This article contains discussion of anti-gay murder.
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the abductions of many more. Within the amount of people abducted, men, women, and children, reports of specifically LGBTQs individuals going missing or being horrifically murdered have risen in the news.
The Taliban, according to the Brittanica dictionary, is defined as the “ultraconservative political and religious faction that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the collapse of Afghanistan’s communist regime, and the subsequent breakdown in civil order.” Under the Taliban, 243,000 known individuals have died from 2001-2022. This is men, women, and children, with many of the deaths being those belonging to civilians.
In August 2022, a gay man by the name of Hamed Sabouri was kidnapped, then shot in the back of the head, by members of the Taliban. This horrible, brutal murder was videotaped and sent to his family, specifically his mother. A friend of Sabouri’s, Bahar, immediately purged his phone of any and all evidence that the two were friends upon finding out about his friend’s murder. Bahar is a part of the Behesht Collective, an LGBTQ activist group in Afghanistan that fights for LGBTQ+ rights.
Since seizing power, the Taliban and members thereof have been systematically hunting down and murdering LGBTQ people. Anyone suspected to be LGBTQ is in danger. Their social media accounts are checked, and their phones routinely confiscated and looked through by the members of the Taliban.
Bahar told Pink News, “Life is hell for every LGBT Afghan. Taliban terrorists are worse than wild animals.” Bahar also described Sabouri as a shy man with an infectious laugh who wanted to become a doctor.
An advocate and activist for LGBTQ rights, Nemat Sedat, stated that the death of Hamed Sabouri and other LGBTQ victims is directly caused by inaction on the part of western governments. When the U.S. government pulled the troops out of Afghanistan, the Taliban took over.
Hamed Sabouri was 22.
Photo Courtesy of Elham Sawiz’s Twitter.
