The Taliban Will Enjoy Killing Us’: Gay Man Trapped In Afghanistan

The Taliban will enjoy killing us’: Gay man trapped in
Afghanistan says extremists ‘are hunting us – they will set
us on fire, behead or stone us’
A gay man trapped in Kabul has said the Taliban ‘are
hunting us’ as he gave a harrowing description of what a
life under the extremists’ rule would look like for the
LGBTQ+ community.
The man, whose identity has been concealed for his own
safety, said the Taliban would take pleasure in hunting
down and killing LGBTQ+ people in an exclusive interview
with MailOnline.
‘They kill us very brutally. Not like the others who they kill
with a gun or a bullet.
‘They will use fire, or they will behead or stone us, and
they will enjoy it – it’s acceptable to them.’
He went on to say his best friend committed suicide
because ‘no one was here to listen to his voice’.
‘I tried to encourage him, to give him hope, but he’s not
coming back and I can’t forget that moment.
‘He was living like a shadow, and he went like a shadow.’
The future for the LGBTQ+ community in Afghanistan
became particularly bleak when the Taliban rose to power
just weeks ago.
Afghan laws already prohibited homosexuality, as people
who engaged in same-sex sexual behaviour received
prison terms and were widely persecuted.
But under the Taliban’s extremist interpretation of Sharia
Law, homosexuality is strictly prohibited and punishable by
death – often in particularly brutal ways.
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.
Nancy Kelley, chief executive of LGBT rights charity
Stonewall said: ‘For years LGBTQ+ Afghans have had to
endure routine discrimination, abuse and persecution,
including by the state.