Written by: Zara Syed, Edited by: Laiba Abbasi
Created by Sanskrati Sharma
Violence against the Hazara population, which (according to the humanitarian group Minority Rights Group International, Hazaras, a predominantly Shiite Muslim ethnic minority, make up around 9% of the country's overall population of 40 million people) has increased in the aftermath of the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan. The Hazaras are thought to be of Mongolian and Central Asian ancestry and successors of Genghis Khan, the Mongolian leader who invaded Afghanistan in the 13th century. They are primarily based in 'Hazaristan,' or the land of the Hazaras, a mountainous region of central Afghanistan. The Hazaras have a long history of persecution, especially by the Taliban, and their fears about genocide are justified.
The Afghanistan War was a three-phase international battle that began in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attack on September 11th in the U.S. The first phase consisted of deposing the Taliban -an ultraconservative political and religious group that dominated Afghanistan and providing a haven for al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks-, which lasted only two months. The second phase, which lasted from 2002-2008, was distinguished by a U.S. strategy of military destroying the Taliban and reconstructing the Afghan state key institutions. The third phase, a return to traditional counterinsurgency theory, began in 2008 and escalated with the election of President Barack Obama. Obama's decision in 2009 was to expand the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan temporarily. The greater force was employed to carry out a plan of safeguarding civilians from Taliban attacks while also assisting rebellion in integrating into Afghan society. For the first time in 20 years, the Taliban have taken complete control over Afghanistan. While they no longer face armed opposition, they are now confronted with an economy on the verge of collapse, which threatens to exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation.
While the Taliban and other armed groups target Afghans and perpetrate human rights violations against them, the Hazara ethnic and religious minority is particularly vulnerable.
Hazaras faced tyranny, discrimination, and socioeconomic marginalization in the decades that followed. Until the 1970s, a significant portion of the Hazara community could not obtain higher education, enlist in the army, or receive higher-level government posts. To get state identity, many people were obliged to "conceal their identities.”
In 1998, as part of its drive to gain complete control of Afghanistan, the armed organization besieged Hazarajat, cutting off supply routes and starving the civilian population. In August of that year, Taliban terrorists conquered Mazar-e Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan, and went on a killing spree, primarily targeting Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 2,000 people from various ethnic groups, including Hazaras, were killed. According to Hazara organizations, the death toll might be as high as 15,000 people.
The Hazara people gained new optimism after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan overthrew the Taliban administration. Despite the fact that discrimination persisted in the country, the community could engage in public life considerably more openly. Hazara women worked for women's emancipation, while Hazara youth embraced all types of education and stood at the forefront of social change activities.
Due to these education and social standing achievements, the community has mobilized to end discrimination and more political space. Hazaras were believed to make up 19 percent of Afghanistan's population when the post-Taliban governance of the country was established at the Bonn Conference in 2001. However, the political space in the administration in the years that followed did not represent their population proportion.
The Hazaras continued to face targeted violence from the Taliban and other armed organizations after 2001. Since the rise of the even more extremist Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in 2015, suicide bombers have targeted schools, mosques, and even hospitals in Hazara communities, unleashing an even deadlier wave of attacks on the Hazara population.
The Taliban's return to power in Kabul has reversed the Hazaras' meager socioeconomic advances and influenced new atrocities against the group.
By now, there has been a definite pattern of Taliban crimes across Afghanistan, suggesting that the Hazaras may be suffering ethnic cleansing.
It's therefore not unexpected that, despite the Taliban's assurances that it can provide security and peace to Afghanistan, the ISKP has continued its brutal attacks on the Hazaras. More than 100 people were killed when a Hazara mosque in Kunduz was bombed in October 2021. Another attack targeted a Hazara mosque in Kandahar, killing at least 47 people and injuring dozens more.
Despite much discourse about the importance of protecting religious minorities, regional players have also failed to assist the Hazara people. While Iran is expected to come to the rescue of the Shia minority, it did not come to the aid of Hazaras during the 1998 killings and has taken no significant action since the Taliban gained control of Kabul in mid-August.
Tehran backed the Taliban in their struggle against the U.S., even hosting some of their commanders, and its actions toward Afghanistan are based on what it sees as its national interests. As a result, it is unlikely to take any meaningful efforts to protect Afghanistan's Shia Muslim community.
It can take advantage of the assistance that the Taliban has requested to guarantee Hazara rights and protection. These monies could be used in Taliban negotiations. The Hazara people's sole hope is that the international community would uphold its human rights commitments and drive the Taliban into making compromises. The World Bank and the
The International Monetary Fund has already stopped making payments to Kabul, and the United States has frozen the country's assets on U.S. soil.
All Afghans live in dangerous circumstances, but the Hazaras, historically neglected, dispossessed, and killed, are in a particularly dire predicament. The threat of ethnic cleansing, if not genocide, they confront should be of international concern, and international human rights organizations should intervene.
The newly appointed U.N. special envoy on Afghanistan must investigate the systematic attacks and forced relocation of Hazaras as soon as possible to ensure that those responsible are identified and held accountable.
West Kabul children are left to fend for themselves. Their plight would have been tragic in regular times. It was lethal in today's Afghanistan, where more than half of the population is food insecure. Neighbors said they pitched in with bread and water when they could, but it wasn't nearly enough. Eight children died of starvation earlier this month. The youngest was only two years old.
Afghanistan is on the verge of the world's worst humanitarian crisis . On October 25th, it surpassed the misery in Syria and Yemen. According to a new report from the U.N. agencies, 23 million of the country's 38 million people will not have enough food to get through the winter unless aid is rapidly scaled up.
Since the Taliban took over, Afghanistan has been engulfed in an economic and financial crisis that has paralyzed banks and businesses, sent poverty and inflation rates skyrocketing, and jeopardized destabilizing the new Taliban government almost from the start.
For the past few years, the hashtags #saveafghanistan, #afghanistanbleeds, and #stoptaliban have been trending on social media, particularly Instagram. They were capturing protests and heartbreaking images of Afghanistan's devastation, as well as the many children who have been displaced. Young people have been encouraged to give and raise their voices to inform others about what is going on in Afghanistan and to support what the country has been coping with for over 20 years through social media. Given how lovely it all is, it looks that people were just supporting all of these contributions and reposts for a brief time when the entire incident was "trending" until another "trend" came along. Their voices for Afghanistan vanished, and it was abruptly ended.
The world owes it to the Hazara people to defend them on legal, moral, and political grounds. It must uphold the "never again" pledge made in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
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