The Future Prospects for Gays in Afghanistan

[PeterRS]

So President Biden has announced the ending of the USA's 20 year war in the blighted country of Afghanistan. Whether this is a good or a bad decision only time will tell. But there are plenty of pointers to what is likely to happen - and this is not a good omen for both women and members of the fragile LGBTQ community.

Factually, to call Afghanistan a 20 year war is a misnomer. The USA has been fighting in Afghanistan virtually since a massive Soviet airlift dropped troops into the country in 1979. Not officially of course. That's not the US way. Clandestinely as it had in Vietnam and Laos, it used the CIA. So pissed off was the rest of the civilized world at the Soviet Union's attempt to maintain a friendly regime in Kabul that, led by the CIA, it started fuelling masses of cash and arms to a coalition of Muslim guerrilla groups. As often in war, the result on the surface might have been so ineffective for the Soviets that after 10 years they finally left having achieved nothing.  Underneath the surface, however, the CIA had created the breeding ground that was to result in the rise of an expansionist militant Islam led by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. bin Laden did not fight, but he attracted Islamic militants from all over the region and the Middle East to join his movement in helping to make life misery for the Soviets.

The development of Al Qaeda was to result in an American disaster in Sudan and ultimately to 9/11. Unwittingly, the USA had created the conditions that gave rise to that terrible event. But then, if its State Department officials had bothered to look back through history, they would surely have realised that while CIA actions had frequently had short term benefits, they had led to long-term disasters. Getting rid of the democratically elected government in Iran in the early 1950s and putting its weight behind the increasingly hated Shah, led directly to the development of that country as an aggressive Islamic State. Paying no attention to Ho Chi Minh's written entreaties to keep the French from returning to their colonies in Indo-China after 1945, the strongly anti-colonialist governments of Roosevelt and Truman remarkably paid no attention, instead sowing the seeds of America's worst War leading to over 50,000 casualties and humiliation after the fall of Saigon.

Afghanistan looks like it will become a similar disaster. Radical Islam and Shariah law will continue and spread its tentacles. Different tribes will continue fighting each other. Women, for 20 years liberated to a certain extent through being able to attend school and university, will be confined to the home and again forced to wear the full black burqa when outside. Forced marriages and honour killings will again become more common.

The American presence in Afghanistan may not have had a major effect on easing restrictions on the LGBTQ community. "To be openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender in Afghanistan is to risk abuse, even death," said Patricia Gossman, Associate Director of Human Right Watch. "In Afghanistan, same-sex relations are punishible by five to 15-years in prison under a law that bans all sex between individuals not married to each other, Afghan law specifies that marriage is between man and a women," she added. But like everywhere in the world, there are Afghan gay men and women. The Telegraph article below highlights the problem of one 39-year old gay man and his relationship of 3 years with a government employee younger than him. They share an apartment but both have to hide their sexuality when outside. He was forced into a marriage. His wife and two children fled the war-torn country some years ago. He tried to leave but was repatriated back. He met his boyfriend through Facebook.

Many of Kabul's 6 million inhabitants are in the same situation, although they must live with their families and face the constant fear of being found out. Kabul has one gay pub down a backstreet. Yet, as a result of the prohibition about sex between men and women before marriage, sex between men has a long tradition in Afghanistan. A professor who wrote of a conversation with a mullah in 2002 stated the mullah told her that between 20% to 50% of males engage in sex with another man prior to marriage. This translates to between 18% and 45% of men in the country.

It is highly unlikely this was the case when the Taliban rules the country in the 1990s. Those accused of sodomy or homosexual rape were crushed to death by a brick wall. Yet many accused the Taliban of hypocrisy since not a few kept secret young male lovers. When they grew up, some also married them off to their daughters. But such behaviour is generally not regarded as gay. More, it is the prohibition about sex with a woman who is not your wife.

Whatever, once the Taliban are back in control after the Americans depart, to think they will have changed is surely cloud cuckoo land. This sad country which has been fought over and dominated by other powers for the better part of 2,500 years will be left to fend for itself. For the LGBTQ community that must be a dreaded prospect. Facebook and even one gay bar are unlikely to be tolerated.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/life-hiding-kabuls-gay-community-driven-underground/

https://www.globalgayz.com/gay-afghanistan-after-the-taliban-homosexuality-as-tradition/336/

[PeterRS]

Staying on this topic before Afghanistan disappears again into the sea of fog left after a long and pointless war, there is an interesting article in today's Guardian in the UK about Britain's involvement. It points out that in 2001/2 the US neo-cons had decided on a short war not just to wipe out bin Laden in his mountain lair but then to extend it to topple the entire Afghan regime. Britain and some other countries tagged along. When the US wanted to get out and concentrate on "nation building" in Iraq, it was the Brits who wanted to stay. The objective? "To wipe out terror, build a new democracy, liberate women and create a 'friend in the region'. I had an eerie sense of Britain in 1839 embarking on the First Afghan War," notes the journalist. British PM Tony Blair even sent a Minister to help eliminate the poppy crop. The result? "It increased production from six provinces to 28, and raised poppy revenue to a record $2.3bn."

In 2005 the Brits marched toward Helmand. The commanding British General "in imperial mode" was "adamant that it would be just a matter of winning hearts and minds in friendly 'inkspot' towns. His defence secretary, John Reid, hoped this would be achieved 'without firing one shot'”.  It was such a disaster the US had to send 10,000 marines to rescue them minus the 454 British troops who had been killed. Four years later PM Brown defended Britain's involvement as being "to make British streets safe!"

Of the $2 trillion spent on the war and aid by the USA, "billions" are said to have left Afghanistan, much of it to the Dubai property market.

The article asks what the US and UK intervention actually achieved. "The military theorist Gen Sir Rupert Smith, in his book The Utility of Force*,  has pointed out that modern armies are almost useless in counter-insurgency wars. They have roamed the Middle East from Afghanistan to Libya, 'creating one ruined nation after another.'"

In the meantime the Taliban need only sit and wait. Thereafter the country will be theirs and their hard-line ideology will have won.

May the good Lord of every faith look after the women and the LGBTQ community thereafter.

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/16/20-years-western-intervention-afghanistan-terro

*The Utility of Force by General Sir Rupert Smith published by Vintage is available on amazon kindle. "He brilliantly lays bare the newfound limits of Western military power.” —The New York Times Book Review

[fedssocr]

At this point there doesn't seem to be any easy answer. The US can't stay there forever. The GLBT community and women are treated very badly in many places around the world. Groups like Rainbow Railroad offer some hope and help for getting GLBT people out of those countries, but it's difficult work that is expensive with a huge backlog of people seeking help.

[PeterRS]

10 hours ago, fedssocr said:

At this point there doesn't seem to be any easy answer. The US can't stay there forever. The GLBT community and women are treated very badly in many places around the world. Groups like Rainbow Railroad offer some hope and help for getting GLBT people out of those countries, but it's difficult work that is expensive with a huge backlog of people seeking help.

Sadly I agree. The world can do little for a country that has been fucked over by so many greater powers with yet another tyrannical regime tied to a fierce interpretation of a religion about to take over. The future is bleak for gays. Some would argue that this has been true for centuries - and they are probably correct. The real sadness, though, is that, as in their other war follies, when western powers have invaded countries of whose history, culture, customs, aspirations etc. they know precious little, they have done so spouting the goodies their invasions will bring - democracy, freedoms, rights for women, proper education, protection for minorities. Tell that to the Iraqis! It's a load of crap! 

No invading country should be given the authority to open a door promising a brighter future unless it is actually prepared to hunker down and deliver that future. Slamming the door in its citizens' faces as you depart with your tail between your legs just because you screwed up and got bogged down in an unwinnable war should be total humiliation. "Oh I'm really sorry you gays and women of Afghanistan" but it now no longer serves US interests to try and protect you. You are on your own again . Fuck you!