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The land we now call Afghanistan has been a place of constant migration through its mountainous passes. Its linguistic, cultural and religious diversity is a result of millennia of trade along the Silk Road. More than a dozen ethnic groups are mentioned in the country’s constitution.
Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban means that some minorities are again at heightened risk of persecution.
As a religion and politics scholar focused on the Khoja – Shiite Muslim communities originally from India but now scattered across the globe – I have studied the precariousness of being a religious and ethnic minority in the region.
Among the Afghans who have the most to lose today, I would argue, are groups with a different interpretation of Islam – particularly the Shiite Hazara community, the nation’s third-largest ethnic group, who have faced discrimination for more than a century.
In July 2021, nine Hazara men were killed by Taliban fighters in southeastern Afghanistan, according to a report by Amnesty International – echoing previous periods under the Taliban when the Hazara were targeted.
Image courtesy: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/afghan-community-in-greece-demonstate-in-central-athens-on-news-photo/1232877052?adppopup=true
Read the full article here: https://theconversation.com/who-are-the-hazara-of-afghanistan-an-expert-on-islam-explains-166776