proceeded to rape and beat him. In 2022, the Taliban tortured and killed a 22-year-old gay medical student in Kabul. Discrimination protections Islamic Republic of Afghanistan No law existed in Afghanistan to address discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In response to foreign inquiries, the Afghan Social Democratic Party stated that it "favored an international effort to fight the AIDS-HIV pandemic, but that homosexuality and same-sex marriages are opposed by all great religions." No political party or interest group expressed support for LGBT rights. Afghanistan law prohibited a political party, interest group or social club from advocating anything that is in opposition to Islamic morality. Absent a change in the law, it was unlikely that a political or social organization advocating LGBT rights would be permitted to exist and promote its viewpoints. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan No protections exist for LGBT people in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Social attitudes Afghanistan's population is over 99% Muslim, and the country's Constitution stipulates that Islam shall be the official religion. Homosexuality and cross-dressing are widely seen as taboo and indecent activities, owing to traditional Islamic views concerning appropriate gender roles and sexual conduct. When publicly discussed, homosexuality is often linked with prostitution and pedophilia and the level of awareness about sexual orientation or gender identity is limited. In 2011, Afghan news reporters interviewed men who had LGBT-pride symbols on their vehicles, to find out that the men were unaware of the meaning of the rainbow flags and stickers, thinking that it was just another western fad, and began quickly removing the rainbows to avoid being seen as an LGBT people or supporters of LGBT rights. The US Marine Corps' handbook for Operational Culture for Deploying Personnel from May 2009 stated that "homosexual behavior is relatively common, but taboo, in rural Afghanistan, because there are no other outlets for normal sexual energies." In 2012, Nemat Sadat, a human rights activist and former professor of political science at the American University of Afghanistan, mobilized an LGBT movement and on August 22, 2013, he became the first public figure to come out as gay and campaign for LGBT rights, gender freedom, and sexual liberation. Sadat is considered to have broken the taboos on cross-dressing and homosexuality in Afghanistan. While gay Afghans may have been assaulted by certain state officers, the government at the time was not actively persecuting the community,