Warning: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.<\/p>\n
It was the early hours of the morning when a guard entered Sohrab\u2019s cell \u2013 a small, dark room with a barred window and a blanket on the floor \u2013 in Kabul\u2019s sprawling Pul-e-Charkhi prison last August. <\/p>\n
The 19-year-old was escorted to another room in the complex, where he heard a Taliban member order the prison guards to leave and stop anyone else from entering. Panic set in, for Sohrab knew what these words often preceded. He had experienced physical violence at the hands of the Taliban before. <\/p>\n
Sohrab was being detained at Pul-e-Charkhi on the charge of sodomy, after family members found out about his and his boyfriend\u2019s clandestine romance last year, he said. News of their relationship had spread through their tight-knit community, leading to his arrest and forced confession. <\/p>\n
They added: \u201cThese allegations are fabrications as the alleged claims of torture, rape, persecution and mistreatment are themselves explicit violations of the legal framework.\u201d <\/p>\n
A week after the first assault, his wounds still raw, Sohrab said he was raped again \u2013 and then a further four times by the same Taliban member. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole body was praying for my death,\u201d Sohrab said. \u201cEvery time, he would threaten me that if I dared to tell anyone about the rape, he would kill me with his own hands.\u201d Sohrab managed to leave Afghanistan, but lives in constant fear of further persecution, for the country he fled to also criminalizes homosexuality. <\/p>\n
The nonprofit added that it has relocated 252 LGBTQ Afghans to safe countries since 2021. <\/p>\n
Neela Ghoshal, senior director of law and policy at US-based charity Outright International, said that there could be a \u201cnumber of reasons\u201d why the Taliban is using sexual violence as a tool of repression against the LGBTQ community. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that so-called \u2018corrective rape\u2019 – which I think of as not corrective at all, but as bias-motivated rape that is often done to punish people – happens all over the world,\u201d she said, and is more about power than sexuality. <\/p>\n
In the context of Afghanistan, she said, some of the same Taliban members who are calling for LGBTQ people to be punished for same-sex relationships are also engaging in non-consensual and violent sexual abuse of men and boys. <\/p>\n
When the Taliban completed their lightning takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 \u2013 following the messy withdrawal of US-led troops after two decades of conflict \u2013 it wasn\u2019t clear how severely they would enforce their strict interpretation of religious laws against Afghanistan\u2019s LGBTQ community. <\/p>\n
Under the previous Western-backed government, same-sex sexual relations were already punishable by up to two years in jail, with LGBTQ people also facing harassment and violence from society and the police, according to the US Department of State. <\/p>\n
During the Taliban\u2019s resurgence, one Taliban judge said there were only two punishments for homosexuality \u2013 stoning or being crushed under a wall, according to Germany\u2019s Bild newspaper; others said the Islamist group had tempered its more radical attitudes. <\/p>\n
Afghan LGBT Organization has verified more than 50 cases of detention of LGBTQ people since August 2021, using documentation issued by the Taliban, such as letters and arrest warrants, and is working to verify a further 150 cases reported by individuals. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to estimate how many LGBTQ people have been detained in Afghanistan overall since 2021, Ghoshal said, thanks to a lack of reporting channels and a fear of reprisal for speaking out. <\/p>\n
But the Taliban certainly appear to have become more systematic in their persecution of LGBTQ people since regaining power, Ghoshal said. Some people have reported that officials are actively \u201chunting for them, coming to their houses, with arrest warrants issued,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Nazari, who fled before later being beaten and briefly detained by the Taliban, is now in a safe country but says living under Taliban rule is \u201cforever etched in my mind, memories of fear, helplessness, and loss of hope.\u201d <\/p>\n
Others have been detained over content found on their phones or posted on social media, suggesting the Taliban could be using the internet to track down members of the LGBTQ community, Akbary said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne night I was in a taxi to come home, (and) the Taliban stopped me and the taxi driver for a search,\u201d said Abdul, a 22-year-old gay man. \u201cThey saw my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. All the photos and content were LGBTQ,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Abdul had managed to flee to Iran following the Taliban\u2019s takeover in 2021, and then to Turkey, but he was deported back to Afghanistan in early 2024, he said. <\/p>\n
After two weeks held in this room, Abdul was transferred to a prison in Herat, northwestern Afghanistan, for a further six months, only being released when a friend paid the Taliban the equivalent of $1,200 to bail him out, he said. <\/p>\n
His family refused to have him back due to his sexuality being exposed, he said, and he now lives in hiding again, with no support from friends or relatives. \u201cI am still in the Taliban jail, but the only difference is that I am not inside a prison.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tracking the alleged abuse of LGBTQ detainees is a difficult task in a country stalked by fear of the Taliban and with heavy restrictions on media freedom. <\/p>\n
Much of it reportedly takes place behind closed doors in formal and informal detention facilities, said David Osborn, director of Afghan Witness, a human rights monitoring project run by the UK\u2019s Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), which specializes in open-source analysis. <\/p>\n
These flogging events involved 360 people, including 192 men, 40 women and 128 of unknown sex or gender, according to Afghan Witness data. <\/p>\n
But the exact number of those flogged for the charge of sodomy alone is unclear, as other offenses, such as adultery and having an \u201cillicit relationship,\u201d are often also listed, the organization said. It\u2019s also hard to know how many of these charges are leveled specifically against members of the LGBTQ community. <\/p>\n
Other human rights groups have documented instances of extrajudicial detention, conducted out of the public eye. In some of Afghanistan\u2019s provinces, this is signaled by a lack of the official documents usually issued in relation to someone\u2019s arrest or court case, Akbary said. <\/p>\n
Instead, Sano says, his phone memory card was taken, and he was locked in a windowless room for two weeks. \u201cI was tortured so much by the Taliban. Slapped. Beaten by them,\u201d the 24-year-old said in September. \u201cThe room was in darkness. I couldn\u2019t feel the sun.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sano claims the house was being used to detain other LGBTQ Afghans too. \u201cThere were many LGBTs brought to the house before me,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of them were killed. One of my partners was killed by them. Many LGBTs were there in the rooms.\u201d <\/p>\n
He was only released from detention when the Taliban were paid a fee, he said, facilitated by someone known by his father. He\u2019s now in hiding after discovering that the Taliban are trying to track him down again. <\/p>\n
In February, Afghan LGBT Organization and Outright International wrote a joint letter to Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN\u2019s under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, highlighting a \u201clack of inclusion of LGBTIQ perspectives in UN engagement on Afghanistan.\u201d <\/p>\n
Top UN officials and global envoys met with the Taliban in Qatar in June to discuss human rights concerns. But the talks sparked a backlash from human rights organizations for excluding Afghan women and other civil society groups. <\/p>\n
After the meeting, DiCarlo told a press conference that the \u201cconcerns and views of Afghan women and civil society were front and center, adding that those present \u201calso discussed the need for more inclusive governance and respect for the rights of minorities.\u201d <\/p>\n
Examples of the Taliban\u2019s curtailment of human rights in the country were documented in a September report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). But the report made no mention of LGBTQ people, including bisexual, lesbian and transgender men and women, Akbary said. \u201cIn general, the UN is ignoring the situation of LGBTQ people in Afghanistan,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
With little sign that the Taliban will improve their record on human rights, many in the country feel abandoned by the international community. <\/p>\n
Afghan women and LGBTQ people are united in their suffering, Abdul said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am a prisoner in a country called Afghanistan,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to hide from everyone, hide from family, hide from friends, hide from the government, hide from life.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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