Afghanistan’s LGBT+ community has been at the forefront fighting the ideological in the global war on radical Islam since the US invasion of the country in 2001 and the establishment of a transitional Afghan government. During those two decades, LGBT+ Afghans risked it all to legitimize the democratic experiment and usher social progress in Afghanistan, even hough they were themselves criminalized under the law and benefited the least from the tens of billions in aid that flowed into the country. When the Taliban took over in August 2021, the incremental gains that LGBT+ Afghans made were reversed overnight and since then they face an imminent threat of extermination under Sharia law. Does the international community want to be remembered for abandoning our LGBT+ brothers and sisters in Afghanistan to tyrannical terrorists or rescue the lives of the most vulnerable group in the country right now?

LGBT+ Afghans have fought for their rights in an extremely hostile environment. Following the Taliban's takeover in August 2021, the need for urgent support has intensified. Roshaniya works tirelessly to address these challenges and provide essential resources to evacuate LGBT+ Afghans to safety and empower them to be part of the collective emancipation of the entire community.

1. Relocation Support * Assisted 255 LGBT+ Afghans in relocating to countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Oman, and Spain. * Facilitated the evacuation of one gay man to Ireland via family reunification and helped nine others relocate to Pakistan, later resettling them in the UK.
2. Financial Aid Initiatives * Sponsored 45 Afghan Human Rights Defenders for $5,000 evacuation grants from the Urgent Action Fund, totaling $225,000 in direct financial support. * Provided $3,500 grants to three LGBT+ Afghans through Dignity for All. * Raised $50,000 via GoFundMe to assist over 700 LGBT+ Afghans with passports, visas, transportation, medical costs, and emergency food assistance
3. Transportation and Shelter * Collaborated with Coalition Plus to allocate $22,000 for charter flights, successfully transporting 15 Afghans from Kabul to Islamabad. * Evacuated 18 Afghans via minibus and covered their living expenses in Pakistan. * Secured safe housing for over 60 LGBT+ Afghans in Tehran, Iran, and Peshawar and Islamabad in Pakistan.
4. Community Support and Visibility *. Distributed $15,000 as Nowruz gifts to 150 Afghans in March 2022. * Provided $5,000 for the #LetUsLive campaign and historic protests, benefiting 115 Afghans. * Funded $2,900 for promoting the nomination of a key figure for the 2022 PinkNews Award. * Coached numerous individuals to become Human Rights Defenders and helped launch Behesht, a queer and trans collective in Afghanistan.
5. Advocacy and Training * Organized an in-house protest in Kabul for LGBT+ History Month on February 1, 2023. * Ensured international visibility through media connections, leading to over 100 published articles highlighting the plight of LGBT+ Afghans. * Linked donors in the West with at-risk individuals, facilitating humanitarian financial assistance. * Referred over a dozen individuals to NGOs for urgent medical aid, including critical reproductive health services.
6. Education and Skill Development * Hosted training sessions on data analysis and digital nomad visas.

To create a world where LGBT+ individuals in Afghanistan can live freely and safely, with access to equal rights, opportunities, and resources, empowering them to be advocates for their own communities and fostering a culture of acceptance and dignity.

Roshaniya, a registered 501c3 in the US, is an advocacy and support group dedicated to empowering LGBT+ Afghans to achieve equality and pursue a fulfilling life by helping them to escape state-sanctioned violence and relocate them to a safe haven. Roshaniya is the largest LGBT+ Afghan network dedicated to serving Afghanistan’s LGBT+ community. Roshaniya represents over 1500+ LGBT+ Afghans by helping them to evacuate Afghanistan and seek asylum protection in a safer country in the West. Additionally, we provide humanitarian relief and psychosocial support and offer training and tools to LGBT+ Afghan Human Rights Defenders so they may carry out their life-saving work. Roshaniya's main focus is to persuade the international community to provide long-term resettlement options (such as humanitarian visas) for LGBT+ Afghans. Roshaniya’s mission is to help persecuted LGBT+ Afghans live in a country where they can honor their gender identity and/or sexual orientation without fear of persecution. Our goals are as follows: 1) Help LGBT+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics to live freely. 2) Provide practical care support for emergencies of LGBT+ Afghans in danger of displacement and left in limbo in countries neighboring Afghanistan.

Ever since the Taliban takeover, US-based bestselling author Nemat Sadat — the first gay Afghan to come out publicly — has been trying to help LGBTQ members leave Afghanistan. Sadat had fled the country in 2013 after being fired from his teaching job at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul for being gay. In an interview, the exiled author tells Sharmila Ganesan-Ram why LGBTQ Afghans , who have been deprived of legal status for the last 20 years, feel they will be hunted down once the last evacuation flight leaves What is the current status of the LGBTQ community in Afghanistan ? The LGBTQ community is sitting on a knife’s edge. The Taliban can be seen roaming the streets from outside of people’s homes armed with their machine guns. Many LGBTQ people I’m in contact with believe that the Taliban will start hunting them down, especially once the US and the international community make their final exit and the last evacuation plane has left. One young gay Afghan man who goes by the nickname Ahmadullah, who had previously had his father and youngest brother killed by the Taliban, is devastated as his boyfriend got executed the same day that they rolled into Kabul this week. Ahmadullah was with his boyfriend and he urged him to go home. When Ahmadullah didn’t hear back from his boyfriend, he found out from a mutual connection, that his lover was beheaded by the Taliban because they noticed he was effeminate and recognised he could be a homosexual. Ahmadullah also can’t reach any of his other LGBTQ friends and believes they have either gone into hiding and are scared to trust anyone or they are missing. How big is the LGBTQ population there? The Taliban can be seen roaming the streets from outside of people’s homes armed with their machine guns. Many LGBTQ people I’m in contact with believe that the Taliban will start hunting them down, especially once the US and the international community make their final exit and the last evacuation plane has left. One young gay Afghan man who goes by the nickname Ahmadullah, who had previously had his father and youngest brother killed by the Taliban, is devastated as his boyfriend got executed the same day that they rolled into Kabul this week. Ahmadullah was with his boyfriend and he urged him to go home. When Ahmadullah didn’t hear back from his boyfriend, he found out from a mutual connection, that his lover was beheaded by the Taliban because they noticed he was effeminate and recognised he could be a homosexual. Ahmadullah also can’t reach any of his other LGBTQ friends and believes they have either gone into hiding and are scared to trust anyone or they are missing. How big is the LGBTQ population there? Nobody knows exactly but I’d venture to say upwards of 4 million — more or less — if the Kinsey scale holds true. According to the Alfred Kinsey research conducted during the mid-half of the last century, about 10% of a population is reported to be homosexual. Nobody knows exactly but I’d venture to say upwards of 4 million — more or less — if the Kinsey scale holds true. According to the Alfred Kinsey research conducted during the mid-half of the last century, about 10% of a population is reported to be homosexual. What about their status before the Taliban takeover? The LGBTQ community had no legal status for the past 20 years under President Hamid Karzai or President Ashraf Ghani’s reign, and still had to conceal their gender identity and sexual orientation out of fear of honour violence from their family, being beaten or harassed by society, or fined and raped by the Afghan National Police if they found out who they were. Despite these challenges, an underground LGBTQ community flourished, meeting in small groups at hookah bars, karaoke lounges or in the privacy of their homes. They disproportionately flocked to careers in the media and were the cultural makers, creating soap operas and talk shows that touched on taboo subjects, and contests where women sang on stage without a head covering. What’s your opinion on US president Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan? President Biden has been reckless in his withdrawal from Afghanistan. I mean how can we blame Ashraf Ghani or the Afghan National Army for not defending the Afghan people when the US sold out the Afghans to the Taliban and surrendered to Pakistan’s blackmail? How can Biden not reverse course on his withdrawal plan after terrorists from across the border in Pakistan reneged on the peace agreement with their hostile takeover of a democratically elected government that represented the will of the Afghan people? Last month, Biden promised that US withdrawal would not result in the Taliban toppling the democratically elected Afghan government. Biden was wrong. While the situation deteriorates in Afghanistan, girls as young as 12 are being kidnapped from their homes and raped while Afghan soldiers and those who worked for the West are massacred, their corpses left to the wayside. US withdrawal will now result in millions of Afghan women and girls becoming sex slaves. Tell us about how you’re trying to help. I’m trying to help LGBTQ Afghans get asylum visas and evacuated on the chartered flights that will continue to go until the end of this month, maybe bleeding into early next month depending on how the process goes. So far, I have 125 LGBTQ Afghans on my list and I’ve sent their names to the US State Department to process their visa and get clearance to board one of the chartered flights. I’ve done so through two channels. One, through a contact in Kabul who works for an NGO that has offered to help me get my LGTBQ applicants approved. The other is through my Congressman Scott Peters’ office. The constituency service person at Mr Peters’ office is acting as my liaison between me and the US State Department. I know it’s impossible to get millions of LGBTQ people out from Afghanistan within two weeks. But I have set a lofty goal for myself to get at least 1,000 LGBTQ Afghans airlifted to a safe haven and resettled in the US, Canada, the UK or a European country where they can rebuild their lives.