Taliban arrest LGBTQs – one a teenager – amid fears they’ll be ‘tortured’ to reveal others and executed

Maryam Ravish and Parwen Hussaini; Maryam has been imprisoned alongside Maeve Alcina Pieescu (Image: Supplied by The Peter Tatchell Foundation)

The Taliban have arrested and imprisoned two leading underground Afghan LGBTQ activists: Maryam Ravish, a lesbian, and Maeve Alcina Pieescu, a trans woman.

Activists outside of Afghanistan, such as human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, now fear the pair will be forced to name others. They may also be sentenced to execution under Sharia law.

Homosexuality is illegal in Afghanistan and punishable by the death penalty in extreme interpretations of Sharia law, which the Taliban claims to enforce.

Maryam Ravish and Parwen Hussaini; Maryam has been imprisoned alongside Maeve Alcina Pieescu (Image: Supplied by The Peter Tatchell Foundation)

Maryam, 19, and Maeve, 23, were set to escape Kabul on a Mahan Airlines flight to Iran with Maryam’s same-gender

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