LGBT + Afghanist said on Friday they felt abandoned by the international community as the closing of Kabul airport to passengers this week destroyed their expectations to escape from the Taliban rules.
Many LGBT + have been hiding since the Islamic militia seized power last month, afraid of returning to the 1996-2001 group rule of the group when imposing Islamic radical shapes, or Islamic law.
“(Overseas government) should help us get out of here,” said a gay student by telephone from Kabul, after trying to get up to one of the last evacuation flights abroad last week.
“Things become more desperate every day (and) we have been abandoned,” students, whose name and age have been detained to protect their identity, told.
He said guards at Hamid Karzai International Airport, who had come out of this week’s action, reversing him despite having the right documentation.
Taliban, who is preparing to announce a new government on Friday has tried to face a more moderate face since returning to power, promising to protect human rights and refrain from retaliation against old enemies.
But some LGBT + said they were afraid of their lives, quoting reports of gay men stoned to death during the last rule of the Taliban.
“My life is in danger,” said a gay teacher by telephone from Kabul.
He also tried hard to go in airlift led U.S which evacuated more than 123,000 people from Kabul since the Taliban took over, but left tens of thousands of Afghans who were vulnerable.
“It can be very dangerous for me and my family too, because if they find out about my sexual orientation, they will take us to the desert and kill us by throwing stones at us or shooting us in the head,” The teacher said.
A Taliban spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
‘They don’t care’ LGBT + people have faced significant threats in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover, said Patricia Gossman, Associate Director, Asian Division, on Human Rights Watch.
“Many have undergone underground life for fear of violence,” he said.
“This fear is now enlarged with the ruling Taliban, considering that the group is generally a brutal response to those who are considered to violate the religious code.” A British television station said last week a Afghan gay man was captivated by hiding by Taliban guerrillas, before being beaten and raped by two men.
In July, a Taliban judge told the German news magazine Bild the only punishment suitable for gay men “stoned, or he had to stand behind the wall that would fall to him”.
Sadat’s nucuk advice, an American-American gay that left his homeland as a baby, was then taught at Afghan American University from 2012 to 2013, spent several weeks to help LGBT + Afghanistan escape from the country.
He helped rent five buses to take around 175 LGBT + to the airport last week, but they could not pass through the perimeter gate and finally sent home because of a bomb attack warning.
With a list of more than 360 LGBT + Afghanistan desperate to go, Sadat said the international community must do more.
“They don’t care about getting out people out, they don’t,” he said.
“Because if they really care, then those words will be supported by action.” Some LGBT + pairs have been separated in a hurry to leave Afghanistan.
The teacher from Kabul said his girlfriend had managed to escape from evacuation flights and is now in a refugee camp in Qatar.
He was afraid they might never reunite.
“I got lost …
the only person I loved,” he said.
“Everything is heartbreaking.
Life has become meaningless to me.”