Afghanistan: Taliban sends family video of gay son’s execution
mambaonline.comThe horrific execution of 22-year-old gay medical student Hamed Sabouri by the Taliban in Afghanistan has highlighted the worsening plight of LGBTQ+ people in that country as the world stands by and watches. According to Sabouri’s family and boyfriend, he was stopped by Taliban gunmen at a checkpoint in Kabul in August.
He was then tortured for three days before being shot in the head and neck more than 12 times. The family, who have now fled the country in fear for their lives, learnt of Sabouri’s death when the Taliban sent them a graphic four-second video of his execution. “The Taliban murdered Hamed and sent the video to his family and me,” Bahar, Sabouri’s partner, told The Guardian. “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.” Bahar said he’d himself been arrested three times by the Taliban in the past year and had been raped, beaten and tortured with electric shocks.
He added that he had many LGBTQ+ friends in Afghanistan who have also been kidnapped and tortured. Behesht Collective, an LGBTQ+ group in Afghanistan, pleaded for international assistance in getting desperate LGBTQ people out of the country. “The Taliban didn’t only kill Hamed Sabouri.
