TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
LGBT+ Afghans struggle for work and food as Taliban threats grow
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Choke point: A Taliban fighter checks a motorist’s documents on Dec. 23, 2021 at a checkpoint in Kabul. (AFP/Wakil Kohsar)
A
fghans of the LGBT+ community are facing increasing threats and violence five months since the Taliban seized power, with many forced into hiding and unable to earn a living amid the worsening economic crisis, researchers said on Wednesday.
Sixty LGBT+ Afghans who were interviewed by rights groups said the community was being targeted by members of the hardline Islamist movement and their supporters, making it too risky for them to work or even to leave their homes.
Two gay men said they had been raped by Taliban fighters, while many others said they had been threatened or attacked, as cited in the report by Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International, an LGBT+ nonprofit.
With Afghanistan's economy deep in crisis and millions at risk of starvation this winter, many of those interviewed said their inability to go out to work was an even bigger concern.
"A lot of queer people have lost their jobs," said Nihan, a trans woman who left her job at a print shop after the Taliban swept back into power last August.
"Even if they hide themselves, the problem is they need to feed themselves," she told the report's researchers.
Sex work, dancing and entertaining at parties were common jobs for trans women in Afghanistan, but such activities have dramatically declined and become much more dangerous under the Taliban, the report said.
