The Shunned Hazaras

Under the anciently fixed gaze of the Buddhas, and particularly in the stunning region of Hazarajat, lived the Afghan Hazara tribes for centuries and centuries. Easily distinguished by their pure Asiatic features, in addition to belonging to the Shiite sect of Islam, the Hazaras have perpetually suffered extreme discrimination and oppression, especially during the Taliban era. Before the 19th century, the Hazaras have constituted more than 67% of Afghan population. However, today they are only 9% of Afghanistan’s 25 million people due to the massacre in 1893 in which half of the Hazaras were heartlessly murdered.

In Bamyan, the capital city of Hazarajat (or Hazarestan), the Hazaras carefully looked after their precious cultural heritage for many generations. The grand human civilization of Buddhism, demonstrated in two of the world’s tallest & ancient statues, has continuously attracted Buddhist pilgrims worldwide. Being Shiite Muslims, as well as the caretakers of Bamyan’s valuable cultural site (which the Taliban considered to be "idolatrous"), the Hazaras weren’t only referred to by the Taliban as infidels, but have also endured extreme prejudice and subjugation during the ruling era of the extremist Pashtuns. In May 2, 2001 the Taliban have set up explosives in the ancient Buddhas, completely obliterating the 2000-year-old monumental Buddha statues and flattening them to the ground. It was an unjustifiable barbaric crime against history that has left the Hazaras with nothing but rocks and sand remaining of their once ancient cultural heritage.

Taliban weren’t the only oppressors of the Hazaras, though. Hardliner Pashtun leaders have tortured the Hazaras throughout the history of Afghanistan. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Hazaras have suffered severe political, social and economic discrimination under brutal governors such as Emir Abdur Rahman Khan and his successor Habibullah Khan. Suffering from public executions, exiles, ethnic cleansing, village burnings, displacement, confiscation of lands, enslavement of women and children, unnecessary taxes as well as horrifying massacres, the Hazaras have also experienced religious repression and were forced to join Sunni Islam and abandon Shiism. Uzbeks, on the other hand, are believed to have performed slave raids on the Hazaras as well.

The Hazarajat is the most underdeveloped region of Afghanistan. It has always been neglected by the Afghan rulers and left with no serious efforts of economic or educational development. Hazaras mainly work in herding sheep while literacy rates are shockingly low especially among women. "The Hazaras were always economically weak and politically excluded," says Qasim Aghar, a Hazara intellectual and educator. "We were separated by religion and geography. No one ever even tried to build a road to Hazarajat."

Hazaras still struggle and hope of a better future including a political control in their home town, better economic and educational opportunities and mostly freedom of religion. Alexander Burnes, a 19th century traveler, once wrote describing the heartrending life of the Hazaras: “They are oppressed by all the neighbouring nations, whom they serve as hewers of wood and drawers of water. All the drudgery and work in Kabul is done by Hazaras.”