The anticipated terror for gay citizens of Afghanistan became real and have been confirmed by the brutal torture and murder of university student Hamed Sabouri.
Sabouri was stopped at a traffic checkpoint by Taliban gunmen in August and tortured for three days before being shot. Video of his execution was then sent to his family, who have now fled the country for their own safety.
“The Taliban murdered Hamed and sent the video to his family and me,” said Bahar, Sabouri’s partner. “Hamed’s family have fled and I have been in hiding. We were like any other couple around the world in love but the Taliban treat us like criminals. They’ve killed the love of my life and I don’t know how I’ll live without him.
“I have been receiving threats from the Taliban again and I am now on the run. I have many friends from the LGBTQ+ community here in Afghanistan who have also keen kidnapped and tortured. I was arrested by the Taliban in August 2021 and again in May and June this year and was raped, beaten and tortured with electric shocks.”
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LGBTQ+ rights organisations in Afghanistan say the mounting violence led many in the LGBTQ+ community to attempt to leave the country and forced thousands of others into hiding.
“The biggest fear that every LGBTQ+ person in Afghanistan has right now is that they will become the next Hamed Sabouri,” said Nemat Sadat, founder of LGBTQ+ rights group Roshaniya.
“This has been their predicament ever since the Taliban returned to power. The news of Hamed’s brutal death continues to put our community on edge but we won’t let Hamed’s life go in vain. We will continue to fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ Afghans to escape execution and live a long, and happy life in a free country.”
In an email Haseeb Sabouri, Hamed’s brother, confirmed that the family sold their two homes in Afghanistan and travelled to Turkey. “We fled from Afghanistan due to threats and murder of Hamed,” he said. “We fled because the Taliban came to our home every day to harass and threaten us.”
According to Insider: Bahar is the media outreach officer of Behesht — a collective for LGBTQ Afghans.In a statement provided to Insider, Behesht said: “The Taliban didn’t only kill Hamed Sabouri. They buried the aspirations of 1,250 Afghan LGBTQ+ who are part of Behesht Collective and the hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ+ outside of our network who remain stuck in Afghanistan.”
The statement continued: “If the world doesn’t help us, then we will all be gone like Hamed. Please help us get out of this hellhole.”
When the Taliban took over, Insider spoke to several gay men in Afghanistan who described how they were living in fear. One Afghan activist predicted gay people in Afghanistan would be “weeded out and exterminated.”
In a January 2022 report by Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International, LGBTQ Afghans described fleeing their homes, being attacked by family members, and being gang-raped by Taliban members.
