KABUL, Afghanistan, (LifeSiteNews) — The Taliban has begun to kidnap and rape girls and women in Afghanistan and are targeting Christians for death.
According to a first-hand ground report published by PR Newswire:
The Taliban are going door-to-door taking women and children. The people must mark their house with an “X” if they have a girl over 12 years old, so that the Taliban can take them. If they find a young girl and the house was not marked they will execute the entire family. If a married woman 25 years or older has been found, the Taliban promptly kill her husband, do whatever they want to her, and then sell her as a sex slave.
The ground report describes how “[h]usbands and fathers have given their wives and daughters guns and told them that, when the Taliban come, they can choose to kill them or kill themselves—it is their choice.”
SAT-7, an organization focused on bringing the Gospel to the Middle East and North Africa via “inspirational, informative and educational television services,” has reported that the Taliban is demanding people’s cell phones and “that if they find a downloaded Bible on [their] device, they will kill [them] immediately.”
“It’s incredibly dangerous right now for Afghans to have anything Christian on their phones. The Taliban have spies and informants everywhere,” stated SAT-7 North American President Dr. Rex Rogers.
Pastor X, an undercover pastor in Afghanistan reporting to Global Catalytic Ministries stated, “What we are witnessing right now is the decimation of the country and people of Afghanistan. The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians that they are targeting to hunt down and kill.” God is the only one who can protect them and their Christian leaders at this time he explained.
“The courage we are hearing about them is absolutely incredible,” he added.
“They are bold, and they trust God.”
Brother Samuel, the Open Doors Field Director for Asia, reported that the people fear Sharia law—Islam’s legal system—will be imposed very soon. He added that now that the cities are falling under the Taliban rule, it will be “almost impossible to be a follower of Jesus in this country.”
Release International, an interdenominational Christian ministry helping persecuted Christians, has reported that “in the areas that the Taliban now control girls are not allowed to go to school and women are not allowed to leave their homes without a male companion.”
The Taliban, a radical Islamist terrorist organization, seized control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021.
However, persecution of minority religions in Afghanistan (Hindus, Skihs, Baha’is, and Christians) was rife even before the US removed its military. These religions, according to the US 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, make up 0.3% of the population.
This report explained that the constitution of Afghanistan declares that the religion of Islam is the official state religion and that no new legislation may go against the “tenets and provisions of the ‘sacred religion of Islam.’ “
Even in 2020, if an Afghan Muslim converted to a different religion, this was considered apostasy. Under law, the person had three days to recant their conversion. If they did not, they were subject to the punishment for apostasy: death. Proselytizing against Islam and blasphemy (anti-Islamic writings or speech) were also capital crimes, punishable by death.
The 2020 US report also explained that Christians had to worship in private in “fear of societal discrimination and persecution.” There is constant pressure to convert to Islam, and threats accompany this pressure. As a consequence, the “dates, times and locations of [their worship] services were frequently changed to avoid detection.” There are no public Christian churches in Afghanistan.
The Christian community is estimated to be around 10,000 – 12,000 people, most of them converts, according to Catholic News Agency.