Afghanistan, Asia

Afghanistan is a crossroads between the East and the West, and has been an ancient focal point of trade and migration. During its long history, the land has seen various invaders and conquerors as well as local tribes invading the surrounding regions to form their own empires. In 1919 it regained full independence from the United Kingdom. Since the late 1970s Afghanistan has suffered continuous and brutal civil war in addition to foreign interventions such as the 1979 Soviet invasion and the recent 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Overt homosexuality and cross-dressing have been serious crimes and became capital crimes in the 1990s. (In secret it's different.) Regime change has made no difference in the legal status of LGBT people. Also see: Islam and Homosexuality

 

 

LGBTQ+ Afghans plead with United Nations to investigate horrific Taliban abuses: ‘End the silence’

LGBTQ+ Afghans are pleading with the United Nations to investigate the murder, rape and persecution inflicted upon them by the Taliban. Rainbow Afghanistan, a grassroots organisation that campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, has hit out at the UN and other human rights organisations for ignoring their community in a furious open letter. The… Read more »

‘They Torture And Kill Us’: Gay Afghan Men Fear For Lives Under The Taliban

https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/torture-murder-gay-afghan-men-lgbt-taliban/32119338.html Source – gandhara.rferl.org

Meet the brave transgender refugee staging the ‘world’s first’ LGBTQ+ Afghan protest

“Life before the Taliban was also not easy for us, but after the coming of the Taliban, everything was totally destroyed.” Afghanistan has never been a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people, but for trans women like Ozlam, the Taliban takeover in August 2021 plunged her into danger in a way she’d never experienced before. Overnight,… Read more »

Afghanistan gay rights

As the Taliban appeared on every corner of Kabul, Marwa and her friend — both gay Afghans — took the drastic decision to become husband and wife. The hurried marriage was conducted with no ceremony or family around them. “I was telling myself that the Taliban would come and kill me,” the 24-year-old told AFP… Read more »

Six Islamic militants sentenced to death for brutal murder of gay rights activists

Six members of an Islamic militant group have been sentenced to death for the brutal murder of two prominent Bangladeshi gay rights activists. Bangladesh’s LGBT+ community was left in shock in April 2016 when Xulhaz Mannan, 35, and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, 25, were found hacked to death in Mannan’s apartment. Mannan was the editor of… Read more »

Taliban cut Afghan man’s body into pieces to ‘show what they do with gay people’

A gay man in Afghanistan has described how the Taliban killed his boyfriend and “cut his body into pieces” to “show what they do with gay people”. The 26-year-old, going by the pseudonym of “Gabir” to protect his identity, told the i that he and his boyfriend were sitting in a restaurant together in Afghanistan’s… Read more »

Column: The Taliban’s return means death for LGBTQ Afghans. Biden, will you help?

President Biden is held in high regard in the LGBTQ community, largely for his “Meet the Press” interview in 2012, when as vice president he endorsed same-sex marriage ahead of President Obama. As the boss now, Biden has continued that support: bringing Pride Month celebrations back to the White House and creating an administration with… Read more »

Afghan soldiers are using boys as sex slaves, and the U.S. is looking the other way

Kabul – Last summer, an Afghan police commander invited me to his post for tea — and to view his “beautiful” boy sex slave. I stumbled through a farm of chest-high opium poppy stocks to reach his mud-and-wattle outpost on the outskirts of Tarin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province that is teetering in… Read more »

What It’s Like Growing Up Gay in Afghanistan

Whether Omar Mateen was gay or had any kind of sexual feelings for other men, same-sex attraction in Afghanistan, where his family was from, is shrouded in its own mystery. We were sitting on the cliffs as darkness fell, obscuring our view of the niches across from us where the giant Buddhas had for centuries… Read more »

Kandahar LGBT Pride

View Pride Video Here Source – YouTube

Gay Afghan defies tradition to expose identity

Hamid Zaher is a young Afghan pharmacist, now living in Toronto in Canada. He has defied Afghan tradition by writing a searingly honest memoir about what it was like to be a gay man in Afghanistan. The book has never been published in his home country, where homosexuality is a criminal offence punishable by death.… Read more »

Afghanistan sees rise in ‘dancing boys’ exploitation

Dehrazi, Afghanistan — The 9-year-old boy with pale skin and big, piercing eyes captivated Mirzahan at first sight. “He is more handsome than anyone in the village,” the 22-year-old farmer said, explaining why he is grooming the boy as a sexual partner and companion. There was another important factor that made Waheed easy to take… Read more »

Afghanistan’s accidental gay pride

The embarrassment over the trend for rainbow flags on cars in Kabul reminds us how far Afghanistan is from the liberal west If you are gay and proud, Afghanistan is quite likely the last place on earth to show it publicly. How, then, are we supposed to make sense of the recent very conspicuous appearance… Read more »

Gay Afghanistan News & Reports 2007-11

More information about Islam & Homosexuality al-fatiha-news Middle East Youth Gay Islam discussion groups: Muslim Gay Men     LGBT muslim Queer Jihad           Bi-muslims Trans-muslims       Lesbian muslims 1 Boys of the Taliban 1/07 2 Stigma, Lack of Education, Prevention Efforts Fueling Spread of HIV 3/07 3 A New Sorrow for Afghanistan: AIDS Joins List 3/07 4 Dancing… Read more »

Gay Afghanistan News & Reports 2002-06

  Also see: Islam and Homosexuality More information about Islam & Homosexuality can be found at: www.al-fatiha.org Other articles of interest can be found at: groups.yahoo.com/group/al-fatiha-news Queer Muslim magazine: Huriyah Gay Islam discussion groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/muslimgaymen     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lgbtmuslim http://groups.yahoo.com/group/queerjihad          http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bimuslims http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transmuslims       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lesbianmuslims 1 Startled marines find Afghan men all made up to see them 5/02 Three similar… Read more »

Gay Afghanistan News & Reports 2001

  Also see: Islam and Homosexuality More information about Islam & Homosexuality can be found at: www.al-fatiha.org Other articles of interest can be found at: groups.yahoo.com/group/al-fatiha-news Queer Muslim magazine: Huriyah Gay Islam discussion groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/muslimgaymen     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lgbtmuslim http://groups.yahoo.com/group/queerjihad          http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bimuslims http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transmuslims       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lesbianmuslims 1 The Untold War: Boys Abused by War and Captors (Los Angeles Times) 7/01       ( A… Read more »

An American Lesbian in Central Asia–Interview and Personal Commentary

American Lesbian(AL): Dear GlobalGayz, I found your stories about Afghanistan to be of interest because I myself spent the past year living in Central Asia and have observed similar homoerotic behavior among my Central Asian (male) roommates. I also was many times at loss between what constituted as play, bullying, and true homoeroticism. I believe… Read more »