Hazara Genocide Uncovered

An online resource dedicated to shedding light on the prolonged and ongoing injustices faced by the Hazara ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Omid Mohammadi

Overview

The Hazara ethnic group is a distinct and notable population residing in the mountainous region of central Afghanistan*. Distinguishable by their Asiatic appearance, distinct Farsi dialect, and adherence to the Shi’a faith in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, Hazaras have been targeted in mass atrocities throughout the history of Afghanistan.

_{* The Hazara ethnic group was forced into exile from their traditional lands and sought refuge in the mountainous regions of central Afghanistan and neighboring countries. (Hakimi, 2022)}

Featured Photo: Hazara students sprinting with joy towards knowledge, published by Bamyan Foundation

The recent escalation of violence and mass atrocities committed against the Hazara community can be attributed to a culture of impunity that has developed as a result of the lack of consequences for previous acts of aggression against this group (Hakimi, 2022).

Despite the magnitude of these atrocities and the increased frequency of attacks on the Hazara community, there is a significant deficiency of awareness amongst the international community about the Hazara Genocide.

Historical Context

The Hazara ethnic group has been the target of systemic racism and mass atrocities throughout the history of Afghanistan. This discrimination and violence against Hazaras has been driven by a combination of factors, including religious, ethnic and linguistic differences.

Population

The actual size of Hazara population, along with other ethnicities in Afghanistan, remains uncertain due to absence of national census data. It is widely acknowledged, however, that no ethnic group constitutes a majority, and the exact percentages of each group within the nation’s 42.2 million population (World Population Dashboard -Afghanistan, 2023) are estimates and often highly politicized.

According to Minority Rights Group International, before the 19th century, Hazaras constituted nearly two-thirds of the total population of the country. However, the size of the Hazara community has declined due to persecution, forced migration, and land seizure (Hazaras, 2015).

The U.S. Department of State has recently estimated the Shiite and Hazara population to be approximately 10% to 15% (“Afghanistan,” 2021). However, this estimation has been disputed and denied by many Hazara individuals and intellectuals, including Sarwar Danish, the Hazara second vice president of the government at that time.

Some scholars argue that the estimation is closer to the 19 percent figure mentioned in the Bonn Agreement of 2001. Regardless of the exact percentage, the significant decline in the Hazara population remains a cause for concern.

Hazara Genocide 19th Century

In the late 19th century, Pashtun Emir Abdur Rahman Khan launched a campaign to bring the Hazarajat under his control, which resulted in the killing of as much as 60% of the Hazara population (DFAT, 2017).

These atrocities continued throughout the 20th century, with a notable instance being the Taliban’s massacre of between 2,000 to 8,000 Hazara civilians in Mazar-e Sharif, Balkh province in 1998 (The Massacre in Mazar-i Sharif, n.d.).

Despite Afghanistan’s accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2003, the atrocities against Hazaras have intensified in recent years, with thousands of civilians being killed, injured, tortured, kidnapped and forcibly displaced (Hakimi, 2022).

The takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in August 2021 has led to heightened concerns regarding the safety and security of the Hazara ethnic group. While other ethnicities in Afghanistan are also facing difficulties, the dangers for the Hazara community have been exacerbated.

_{Featured Map: Map of Afghanistan of showing attacks on Hazaras since 2014. These incidents are based on data collected by The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), trusted News Journals, Publications and documents.}

The historical persecution and targeted violence against Hazaras by the Taliban, as well as the ongoing discrimination and marginalization they face, have led to increased vulnerability for this community. The recent developments in the country have further exacerbated the situation, and the international community should be aware of the risks Hazaras are facing and take measures to protect them.

"These targeted killings are proof that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan." _{- Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General}

_{Featured Map: Map of Kabul showing attacks on Hazaras since 2014. Most attacks are targeted in Dasht-e-Barchi which is a Hazara neighborhood.}

Timeline

Chronology of Hazara Genocide

The Timeline/Chronology below documents 70 of the many tragic incidents and acts of violence committed against the Hazara ethnic group in Afghanistan with a primary focus on the recent years to provide a comprehensive understanding on the recent challenges faced by the Hazaras in Afghanistan.

Hazara Genocide Timeline in Afghanistan

Map

Tracing the Path of Atrocities

Visually explore the geographical landscape of Hazara Genocide in Afghanistan. Through this interactive map interface, we provide depiction of the attacks perpetrated against the Hazara community. Each marked location represents, a specific incident, accompanied by relevant descriptions, dates, and details of the attack.

Limitations

While this project endeavors to shed light on the Hazara genocide, and provide an understanding of the atrocities faced by the community, it is important to acknowledge the limitations that exist.

Our emphasis lies on the attacks within Afghanistan in recent years, we acknowledge that other forms of atrocities, such as forced displacement, enslavement, and attacks on Hazaras in Pakistan especially in Hazara Town, Pakistan, existed or in latter case, continues to exist.

While these issues are not yet covered in the scope of this project, we recognize their significance and encourage further exploration and awareness of these devastating issues.

Despite these limitations, this project strives to provide the most comprehensive and accurate information available within it's scope. We aim to improve and expand our coverage to extend accessibility of these information to the public.

#StopHazaraGenocide

On 30 September 2022, a terrorist attack on Kaaj Education Centre killed 53 students, at least 46 girls and young women, and injured more than 110 students (France24, 2022). This led up to a worldwide movement - Stop Hazara Genocide.

Hazara diasporic communities worldwide united in a powerful display of solidarity, organizing rallies and protests to condemn the systematic attacks on Hazara community in Afghanistan. The rallies spanned across more than 120 cities around the world, "including prominent locations such as in front of the White House in Washington DC, and the United Nations headquarters in New York City, in Atlanta, San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago; rallies in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide in Australia; rallies in London (UK), Lille, Leon and Paris (France), Berlin, Munich, Wurzburg, Stuttgart and Hamburg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Helsinki (Finland), Dublin (Ireland), Stockholm (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), Brussel (Belgium), Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa & Toronto (Canada), Seoul (South Korea) and in Portugal, Kenya, Turkey, Japan, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia (#StopHazaraGenocide Campaign, n.d.).

Global Solidarity: Uniting in Over 120 Cities to Stop Hazara Genocide.

Twitter:

Following the attack on Kaaj Educational Centre, The Twitter campaign "#StopHazaraGenocide" garnered over billion views, 16 million interactions, and over 10 million tweets (“Afghan Twitter Campaign ‘StopHazaraGenocide’ Reaches 10 Million Tweets,” 2022), despite the Taliban supporters' effort to obstruct the campaign by introducing a counter hashtag "#UnitedAfghanistan" and misspelled hashtags (#StopHazaraGenocide Campaign, n.d.).

Prominent figures and influential personalities, including Nobel Peace Prize winners Malala Yousafzai and Nadia Murad, Turkish-British author Elif Safak, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, as well as parliamentarians and government officials from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, have voiced their support for the campaign and expressed deep concerns regarding the continuing genocide of Hazaras in Afghanistan.

In an effort to gather tweets using the designated Hashtag, the author have accumulated a collection of 20,000 tweets. However, due to current restrictions imposed by Twitter regarding the collection and publication of such data, acquiring and sharing this substantial volume of tweets has unfortunately become unattainable at the present time.

Learn More

Hazara Genocide is a complex and devastating history of systematic targeting, discrimination, and perpetrations of mass atrocities against the Hazara community in Afghanistan and Beyond. This topic warrants further exploration and understanding, and it would be encouraged to explore the following resources.

The Genocide of Hazaras, Mehdi J. Hakimi : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4262465
Over a Century of Persecution, Mohammad H. Hasrat : https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Racism/SR/Call/mhhasrat.pdf
The Hazaras and the Afghan State, Niamatullah Ibrahimi : https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/hazaras-afghan-state/
War and MigrationSocial Networks and Economic Strategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan, Alessandro Mosutti : https://www.routledge.com/War-and-Migration-Social-Networks-and-Economic-Strategies-of-the-Hazaras/Monsutti/p/book/9780415654784
The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study, S.A. Mousavi : https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Hazaras_of_Afghanistan.html?id=w1eaQgAACAAJ
Hazara Genocide Archive : https://www.hazaragenocide.com
Hazaras, Minority Rights Group International : https://minorityrights.org/minorities/hazaras/
Hazara Genocide in Pakistan, Ishaq Ahmadi : https://www.bolaq.org/2023/01/hazara-genocide-in-pakistan/
THE MASSACRE IN MAZAR-I SHARIF, Human Rights Watch : https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0.htm
HAZĀRA ii. HISTORY, Encyclopedia Iranica : https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hazara-2
Hazara Genocide in Afghanistan, Ishaq Mohammadi : https://www.bolaq.org/2022/05/hazara-genocide-in-afghanistan-1892-1901/
The Hazara Genocide and Systemic Discrimination in Afghanistan, Nahid Paiman - https://civilrights.org/blog/the-hazara-genocide-and-systemic-discrimination-in-afghanistan/

About this Project

Despite the ongoing Hazara genocide, the alarming rise in attacks on the Hazara community, and the numerous challenges faced by Hazaras in Afghanistan and diaspora in neighboring countries, there remains a concerning lack of awareness, and deficiency of comprehensive information and resources pertaining to the subject.

This research project endeavors to address this gap by constructing a comprehensive and extensive online database of data and relative information on the Hazara Genocide in Afghanistan. The goal of this project is to raise awareness and garner recognition of the Hazara genocide by the international community and incite them to take effective measures to terminate these ongoing atrocities.

About the Author

Omid Mohammadi is an undergraduate computer science student from the class of 2025 at Bucknell University. He aspires to make a positive impact in the world using technology. He has a strong passion for social activism. Omid began his journey as a social activist at a young age, motivated by a strong sense of responsibility towards his community, the Hazara people.

At just 13 years old, Omid witnessed a traumatic event of encountering a suicide bomber and experiencing the devastating bomb explosion during a peaceful protest by the Hazara community - to voice their frustration against the re-routing of TUTAP power line from the Hazara dominated area of Bamyan province, to southern provinces - at Char-rahi Dehmazang, Kabul. With the recent escalation of attacks, he continued to witness and endure the heartbreaking loss of friends and family.

Driven by his personal experience and sense of moral obligation, Omid took it upon himself to contribute to in his own small way to contribute to the raise awareness about the Hazara Genocide. Using his technical expertise as a computer science student, he embarked on a project to collect data and publish insightful account of the ongoing atrocities experienced by the Hazara community.

His ultimate goal for the project is to raise awareness about the Hazara Genocide, and contribute in recognition from the international community to garner this devastating genocide. He aims to create a comprehensive database on Hazara Genocide in Afghanistan and neighboring regions, as well as paving the way for the future researches on this subject and beyond.

DSSRF

This project was possible with the help of Digital Scholarship Summer Research Fellows (DSSRF) program which provides the opportunity to develop independent digital research projects, leveraging the power of technology to explore new possibilities. Through mentorship from Library & Information technology staff, the proficiency in utilizing the digital tools and methodology was gained, which then have been put into creating this dynamic digital resource.