Racially emerging from intermarriages between Mongols, Tajiks, Pashtun and Turks, speaking a Persian dialect and avowedly following a Shiite tradition of Islam, Hazara tribes populate Bamyan and central districts of Afghanistan, popularly known as Hazarajat. With predominantly Mongolian looks and certain expressions, Hazaras prefer themselves to be identified as the descendants of Changez Khan who left behind some of his detachments after one of his invasions in central Afghanistan. Traced back to 16th century, Hazaras, perhaps after the Jews, endure the longest and gravest religious persecution and genocidal sprees around the world. Since 1999 to date, about 3000 Hazaras have been killed in Pakistan and 6 times more met the same fate in Afghanistan just because of their distinct appearance and stringent belief in Shi’ism – alleged to be infidels by the now banned outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Taliban and Daesh in Afghanistan. Such is the level of oppression that Hazaras’ enslavement and their official exclusion from the public sphere was plainly lawful in Afghanistan till the 1970s.
Now they constitute about the third largest ethnic group there. Persecuted and decimated to one-fourth of their population by an extremist Pashtun King, Abd-ul-Rahman, they fled to present day Pakistan (Quetta) back in the late 19thCentury and joined British-Indian Army in the name of Hazara Pioneers. Post-Soviet-invasion of Afghanistan 1979, once again hundreds of thousands of Hazaras moved to Quetta – here too configuring the third largest ethnic stock after the Baloch and the Pashtun.
Referring to an Asia Foundation’s survey, about two-thirds of Hazaras do not agree that the country is heading in the right direction while 49% of the Pashtun believe that it is. As many as 65% of the Hazaras are pessimistic about the possibilities of reconciliation with the Taliban. Regarding would-be general elections, already delayed for a year, only the Pashtun overwhelmingly (66%) hope for positive prospects of the ritual while Tajik (58%) and Hazaras (60%) are hopeless. Nevertheless, comparing other ethnicities, 18% Hazaras are more likely to cite for the improved rights of women, perhaps because of women’s relatively improved status among the community.
A democratic, constitutionally driven, peaceful and sovereign Afghanistan alone can guarantee regional as well as global peace
However, with respect to education both Pashtun (40%) and Hazaras (41%) agree with the increased opportunities of education. Given the changing scenario, (29%) Tajiks and (28%) Hazaras are significantly more likely to cite lack of employment opportunities than Pashtun whose response stands around 14%. Pashtuns (23%) are also more likely to cite violence as the biggest problem than respondents of other ethnicities like Tajiks (14.5%) and Hazaras (16%).
Though culturally diverse but Afghanistan’s political configuration has failed to ensure fairplay for all of its ethno-sectarian minorities, particularly to the Hazara Shia Muslims. Immediately after the withdrawal of NATO’s forces, chronic hostility against Hazara ethnic communities reared its head again. In May this year Daesh attacked a maternity hospital where most of the Hazara mothers were about to or had just given birth to their angle-like babies. Taliban, predominantly Pashtun and almost exclusively Sunni Muslims, are again contemplating to set up an Emirate, instead of a democratic republic, genuinely aggravating Hazaras’ fears of being officially excluded or even massacred again. Pakistan’s Hazaras are just recovering from the trauma of serial attacks and targeting, and if not quelled timely, it may spill over its effects again.
With the collapse of USA-Taliban talks and now an ongoing regional peace process, whatever rights were ascertained in 2004’s Constitution may fall to pieces. Orchestrating new governance, intra-Afghan talks already ignore Hazara concerns though the current administration seems striving to secure equality and justice which is not possible without equitable distribution of resources and power. On the other hand, the Pashtun and Baloch communities, making up 4/5th of Quetta, are fast marginalizing Hazaras while in Mashhad (Iran), they already count for no political significance. Even a simple majoritarian democratic polity, as observed in Iran and Pakistan, is unlikely to mainstream and accommodate their legitimate demands and apprehensions save Hazara Democratic Party’s diminutive representation in Balochistan’s parliament. Precisely, regional peace is almost impossible without ensuring the rights of ethno-religious minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Hazaras’ systematic exclusion from power and public sphere in Afghanistan may cast an adversarial impact across the neighboring towns of Mashhad and Quetta. Nevertheless, they had some success in claiming their space in Afghanistan during the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghan’s administration and there are encouraging signs of reintegrating them in Pakistan too but the process may reverse with the growing Taliban’s influence in the country.
Nonetheless, their initial extermination began while resisting Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Post 9/11’s reversal to dethrone the Taliban’ created some socio-political space for them and now with the Taliban’s second coming in transition, their feelings of insecurity go up. Though the anti-Hazara trajectory of terror has come down but exclusivist tendencies still dominate across borders. Meddling into the internal affairs of Afghanistan for the last 3 decades, America, Pakistan, India, Iran and Saudi Arabia have exacerbated ethno-sectarian rifts and insurgencies in Afghanistan, and Pakistan too, of which Hazaras happen to be the scapegoat and the worst casualty. In Afghanistan, they are being pushed back and marginalized back into Hazarajat while in Pakistan, they suffer ghettoization into Hazara-specific towns either to avoid targeted attacks or by suffering through exclusivist tendencies.
A democratic, constitutionally driven, peaceful and sovereign Afghanistan alone can guarantee regional as well as global peace. Without proportionally representative, parliamentarian and rights-respecting Afghanistan, any other wave of violence at a very different place in a very different manner, and for very different reasons may occur. Daesh-Taliban power conflict further disturbs the socio-political landscape. More attacks on Hazaras may rattle the perception that elements of Afghan intelligence services are enabling either Daesh or Taliban for such attacks. As demonstrated by history, various regimes and constitutions of the country since the collapse of the monarchy in 1973 failed to stabilize Afghanistan. Supported by the USA and, Pakistan in particular, only a federal polity can help stabilize the country. Rights of Hazara ethnic minority, and minorities in general, are the real test of a newly emerging democratic Afghanistan – essentially compelling the powers that be to flush out Daesh and other such extremist elements threatening South Asian peace. The sitting Afghan government must be conscious of the consequences of the Faustian deal it is inking with the Taliban. Seeing the fragility of the existing coalition, without intensive and extensive electoral and constitutional reforms, the impending elections are unlikely to yield peace and inclusive development.
Brokers of power and peace negotiators must listen to the demands of diverse Afghan citizenry, including the most persecuted communities like Hazaras. Distribution and decentralization of power at the district and provincial levels, equal political participation of all ethno-religious groups, social justice and an equitable economic development are a-priori for peace within as well as for neighboring and global economies contemplating trade and investment opportunities in present and prospective Afghanistan.
The writer is author and consultant for socio-economic development