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Transgender Afghans escape Taliban persecution only to find “a worse situation” as refugees in Pakistan
Islamabad — Issues of gender and sexuality have long been taboo in ultra-conservative Afghanistan, and more so since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021. For some members of the LGBTQ community, the Taliban’s comeback seemed too much of a risk, so they fled to neighboring Pakistan with countless other Afghan refugees.
In late 2023, Pakistan started a controversial program to expel Afghan refugees who lack documentation, fueling fears in particular for LGBTQ refugees like Laila Khan and Jannat, young transgender women who met with CBS News at a guesthouse where they’ve been living in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
Human rights groups say hundreds, if not thousands, of Afghan transgender refugees have sought safety in Pakistan, and about 50 have already approached courts in Peshawar seeking protection.
Laila and Jannat tell CBS News that life under the Taliban was unbearable, but circumstances in Pakistan haven’t been much better.
The Taliban’s “truly depressing” takeover
Jannat, who didn’t want to use her full name, said growing up in Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion, with a Western-backed government in power, she “was luckily able to complete my education until grade 12, despite being unwanted and unwelcome in Afghan society.”
CBS News
Since the Taliban returned to power, however, Afghanistan’s transgender community has faced even harsher mistreatment. The Taliban regime does not recognize the existence of transgender people as a group, so there is no way for them to seek justice when they face gender-based abuse or discrimination.
“We were relatively safe in Afghanistan before the Taliban came, but after their victory and takeover, we could not even walk outside,” Khan told CBS News. “It is truly depressing.”
She told CBS News about a time she says she was chased home by Taliban security forces.
“They reached my home and told my parents to ‘keep that piece of shame at home,” she said. They also warned her parents to prevent her from “corrupting others.”
“This is not my fault,” she said. “I didn’t choose this as God made me this way.”
“We are in a worse situation”
Jannat and Laila decided they were no longer safe in their country — though Jannat said she’d had serious concerns about seeking safety in Pakistan.
“I used to read about the violence against transgenders in Pakistan,” she said. “It made me scared, but I had no choice.”
They both crossed into Pakistan with help from a European organization dedicated to helping members of the Afghan transgender community. But they told CBS News that transgender Afghans face many of the same security concerns in Pakistan that they had in their own country.
“Being an Afghan refugee is not easy in Pakistan, it’s even harder to be a transgender refugee in a country that is not so welcoming to the LGBTQ community,” Khan said.
Khan said she’s faced discrimination since arriving in Pakistan, including by a landlord who refused to rent her a home when he saw that she was transgender.
“I had the money. I was able to afford it. The landlord had the paperwork ready, but once he saw us, his attitude changed and he declined the tenancy agreement,” she said.
Khan said she faced regular harassment and discrimination in Islamabad, including fellow passengers on a packed bus refusing to come near her, a taxi driver who verbally harassed her, and even police officers whom she said “tried to touch my private parts after I was stopped at a checkpoint, to find my sexual status, which was humiliating.”
“In Pakistan we are in a worse situation,” said Jannat, “because the hatred toward refugees is prominent here, but then when the authorities discover that we are transgender, they act even worse with us… I can’t even go to the doctor or to the shops.”
Rights granted, but not guaranteed?
“Pakistani citizens who are transgender or members of the third gender are a recognized minority group and are thus entitled to certain civil rights, but it is not always the case” for refugees, Khan told CBS News. Third gender refers to individuals who do not identify as either male or female.
Hayat Roghani, lawyer who has represented transgender Afghan refugees in cases at the high court in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar, told CBS News that transgender people are a recognized minority group under Pakistani law, which entitles them to certain civil rights including, for Pakistani nationals, property ownership and voting.
“Afghanistan has absolutely nothing for transgenders,” he said, adding that his advocacy organization is currently handling the cases of about 50 transgender Afghan refugees. He said some of them don’t have documentation permitting them to remain in Pakistan, so if they’re caught, he fears they’ll be deported back to Afghanistan.
“The lack of rights and safety for transgenders under Taliban rule is deeply concerning,” Farzana Riaz, president of the Peshawar-based rights group Trans Action Pakistan, told CBS News. “But unfortunately, even for the transgender Afghans who managed to cross into Pakistan, it does not mean an end to their problems, only a new chapter of problems.”
“I don’t think any of the transgender Afghans have been deported,” Peshawar police spokesperson Alam Khan said when asked about the accounts provided to CBS News. “As a law enforcement agency, we are fully committed to following up on all complaints made by anyone — regardless of whether they are Afghans or locals.”
Khan said the Peshawar police had held “a series of meetings with the transgender community to solve the community’s problems, based on its priorities,” adding that the department was using “all resources for the protection of the rights of transgenders.”
Tropical Storm Sara made landfall in Belize on Sunday as forecasters expect heavy rain to cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.
The storm made landfall near Dangriga, about 55 miles southeast of the capital Belmopan, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
This comes after Sara drenched the northern coast of Honduras, where it stalled since Friday, swelling rivers and trapping people at home.
Moises Castillo / AP
One death was reported Saturday morning by Honduras Emergency Management, who also said that there have been at least 90 rescues and over 47,000 people affected by the storm.
The Hurricane Center’s tropical storm warning as of Sunday included Honduras’ Bay Islands as well as the country’s northern coast from Punta Castilla to its border with Guatemala; the Caribbean coast of Guatemala; Belize’s coast and northward into the coast of Mexico’s state of Quintana Roo, from Chetumal to Puerto Costa Maya.
The storm, which is moving at 6 mph, will continue to move inland over the Yucatan Peninsula and could drop up to 10 inches of rain across the area, with localized totals reaching 15 inches, through early next week. The conditions “will result in areas of flash flooding, perhaps significant, along with the potential of mudslides,” according to the Hurricane Center.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
“A storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 1 to 3 feet above ground level near and to the north of where the center of Sara crosses the coast of Belize,” the center said Sunday. “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.”
Sara is the 18th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which officially runs from June 1 until Nov. 30, with activity typically peaking between mid-August and mid-October. An average season brings 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which did predict the 2024 season would produce “above average” numbers.
A gold pocket watch given to the ship captain who rescued 700 survivors from the Titanic sold at auction for nearly $2 million, setting a record for memorabilia from the ship wreck.
The 18-carat Tiffany & Co. watch was given by three women survivors to Capt. Arthur Rostron for diverting his passenger ship, the RMS Carpathia, to save them and others after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the north Atlantic on its maiden voyage in 1912.
Andrew Aldridge/Henry Aldridge and Son via AP
Auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son, who sold the watch to a private collector in the United States on Saturday for 1.56 million British pounds, said it’s the most paid-for piece of Titanic memorabilia. The price includes taxes and fees paid by the buyer.
The watch was given to Rostron by the widow of John Jacob Astor, the richest man to die in the disaster and the widows of two other wealthy businessmen who went down with the ship.
Astor’s pocket watch, which was on his body when it was recovered seven days after the ship sank, had previously set the record for the highest price paid for a Titanic keepsake, fetching nearly $1.5 million (1.17 million pounds) from the same auction house in April.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the fact that Titanic memorabilia has set two records this year demonstrates the enduring fascination with the story and the value of the dwindling supply and high demand for ship artifacts.
“Every man, woman and child had a story to tell, and those stories are told over a century later through the memorabilia,” he said.
Rostron was hailed a hero for his actions the night the Titanic sank and his crew was recognized for their bravery.
Andrew Aldridge/Henry Aldridge and Son via AP
The Carpathia was sailing from New York to the Mediterranean Sea when a radio operator heard a distress call from the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912 and woke Rostron in his cabin. He turned his boat around and headed at full steam toward the doomed vessel, navigating through icebergs to get there.
By the time the Carpathia arrived, the Titanic had sunk and 1,500 people perished. But the crew located 20 lifeboats and rescued more than 700 passengers and took them back to New York.
Rostron was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal by President William Howard Taft and was later knighted by King George V.
Madeleine Astor, who had been helped into a lifeboat by her husband, presented the watch to Rostron at a luncheon at her mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York.
The inscription says it was given “with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors.” It lists Mrs. John B. Thayer and Mrs. George D. Widener alongside Astor’s married name.
“It was presented principally in gratitude for Rostron’s bravery in saving those lives,” Aldridge said. “Without Mr. Rostron, those 700 people wouldn’t have made it.”
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