Hello,
I am an atheist living in Afghanistan.
I am currently safe but have to hide my beliefs.
I am looking for community support and guidance, not immediate extraction.
I want to connect safely and learn about possible future options.
Thank you.
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Welcome. We are happy to help. Let us know your questions.
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Welcome, @AliHaidari26 .
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Welcome. I hope you’re using a good VPN.
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Welcome. @CyberLN already mentioned VPN, and I would like to add: Keep data that can identify you as a person private. Also, practice good opsec — don’t keep material on your computer or phone that can compromise you, and make sure your phone/computer is properly protected by e.g. an encrypted harddisk and a good password.
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You are most welcome, and please let us know if we can answer questions, offer advice, etc..
I respect your courage in challenging your religion, so congrats on taking this first step.
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Hello there, Ali! Welcome to the AR. Good to have you with us. You have chosen a great place to get support and good advice. As everybody else has already said, please be safe and keep your online info secure. It’s not often we get a member connected to the Islamic faith on here. Will be nice to get more info and background in that particular faith. (We mostly deal with Christians around this joint, and many of us here are former Christians.) So, come on in and make yourself at home. Be advised, however, we can get a little crazy around here at times. Quite a bit of good-natured rib jabbing between the regulars whenever the opportunity presents itself. Hang around long enough, and you will learn. 
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I appreciate your messages I’d like to learn, in general terms, how people engage with official organizations abroad—no rush, just information.
Can you be more specific?
I have never had a need to “engage with official organizations abroad”. I doubt anyone else here does either. So I’m not sure what you’re looking for. What type(s) of organizations? For what purpose?
Perhaps you’re talking about seeking asylum? The only advice I have is, don’t seek it in the US anymore; we are currently shooting asylum seekers in the streets. If we don’t defeat the Trump regime you would just be deported back to Afghanistan anyway. Find a sane and compassionate country to inquire with. We aren’t either of those things anymore.
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Welcome to the AR Ali keep safe.
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Thanks for clarifying your perspective. To be clear, I’m not seeking asylum advice or making any immediate plans. I was asking in a general, informational sense about how people connect with established secular or humanist communities abroad. That’s all.
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Thanks, I appreciate it.
Thank you for the warm welcome and support. I appreciate it.
Thank you for the warm welcome. I’m glad to be here.
I’ll be happy to share more about my background and beliefs later, but for now I’m mostly here to listen and learn.
I see.
Since atheism is not a religion or system but just a belief on a single question (the existence of any gods), atheists don’t have that much to organize around. Also as a small minority we tend to select for people who aren’t “joiners”. So there are some small social networks like this one where atheists discuss the few issues unique to unbelief, or debate with believers. In the US there is an organization called American Atheists which has perhaps 20,000 members (out of 370 million Americans) to advocate for equal rights and just laws for unbelievers.
That’s about it. There are millions of us worldwide but we are really shop keepers, executives, workers, family people and so on who happen to not believe in any gods. In our daily lives we just live like anyone else but just feel we have a better and more coherent basis for our personal morality and how we prioritize things in life.
One thing that confuses people, I think, is that religion ultimately has less influence in people’s lives than they think it does – and not all of that influence is positive. Leaving religion just removes a lot of complicated and contradictory ideas and time consuming rituals and the illusion that you’re following the will of your god(s) so that you have a clearer and more rational understanding of life, meaning, purpose, ethics, etc. The human experience remains the same, it just becomes more coherent.
I suspect that what you’re really looking for is community with other humans. Over time, you’ll find you have much in common with other people that doesn’t involve religion. I am old, so I have a lot in common with other old people. I have a sedentary profession (software development) so I have a lot in common with other people who need some form of exercise and healthy ways of being active. I am a diabetic so I have much in common with other diabetics and more broadly, other chronically ill people. And so on. There is no shortage of ways to support each other and encourage each other. Some of those other people will be religious, some less so, and some not at all, but it ultimately doesn’t matter – they are all human beings.
No rush for you to share any of your personal info. Actually, no real need for you to do so at all if you prefer. And, like I said, you are definitely in the right place to ask questions and learn. I joined this site back in 2017 as I was going through my deconstruction and trying to find my way out of the Christian indoctrination that had help my psyche prisoner for most of my life. To say it was a “turbulent” transition in my life would be a severe understatement. Thankfully, though, I met many fantastic “mentors” on here who helped make my transition considerably smoother than it might have been. I live in The South. Pretty much in the middle of The Bible Belt. As such, therefore, other than my wife, there was really nobody else I had to discuss my feelings and concerns with. I’m very lucky in that she was incredibly supportive as I was going through my transition, but (bless her heart), there is only so much a person can take when his/her significant other is constantly trying to vent all the confusion/concerns/frustrations and such bouncing around in their head. Finally she just ordered me, “You need to go find and atheist chat site. You’re driving me crazy!” So, being the good hubby I am, I obeyed the Boss Lady’s orders and got lucky enough to stumble across this site by sheer chance. This place totally changed my life, along with my perspectives on life in general. As a bonus, actually had a great deal of fun along the way, especially once I got through my first few months of “anger venting”. (But that is another story of its own. 
) Anyway, hang around long enough, and you can learn much from the “melting pot” of intellects we have here. Okay, I’ve rambled enough for now. As always, stay safe where you are. No need to free your brain just to have that freedom cut short before you get a chance to enjoy it. See you around on the threads.