When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, it left many locals in fear of their lives. For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Afghans, it was especially terrifying. Not because they had a safety under the occupied forces that they would lose but because the Taliban regime specifically stated that they would not respect the rights of LGBT people. They knew that would open the door to abuses not just from Taliban members and sympathizers but from family and friends.

All their worst fears have now been confirmed in the first detailed report about LGBT Afghans since the western forces, including Australia, departed. Two organisations – Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International – joined to bring these stories to the world in their report titled: ‘Even if You Go to the Skies, We’ll Find You’: LGBT People in Afghanistan After the Return of the Taliban.

In this World Wide Wave podcast we hear from: Walid Muhammadi, a human rights activist who fled Afghanistan; Heather Barr, the Associate Director of Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch; and J Lester Feder, Senior Fellow for Emergency Research at OutRight Action International.