'They Kill Us Very Brutally,' Says Kabul Gay Man of What to Expect Under the Taliban

Expect the worst says a gay Afghan about what the local LGBTQ+ population can expect from the Taliban. "They kill us very brutally," he explained to the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. "Not like the others who they kill with a gun or a bullet."

The man is trapped in Kabul, saying the "Taliban are hunting us." His identity has been concealed to protect him.

The Taliban is expected to implement a�stringent interpretation of Sharia law, which means homosexuality would be punishable by death, EDGE reported this week. Earlier this summer�the German newspaper Bild�reported how a radical Islamic judge explained how he would implement punishment against gays. "There are only two penalties for gays: Either stoning or he has to stand behind a wall that falls on him.�The wall must be 2.5 to 3 meters high."

In the video interview, the Kabul man explained that the Taliban is promising a gay purge. "There are so many videos where they comment that they enjoy the killing of LGBT people," he says. "... They will use fire, or they will behead or stone us, and they will enjoy it. It's acceptable for them."

Asked what the emotional toll has been on himself and his friends, the man broke down, explaining how he's lost his best friend to suicide. "He had no one. I was trying to encourage him, to give him hope, but he's not coming back, and I can't forget that moment."

He concluded: "He was living like a shadow, and he went like a shadow. No was here to listen to his voice."

In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, US Special Forces sniper Tim Kennedy, who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, said he had personally seen Taliban fighters burning homosexuals alive and throwing them off of roofs, the Daily Mail report continued.
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Nancy Kelley, chief executive of LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall, said: "For years LGBTQ+ Afghans have had to endure routine discrimination, abuse and persecution, including by the state. With the Taliban in power, we expect this situation to deteriorate further," she told i News.

Another gay Afghan man told Business Insider how his life has been a "nightmare" since the Taliban took over. "I just hope that somebody comes and wakes me up from this bad dream," the 37-year-old gay Afghan (who used the pseudonym Raheed) told Insider during a phone call.

"Rameen, who works for the United Nations, once enjoyed Afghanistan's vibrant 'underground' gay scene.�

"Even though homosexuality was illegal, he said he felt relatively safe making his weekly visit to a clandestine karaoke bar in Kabul to sing and dance with other members of the country's hidden LGBTQ+ communities. "It was fantastic and so much fun," Rameen recalled.

Today, though, he fears to see his boyfriend of three years. "If the Taliban finds out about us, they'll sentence us to death," Rameen said, crying. "I think we will have to stop our relationship."

Nemat Sadat, the first public figure in Afghanistan to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, told Insider that he is helping gay Afghans like Sayed apply for asylum and leave the country.

"It's not hyperbolic to say that gay people will get weeded out and exterminated by the Taliban, just like the Nazis did," he said.�"People are messaging me saying here's my passport, here's all my information, please get me out of this country, I'm going to die."

"Sadat was an organizer of a nascent LGBTQ rights movement in Afghanistan while working as a political science professor at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul. After receiving death threats, including a�fatwa issued against him,�he left the country in 2013 to live in the United States," writes Business Insider.

Not that the cultural attitudes of Afghans towards homosexuality changed much during the past twenty years.

"Since the Taliban's extremist regime was overthrown in the U.S. invasion of 2001, the flow of information into Afghanistan has helped boost awareness, but understanding and tolerance of homosexuality are still a long way off, even compared to regional neighbors," the Associated Press wrote in 2016. "Russia is notoriously intolerant toward homosexuals, but the practice itself is legal. In China, homosexuality was legalized in 1997 and removed from the official list of mental illnesses in 2001.

"Young gay men in Afghanistan still largely grow up with identity crises, waiting for perplexing feelings to subside and make way for 'normality'"