Uncharted Thoughts.

“I am Hazara, and I belong to Afghanistan” 

The rugged landscape of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is notoriously governed by the widely unrecognised government of the Taliban—a theocratic totalitarian regime that took power following the controversial withdrawal of America and her allies on August 15th, 2021.

Since this bloody, undemocratic takeover, the people of Afghanistan have suffered immense hardships under their new oppressive overlords. Proof of their inability to govern lies within the country’s poor condition: water shortages in Kabul, malnutrition, some of the worst birth mortality rates in the world, and gender oppression on a scale unlike anywhere else.

Amongst the country’s mountains, and the dusty narrow passages of its cities, there is another oppressive, bloody, and sickening unwritten policy implemented by the Taliban that is largely unrecorded: the genocide of the Hazara communities in Afghanistan.

While there has been no government census in Afghanistan for almost fifty years, it is widely believed that there are at least seven ethnic groups living within its borders.

Bakhtawar, Razia (Bakhtawar’s older sister), Nadia, and Arezo are all Hazara—one of the smaller ethnic groups within Afghanistan. Although the origin of the Hazara people is unclear, rumours of their existence often suggest that their ancestors belong to the great horde of Genghis Khan that passed through some eight hundred years ago; however, there is yet to be proof of this claim.

Although there is dispute among the Hazara about where they come from, there is unanimous agreement about where they have been.

Hazara, like many smaller ethnic groups in lands across the world, have been subjected to discrimination and ethnic cleansing. According to Minority Rights Group: “They [Hazara] were once the largest Afghan ethnic group, constituting nearly two-thirds of the total population of the country before the 19th century. Some estimates suggest that more than half of the Hazaras were massacred, forced to flee, or taken into slavery during the 1891–93 Hazara War when the Afghan King Amir Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901) led a genocidal campaign of violence against Hazaras.”

“Hazara is an ethnic community in Afghanistan. We have always been in a dangerous situation. Before the invasion of 2001, the Taliban hunted us, and now we are hunted again,” Bakhtawar began. “Most Hazara are Shia Muslims. The Taliban think the Shia are not real Muslims—they are trying to kill us for this. We are always afraid to tell Pashtun people we are Shia, because most of the Taliban are Pashtun.”

“They used to bomb us in suicide attacks, trying to get our homes, our lands, and eradicate us systematically. They were attacking the people—even children and women. They did not forgive anyone. Our only crime was to be Hazara. We saw suicide attacks in hospitals, we saw suicide attacks in mosques, we saw suicide attacks in sports clubs.”

Bakhtawar recalls how she was attending her studies in Kabul when she witnessed a Pashtun man walk into a local educational centre in Dasht-e-Barchi—a largely Hazara-populated area—and set off a bomb, killing and injuring many of her classmates.

“He had so much material [explosives], but it failed to explode. If he had managed to detonate all the material, today I would not be here. There were at least five kilograms of the material that didn’t explode.”

In 2020, only a year before the Taliban takeover, a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi was attacked by gunmen, killing women and children in a maternity ward. Doctors Without Borders, a global movement providing lifesaving care, said: “This horrific crime appears to be part of a larger pattern of attacks targeting the ethnic Hazara community living in the area.”

This isn’t the only time Bakhtawar and her family were subjected to the mass killing of Hazaras. “When I was very young, the Taliban would come to our village and ask for the men of families so that they could kill them.”

This systemic killing has continued into present-day Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. However, they have taken a different approach. Although the mass murder of the Hazara community continues, rape and forced marriage have taken precedence in the Taliban’s attempt to liquidate ethnic minorities.

While interviewing more than a dozen Hazaras, it was clear that the men in the families were often targets of violence. This destabilises the household income, allowing poverty to creep into the family. The women are then forced to find work—but due to the Taliban banning women from employment, they are forced to find economic stability through marriage. Thus, they are forced to marry men from outside their communities, which in turn shrinks the Hazara community via liquidation into another population.

“You have to get married. Most of the girls are not interested in forced marriage, but because of the conditions they are in, they haven’t any choice,” Bakhtawar added.

Arezo, once a team player for the Afghan Women’s National Football Team and still a very talented football player, grew up in the dusty narrow alleyways of Kabul. Like Bakhtawar, Arezo is also a Hazara and a Shia.

“They [the Taliban] want to remove our generation—the Hazara generation—because they know how much we are in love with knowledge, how much we want to be modern. They cannot accept improvement. We are a minority, we are Shia, and the Taliban think we are nonbelievers or inferior. They want to kill us and end our generation.”

“In the eyes of the Taliban, Shiaism is tantamount to infidelity. We have been discriminated against, tortured, raped, arrested, and killed. The Hazara community is called ‘irreligious’ by the Taliban for demanding freedom.”

“This is not just her story; this is not just my story,” Bakhtawar interjected. Arezo’s voice had become shaken, her head dipped toward the ground. “This is the story of all Hazara. All of us are the victims of these attacks, at least once in our lives.”

“I think we should move on from this for a moment,” I asked, in an attempt to continue the interview ethically.

“No, no. The world must know what we are suffering with.”

We sat in silence for some time. Desperation, hopelessness, and pain hung thickly in the air-conditioned room. No amount of comfort could shield these women from the pain and suffering they have witnessed and endured.

Bakhtawar broke the silence, her voice shaking. “You know, Jack, I was the one—I saw my classmates when they were killed. I held them as they died. All of them wanted to be a doctor, to be an engineer, but they were killed—just twelve days before the exam. How they kill us, they hurt us. The pain of these attacks I will never forgive, and I will never forget.”

The UN Human Rights Council reported in a 2025 special rapporteur: ‘The Taliban must reverse these inhumane restrictions to ensure a brighter future for all Afghans, including minorities such as LGBT+ individuals and people from ethnic Hazara communities.’

Azra Jafari, former first female mayor in Afghanistan, noted in an enquiry conducted by Parliament in 2022: “With the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021, the Taliban took over control of Afghanistan once again and vanquished all the achievements of the last twenty years. Once again, Hazaras found themselves in the same situation they faced in 1998 to 2001. Arbitrary arrest, mass killing, forced mass displacement, and confiscation of people’s lands in Daikundi and Ghazni provinces are the evident examples of Hazaras’ persecution by the Taliban.”

Since 2021, the Taliban have slowly eradicated any form of media from within its borders—a typical tactic of zealot totalitarian governments. According to RAWA News, a media outlet dedicated to life within Afghanistan: “In one incident, three journalists were arrested on July 24 by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”

However, through the network of refugees now living in Pakistan and Iran, news is able to reach the ears of journalists across the globe.

Nadia, a Hazara, a Shia, who suffered physical torture at the hands of the Taliban and is now a major player in refugee rights, said: “In recent days, a large number of Hazara girls living in Dasht-e-Barchi, Kabul have been arrested by the Taliban. Out of fear that their daughters might be arrested by the Taliban on the streets, Hazara families are forcing their daughters to marry at a very young age or compelling them to live at home like prisoners.”

“When I was tortured by the Taliban, it was mostly because of my ethnicity, and I was humiliated many times because of my people. Because of our ethnicity. Because we are Hazara. They called us ‘whores’ and ‘worthless’, and told us we can never be free again.”

“We were brutally beaten, threatened, humiliated, and tortured by the Taliban. They used the butts of their rifles, their fists, their boots—anything they could find—to beat us. They held our heads under cold water, pulled our hair, and threatened us in the most degrading ways. The Taliban told us if we talked to the media or anyone about what happened in the prison—or had any activity against them again—they would kill all of us and our families.”

“The Hazara girls who are arrested from the streets or taken from their homes are forcibly married to members of the Taliban.”

It is clear, the Taliban were attempting to ethnically cleanse the Hazara people from Afghanistan by liquidating their population into the Pashtu community by systemically raping the Hazara women, all a while murdering the men of their families in an attempt to force marriage and narrow the options for women to marry into their own ethnicity. 

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior were asked for comment and gave none.