Islamic country is this extreme in denying people from enjoying basic pleasures.

LGBTQI+ Afghans who registered themselves with Roshaniya, an advocacy and support group representing LGBTQI+ Afghans, found themselves on a magic list, akin to a Schindler's List—and have been given a chance to be evacuated and seek refuge in a different country. Today, 200 people have reached western countries and hundreds more have obtained valid passports and visas to Iran or Pakistan thanks to Roshaniya, which now has over 1700 LGBTQI+ Afghans vetted and approved for safe evacuation.

Afghanistan was never accepting of LGBTQI+ people throughout its history. But today, LGBTQI+ Afghans are moving back to square one. All the gains that were attained in the last two decades have been erased. The situation has magnified since LGBTQI+ people are not only being persecuted by the Taliban, but society more generally too. Even their families have turned against them. The Taliban are going into the communities and asking the village elders to hand over homosexuals community members. This mirrors the motto, if you don't turn them in, if you give them shelter, then we will do to you what we do to them.

Since being back in power, the Taliban have said LGBTQI+ rights are against Sharia law. In fact, being LGBTQI+ is the worst for of being in Islam, due be being homosexual, a sodomite, and a de-facto apostate (a lapsed Muslim). For this reason, there is simply zero tolerance for LGBTQI+ under Islamic jurisprudence. Although, believe it or not, there are also "moderate" Taliban members. These so-called “moderates” would have just kicked out the LGBTQI+ people and the other “degenerates” so they can preserve their Islamic utopia. The radicals, on the other hand, say, no, let's keep LGBTQI+ people as prisoners and slaves and wage a psychological warfare against all of them until they collectively fall to their demise.

The Taliban routinely check cell phones and if queer content is found they will beat and torture the LGBTQI+ people and, too often, prescribe “conversion therapy”—the Taliban gang rape gay men or transgender women to cure them of their homosexuality. Therefore, the priority should be in providing asylum protection to save as many LGBTQ+ people by relocating them to a safe haven.

Until the Taliban remain in power in Afghanistan, members of the LGBTQI+ community must be given a chance to relocate and resettle on a rolling basis. Every day a queer person is born, so that means we will continue our work for as long as the Taliban remain in control. Western governments and INGOs can no longer ignore the misery of LGBTQI+ Afghans. A lot of western governments want to shut down LGBTQI+ people in Afghanistan by keeping them out of sight, out of mind. But we cannot and must not look away. We have to stay the course until LGBTQI+ people in Afghanistan are finally free.

Nemat Sadat is the Executive Director of Roshaniya, an advocacy and support group for LGBTQI+ Afghans. He is also the author of a best-selling novel The Carpet Weaver, a Bildungsroman about a young gay Afghan man. He is also the winner of the 2022 PinkNews Campaigner of the Year award for his activism to secure safety for LGBTQI+ people in Afghanistan.

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