Fionn Shiner

For Afghan Christians, the Taliban takeover is a nightmare

Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian, holds a bible while giving evidence at his trial in Kabul for apostasy in 2006 (Photo by SHAH MARAI/AFP via Getty Images)

Christians in Afghanistan have been paralyzed with fear at the news that the Taliban has taken control of the country. Nadine Maenza, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said the Taliban takeover ‘is the worst possible development for religious minorities. While most from these communities left Afghanistan in recent years, those that remain, and women in particular, are now in imminent danger.’

News received by Aid to the Church in Need echoed reports that leaders of underground house churches in Afghanistan had received letters from the Taliban warning them that they ‘know where they are and what they are doing’.

According to Pew, around 90 per cent of the 37 million population is Sunni and 9.7 per cent Shia, with the remaining 0.3 per cent belonging to other religions. The number of Christians in the country is thought to be below 20,000, perhaps as low as 1,000. Most Christians in Afghanistan are underground, so getting a precise estimate of their number is nigh-on impossible.

One Christian reportedly received a letter saying his house now belongs to the Taliban

There is only one Catholic church in the whole of Afghanistan, hidden away in the Italian embassy but that was forced to shut due to the pandemic. In 2018, there were an estimated 200 Catholics in the country. The Catholic charity Caritas, which has been present in Afghanistan since the 1990s, said they may now need to suspend their activities.

Open Doors, a charity that challenges Christian persecution, ranks Afghanistan as the second-worst country for believers. It says that under former president Ashraf Ghani, Christians faced ‘clan pressure’: in other words, persecution was most likely to come from friends and family. Converts to Christianity risked being killed, or at least disowned, by their family, clan or tribe. In some cases, conversion was treated as a psychiatric condition.

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