Afghan Religious Minorities
massacred. Having been able to get religious sanction to declared
Hazaras to be ‘infidels’, ‘the army and tribal levies were free to
act as they pleased with regard to the Hazaras and their property
when their land was occupied.’19 The king stirred non-Shias,
including people from the then British India, to suppress the
Hazaras by invoking it as a religious duty.20 While it is unclear
if the king did consider Hazaras to be infidels, he was able to
‘manipulate the situation using religion as a means to pursue
his desires.’21 The successors of King Abdul Rahman used the
same grounds for continuing the persecution of the Shias until
much later.22 King Mohammad Nader Shah (1929-1933) brutally
suppressed several Hazara rebellions, including the Koh Daman
revolt in November 1930.23 However, his reign did not last long as
he was assassinated by an ethnic Hazara.
There is a belief that Nader Khan might have been assassinated
in retaliation of his treatment of Hazaras, including heavy taxes
on them.24 Following the assassination, Hazaras were barred from
holding office, enrolling in universities and joining the armed
forces.25 The ban remained effective until the 1970s.26
The social, economic and political situation of the Hazaras
improved at the time of the communist regime from 1978 to 1992.
At the time, Hazaras occupied senior governmental positions
and were treated relatively on par to other Afghans.27 However,
19 Jennifer Creasy, ‘The Religious Identity of the Hazaras of Afghanistan and
Modern Day Pakistan’ (Mth thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009), 35.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Anonymous Interview: Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN),
October 02 2019, Kabul, Afghanistan.
23 Vladimir Boyko, ‘Kohdaman Uprising of 1930’, Afghanistan Center at
Kabul University, accessed February 22, 2020, http://www.afghandata.org:8080/
xmlui/bitstream/handle/azu/3166/azu_acku_pamphlet_ds361_b69_2001_w.
pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
24 Round Table Discussion: Civil Society and Human Rights Network
(CSHRN), October 2, 2019, Kabul, Afghanistan.
25 ‘Coming up from the Bottom—Afghanistan’s Hazaras,’ The Economist,
accessed November 11, 2019, https://www.economist.com/asia/2007/02/15/
coming-up-from-the-bottom; Sarah Hucal, ‘Afghanistan: Who are the Hazaras’?
Aljazeera News, accessed February 24, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/
features/2016/06/afghanistan-hazaras-160623093601127.html.
26 Interview with human rights activist, Kabul, November 2019.
27 Interview with human rights activist, Kabul, November 2019.
7