the world's war crimes court wants the taliban's leaders for persecuting queer afghans. the paperwork calls them "non-conforming." close enough.
via the International Criminal Court, the AP, AFP and the Washington Blade
"Certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity."
That is the phrase the International Criminal Court used on Oct. 5, when it unsealed arrest warrants for four of the Taliban's most senior men. The court says there are reasonable grounds to believe they committed the crime against humanity of persecution "on gender grounds against girls, women and other persons non-conforming with the Taliban's policy on gender, gender identity or expression," from the day the Taliban took Kabul in August 2021 until at least January 2025. The "other persons," the court explained, were targeted because those expressions of sexuality and gender identity were considered inconsistent with Taliban policy.
The judges never type "gay." The AP did it for them, describing the charges as covering "women, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community." Courts write like courts. The meaning arrived anyway.
who the warrants name
Supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, whose warrants were issued in July 2025 and announced at the time but kept sealed until now. And two new names: education minister Habibullah Agha and higher education minister Neda Mohammad Nadim, whose warrants were issued in secret on Sept. 9, 2025, per the AP and AFP. They run education for a government that, as the AP notes, has barred women and girls from school beyond sixth grade. The judges said unsealing them could help prevent further crimes and encourage international cooperation, AFP reported.
When the court's then-prosecutor, Karim Khan, first asked for warrants in January 2025, he said Afghan women and girls "as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution," according to the AP.
will anyone get arrested
No, not soon. The court has no police, the Taliban run the country, and the AP called the prospect of an arrest "remote." What the warrants do is make it official, in the permanent record of an international court, that hunting down queer Afghans is a crime against humanity. For people who have spent five years being told by the world that their survival is a regional detail, that is not nothing.
