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(This article is based on phone conversations with members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Afghanistan. The Quint will be publishing many such oppressed voices from Afghanistan. Write to us at hope@thequint.com.)
(Trigger warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and physical violence. Reader discretion is advised.)
On 19 August, Afghanistan’s Independence Day, Sayed Fawad (name changed) joined a protest in Kabul to honour the country’s national flag that had been taken down by the Taliban.
The Islamist group’s crackdown on the demonstrators took away the last bit of hope he had.
Sayed Fawad is gay, and he is certain the Taliban will kill him.
He feels terrified as the Islamist group comes to power in Afghanistan again after 20 years. Even though the country’s previous US-backed government punished same-sex relationships with long imprisonment, he had managed to pursue his desires in secrecy.
A doctor by profession, Fawad had lived a quiet private life in Kabul with his partner.
“We used fake Facebook profiles on LGBTQIA+ groups, found each other, chatted for months, and then met in person,” he says.
“Being LGBT+ in Afghanistan was already a challenge, but now it's officially hell,” says Merzeh Mansoor (name changed), a bisexual woman and gender rights activist. She has gone into hiding since Kabul collapsed on 15 August.
The 23-year-old had been at the centre of one of Kabul’s many underground LGBT+ communities.
But now, none of her peers are reachable. Some have changed their numbers and others have escaped the country. “There is too much fear,” she says.
“No one can utter the word LGBTQIA+. The Taliban have their reservations against women, but LGBTQIA+ people, they just kill on the spot.”
Fawad and Mansoor are directing all their efforts towards escaping the country. However, the Afghanistan passport’s low-ranking status makes it next to impossible to get a visa from another country.
This has forced some Afghans to cross the borders illegally into neighbouring countries.
In recent days, Turkey has built a wall along its border to stop the refugee exodus. Artemis Akbary, a gay Afghan who works with an NGO that provides legal, psychological and financial help to LGBT+ asylum seekers, says:
Meanwhile, Afghans' pleas for help are getting more desperate with every passing day. “I got a video from a gay man who was living under a tree on the street because the Taliban burnt down the houses in his village,” he says.
Although the Taliban have been portraying themselves as more inclusive than before, Akbary doesn’t believe them.
“They will target and hunt the LGBTQIA+ community,” he says. “They are active on Facebook and Twitter and have already been honey-baiting gay men in Afghanistan. One man was allegedly raped by a Taliban soldier last Monday.”
The UK, the US, and Canada among other countries have announced plans to offer refuge to Afghans.
He has been compiling their details and documents, forming evacuation lists and sending them to Scott Peters’ office, the congressman of his district in San Diego.
But every time the State Department flags up a missing identity card or passport, he loses his patience. “They have made everything so bureaucratic,” he says. “People are leaving concentration camp-like conditions. It's a humanitarian crisis, and you are asking for ID proof?"
According to him, LGBT+ of Afghanistan have been trying to flee for years.
Alif Zafar (name changed), a 25-year-old gay man from a northern province of Afghanistan, who was disabled during a bomb blast as a child, has tried every trick in the book to escape. From applying to European countries for visas, trying to cross the border through the mountains to contacting international LGBT+ organisations, but nothing worked out.
“A man shouldn't cry, but thinking about my future, I just can’t stop the tears. It’s like a terrible nightmare, only there is no waking up.”
(Names have been changed to protect the respective individuals identities. Shivangi Vaswani is a freelance journalist with three years of experience. She covers cinema, music, fashion and food through a socio-cultural perspective.)
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Published: 24 Aug 2021,08:17 PM IST