The Afghan Hazara minority is persecuted because of their faith and excluded because of Islamophobia

The Shia Hazara minority in Afghanistan lives in difficult conditions within their areas of dispersal in the central regions of the country, and the reason is always due to their adherence to the Shia sect, which made them for many years vulnerable to persecution, injustice and displacement, leading to the seizure of their lands.

The Shia Hazara minority in Afghanistan lives in difficult conditions within their areas of dispersal in the central regions of the country, and the reason is always due to their adherence to the Shia sect, which made them for many years vulnerable to persecution, injustice and displacement, leading to the seizure of their lands.

A refugee from the Hazara minority, Najiba Jafari, recounts how she was forced to flee and seek refuge in Tasmania fourteen years ago.

In her interview with ABC News, she said that “most Hazaris were forced by circumstances and violence practiced against them by resorting to European countries,” adding, “As we are Shias, we cannot exercise our religious freedom and our rituals, and our families face continuous persecution for hundreds of years.”

“Resorting to European countries is not an easy thing either, as they welcomed us with a dark face because of our Afghan origins, as terrorist movements such as the Taliban left a bad stereotype in Europeans’ minds of what is called extremist Islam and the phenomenon of Islamophobia,” Jafari said.

She added, “Because of her wearing the veil, people in Tasmania used to look at her strangely and shout at her with words that she did not know because of her lack of fluency in the English language, and she later learned that they do not welcome Muslims,” noting that “it is difficult because people outside our society believe that Afghanistan is just a war zone and that people are terrorists because we are all Muslims.”

“We need to educate the European community that Afghans are not all terrorists,” she added.