"Afghanistan has the same patriotic crap, the fatherland, hierarchies of male power. So I don't miss it. But every day I miss my family and friends there."
"What did the Taliban do to you that made you leave?"
"Threatened to kill me. That was enough."
"Was that because you're gay?"
"No." Jamal lit a cigarette and gave me an irritated look. "Not everything about a person revolves around their sexuality, you know. The Taliban didn't know I was gay. I was discreet about that. They threatened to kill me because I'm a journalist and I ridiculed them in my articles. They actually did kill the newspaper editor. After that I left.
"But yes, it's much easier to be gay in Europe than in Afghanistan, and that's another reason I'm glad to be here."
"How did you get out?"
"The German embassy. They had a refugee program, and I filed a petition there. Then I bought an airline ticket, said tearful good-byes, and flew away. It wasn't such a police state that you couldn't get out. The difficult thing was to be accepted by another country. And back then the Germans were very good about that."
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