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Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan at the end of August the persecution of the country’s LGBT+ community has ramped up, forcing many to live in hiding, fearing for their lives. “We now know for sure the Taliban has a ‘kill list’,” said the head of the Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian NGO helping under-threat Afghans to flee into exile.
The situation for the LGBT+ community in Afghanistan has never been easy. Same-sex relations have always been taboo in the Muslim-majority country, where – even under the former Western-backed government – non-heterosexual relations were illegal and could lead to up to two years in prison.
But since the Taliban came to power after the US military withdrawal on August 30, the situation has deteriorated rapidly. Although the militant group has not yet officially said how it plans to deal with acts of homosexuality, reports are increasingly suggesting that the Taliban is applying a strict interpretation of Sharia law, under which same-sex relations may be punishable by death.
“This is a really scary time to be in Afghanistan,” Executive Director Kimahli Powell of Rainbow Railroad, the only international LGBT+ organisation on the ground in Afghanistan, told FRANCE 24 in a telephone interview.
“We now know for sure the Taliban has a ‘kill list’ circulating, identifying LBTQI+ persons.”
According to Powell, the Taliban most likely profited from the power vacuum that took place in the days and weeks leading up to the US withdrawal deadline to draw up these “kill lists” by paying close attention to the names of people that foreign rights groups were trying to evacuate. “After the fall of Kabul, there was a lot of information sharing,” he said, noting that the people who never made it aboard any of the departing flights were instead…
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Source : france24
