Human Rights Watch warns about the dangers that the LGTBI community faces with the Taliban
La LGBT community in Afghanistan faces a desperate situation, with serious threats to his security since the taliban returned to power and with a number of them trying to escape the country, the organization warned on Tuesday Human Rights Watch in a joint statement with Out Rithg Action International.
The 43-page report titled "We will find you even if you go to space» is based on interviews with sixty Afghans identified as gay, bisexual or transgender, living in Afghanistan or in nearby countries and who have been attacked by the Taliban or by relatives or neighbors sympathetic to them.
Gang rapes, beatings and expulsions
The attacks consist of gang rapes, beatings or expulsions from their homes to the streets, where their defenselessness is even greater. And although in the previous era the laws did not protect them either, «now it is hard to imagine how devastating and terrifying the return of the taliban has been«, who already in his previous government (1996-2001) made life very difficult for homosexuals.
El Taliban Ministry of Vice and Virtue published in 2020 a manual of conduct in which religious leaders prohibited homosexual relations and explained that any accusation of homosexual inclinations should be addressed to the ministry so that it defines the punishment.
Few options
"for those people LGBT who want to flee the country, there are few good options; most of Afghanistan's neighbors also criminalize same-sex relationships. It's hard to overstate how devastating and terrifying the return of Taliban rule has been for LGBT Afghans."Says J. Lester Feder, researcher at OutRight Action International.
A large part of the LGTB interviewees have tried to flee the country, but the easiest way is Pakistan, where homosexuality is also persecuted there, so there are very few who have reached a destination considered safe, as is the case of United Kingdom, which has announced to have welcomed a small number of them.
«The Taliban have explicitly proclaimed that they will not respect the rights of LGBT people. It is extremely important that the governments concerned put pressure on the Taliban to respect them and recognize the right of asylum to LGTB facing the risk of persecution", said the deputy director of women of HRW, Heather Barr.
It is important that the authorities of our country fail to reach the Talibans with the misstatement of respect that the LGTBI population deserves. It would also be expected that the Spanish government will accept without restrictive measures, the LGTBIQ + people who come from Afghanistan due to their special status of prohibition to the country.