KABUL, Afghanistan – Himmat gazes into the distance, his bright blue eyes burnished by a terrible sadness.

“We are gay boys, but we cannot even share our problems with our families. My father or uncle will kill us. Or the Taliban will kill us,” says the young Afghan – who thinks he is about 21 or 22 and refers to his love Zubair as his wife. “We are humans; we have rights, we have a life to live. But how?”

Homosexuality has long been deemed indecent and taboo in Afghan society. However, the past two decades offered a limited form of human rights protection – which was ripped away as the Taliban assailed to power on the sultry Sunday afternoon of August 15.