Trigger warning: This article discusses accounts of severe abuse, including torture, sexual violence, and persecution. These details may be distressing for some readers. Reader discretion is advised.
The American news network CNN interviewed several LGBT+ individuals who were imprisoned in Afghanistan due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. There are allegations of specialised detention centres for LGBT+ people, described as places where prisoners face systematic physical and psychological abuse. For example, 24-year-old “Sano” told CNN he was taken to a facility specifically designed for torturing LGBT+ individuals. Nineteen-year-old “Sohrab” recounted being systematically raped by a guard: “The days after, I was still bleeding and in immense pain.”
Other sources corroborated accounts of prisoners being beaten, humiliated, and, in some cases, sexually abused. Reports also indicate that detainees are tortured into revealing the names of other LGBT+ individuals. Phones are confiscated and used by the Taliban to track other members of the community. Twenty-two-year-old “Abdul” recounted being pulled from a taxi after the Taliban discovered his social media accounts. He was taken to a detention facility for LGBT+ individuals, where he was tortured: “Every night, a large man would come to beat me,” Abdul said. “He strangled me multiple times. I often thought I would die.”
Western NGOs are working to help Afghan LGBT+ individuals flee the country, but it is unclear how many remain imprisoned. Since the Taliban’s takeover, communication with the country has become extremely difficult. Although Sohrab has managed to escape to another country, he remains unsafe, as homosexuality is also illegal there.
The human rights organisation Afghan Witness reports that corporal punishment against LGBT+ individuals is systematically practiced in Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the Taliban told CNN: “In Afghanistan, acts such as sodomy, bestiality, and other perversions contrary to Islamic law are illegal and are dealt with within the legal framework.” Despite several independent humanitarian organisations affirming contact with numerous tortured LGBT+ individuals, the spokesperson dismissed the claims: “These allegations are fabrications, as the alleged acts of torture, rape, persecution, and abuse themselves constitute explicit violations of the legal framework.”
