A clear, melancholic voice cut through the silence in Centennial Olympic Park.
“While you were here, you were all my hopes for life. Now I am left in grief, full of pain. Why have you left?”
Sharifa Hussain, a Hazara Atlanta resident, stood with a megaphone in one hand and the heart-wrenching testimony of a mother whose daughter had been murdered by the Taliban in the other. According to Sefat Hamkar, an organizer for the Atlanta protest, in an interview with the Wheel, almost 1,000 protesters stood in silence, lowering their signs as Hussain sang in Hazaragi, a dialect of Farsi spoken by the Hazara ethnic group.
“You were the light of my home, and now you’ve left me here in grief. Now a mother is burning in the dark, after you.”
Hussain and hundreds of others gathered in Atlanta on Sunday, Oct. 16 to protest the ongoing genocide against the Hazara people. Though they have lived in Afghanistan for centuries, the Hazara have long suffered systematic violence, displacement and ethnic cleansing. Just last month in Kabul, a suicidebombing at an educational center in a predominantly Hazara neighborhood injured 110 students and killed 53 others, mostly girls and young women. This attack as well as a recent increase in violence has pushed global Hazara communities to protest the silence from international bodies like the U.N. and to demand recognition for the genocide occurring within Afghanistan’s borders. Global governments must put more pressure on bodies like the U.N. to recognize the Hazara genocide, to protect asylees and to increase international support of grassroots movements led by Hazara people spreading awareness of their fight for human rights.
Anti-Hazara sentiment predates the current campaigns headed by the Taliban. At the end of the 19th century, King Abdur Rahman Khan led a genocide that decimated almost 62% of the Hazara population in Afghanistan at the time. A century later, the Afghanistan government led by Burhanuddin Rabbani orchestrated a mass killing of Hazara families known as the Afshar operation in 1993. Despite the systematic nature of these attacks and the purposeful violence perpetuated by the Taliban today, the U.N. has not officially recognized the genocide for what it is now.
Hazaras are a religious and ethnic minority; Hazara Afghans predominately practice the Shi’a sect of Islam, while most of Afghanistan’s other ethnic groups follow the Sunni sect. As such, Hazaras find themselves excluded from general civil society and are particularly vulnerable to discrimination along ethnic and religious lines. According to Hamkar, many Hazara are excluded from workplaces, particularly in the government.
“Right now in Afghanistan, you don’t see any Hazara in the government and we have like 34 provinces,” Hamkar said.
In an interview with the Wheel, Emory University alum Shakila Ali (22PH) explained that the global community’s tendency to homogenize Afghanistan’s diversity as well as a general lack of awareness lend themselves to the ongoing international silence on the Hazara genocide.
“[The West] don’t realize that there is this minority ethnic and religious group because from a U.S. perspective everyone thinks that Afghanistan is all Afghans and all Muslims,” Ali said. “And internationally it doesn’t gain attention because [the attacks on Hazara communities] are always classified as a terrorist attack. It’s never directly specified that it’s directly targeting the Hazara community.”
Following U.S. troops’ messy withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, the U.S. government offered asylum and special visas to thousands of Afghans, prioritizing those who aided U.S. operations in the country. However, Hazara Afghans were not among those prioritized for this asylum. Ali explained that because Hazaras are largely excluded from career opportunities, like positions in government, they did not and could not ever qualify.
“Within Afghanistan, if you think about it, if Hazaras were never given a seat at the table — how could they be in this category [of Afghans receiving U.S. aid or asylum] ?” Ali said.
The Hazara population, along with other Afghans, suffer from the international trend of the prioritization of certain refugees. This trend has become especially noticeable in the last year. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have taken abundant measures to provide asylum for Ukrainian refugees, while they continue to neglect refugees from developing countries, especially in the Middle East.
Some may worry that refugees will be unable to integrate and contribute to society. This notion, however, is simply untrue. In Atlanta, for instance, roughly 31% of “Main Street” businesses are founded and run by immigrants, and 85% of refugee households who settle in Georgia become economically self-supporting within six months of living in the state.
On top of pressuring governments to protect more Hazara refugees, activists urge individuals to seek out volunteering opportunities, even virtual ones, and to donate to assist aid efforts for the Hazara community. Ali told the Wheel she has planned and hosted a grassroots level fundraiser for at- risk children and families in Afghanistan. Her fundraisers were successful in large due to the initiative and support of the 40 volunteers that joined to fundraise across social media platforms. The third annual fundraiser will happen in the next few months with the goal to provide financial assistance directly to families impacted by the ongoing situation and Ali hopes that Emory students can take part by filling out this form.
Additionally, there are a multitude of refugee aid organizations in the Atlanta area. Organizations such as the International Rescue Committee in Atlanta, New American Pathways and the Refugee Women’s Network all operate in the Atlanta metro area and take volunteers who provide services that help refugees settle into the city and reach self-sustainability.
The Hazara community is urging the international community to take notice of their struggle for freedom and dignity, and they are doing so with urgency. It is only right that we support their movement by continuing to raise awareness, pushing for increased refugee asylum and urging the U.N. to formally recognize the Hazara genocide.
Hamkar urges people to keep fighting for their rights no matter the circumstances.
“If we cannot do it inside our country, we can do it outside our country,” said Hamkar. “Wherever we are.”
The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is composed of Isabelle Bellott-McGrath, Rachel Broun, Evelyn Cho, Ellie Fivas, Marc Goedemans, Aayam Kc, Elyn Lee, Saanvi Nayar, Shruti Nemala, Nushrat Nur, Sara Perez, Ben Thomas and Kayla Robinson.
