The Kingmakers of Afghanistan

In the multi-ethnic Afghanistan, there are many ethnic groups living but they are not equally empowered in the government. I’ve witnessed minorities being forced to doing favorable jobs for those majorities ruling the country each at a time. One of the most depressed and marginalized groups is Hazara, that makes around 20% of the population of the country. For generations, Afghanistan's Hazara minority has occupied. the humblest niche in the country's complex ethnic mosaic. The political power structure has always been dominated by the large southern Pashtun tribes, followed by the slightly less numerous northern Tajiks.

During various periods in history, the Hazaras have been forced from their lands and slaughtered in bouts of ethnic cleansing. In more recent times, they have been forcibly displaced, enslaved, and subjugated by dominant ethnic groups in Afghanistan for centuries.

After 1970s, when things were unbearable for Hazaras, they started to fight for their right; freedom, justice and peace which caused them lose their countless homes, family members and properties but still they couldn’t get the peace and right of living they wanted. The Taliban overcame all over Afghanistan and kept depriving the minority ethnic groups especially Hazaras from all their own rights. People were made to leave the country and go to settle in neighbor countries with many difficulties they would have to tolerate as refugees.

Finally in 2001, after the Americans and International Security Assistance Forces ‘ISAF’ came and freed the country from the Taliban, these Hazaras started to come back to the country from neighbor countries and also from the rural areas they had gone for surviving. They came and contributed to the rebuilding of the country, though they had always been calling for peace, freedom and not destructions.

Throughout all the hardships Hazaras have gone through, there have always been several things distinguishing them from other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The first is their strongly Asiatic ancestry which differs them from other Arab-looking Pashtons and Tajiks in Afghanistan. The second things that have always been seen in them are the strong sense of loyalty and unity. And third one is that they have always spoken for national unity and social justice. After all when things calmed down after 2001, Hazaras to be the first seekers of the long lost word of democracy, have been playing the key role of king making in Afghanistan.

For example, in 2009 election, the vote of this 20% Hazaras made a big difference and helped Karzai ‘a Pashtun tribal’ remain in presidential palace for the next five years. And in exchange for their vote President Karzai had pledges that Hazaras would be given control of several ministries and possibly a newly-created province as well. But none of those promises are actualized yet. The political atmosphere in Afghanistan is that other ethnic groups such as Pashtons or Tajiks don’t want to vote for any nontribal of theirs, even if they have the high ability to control the country skillfully. But Hazaras still express strong loyalty to such leaders and say they intend to follow their political instructions on voting day as long as the country is in a namely peace.

It is about the older generation who are satisfied with the half-stable peace in the country by agreeing to what the other majority groups say and don’t much desire for the leadership. And that is maybe obviously they still have the fear of being long marginalized. But about the new generation of Hazaras, it’s different. The new generation will no longer want to just be happy as an accepted resident of the country but they want to live like the world countries do, free, peaceful, developed and in fair. They want to be in the power where there should be no more lies, no more false promising and no more deceiving the minorities. If the dark era doesn’t return back, Hazaras believe they would reach what they want since the black Americans did.

Since the 2001 invasion, an influx of Hazaras has changed the composition of the capital. Many Hazaras now live in Kabul, making up more than one-fourth of city’s population.

All these young Hazaras have dreams 

With a new generation of Hazaras attending school in relative security and motivated by their parents’ dispossession, their success could alter the country’s balance of ethnic power. Today the Hazaras dominated provinces have the highest passing rates on admissions exams for the country’s top rung of universities. Almost more than one-fourth of college goers are Hazaras who once had only a few people in their higher educations. Similarly, there are a lot of young Hazaras studying abroad in different fields doing their graduate and postgraduate degrees. And likewise, today Hazaras own about 50 seats out of total 249 seats of Afghan parliament. Thus, this young generation is strongly hoping that they would change things soon in the country if the half-standing Afghanistan doesn’t fall down again.

In an interview that BBC had done with several Hazaras, I read the followings: “The Hazara always wanted an open atmosphere to breathe, and now we have that,” said Sarwar Jawadi, a Hazara MP. The old Afghan rulers “wanted to exploit Hazara people, and they didn’t want us to become leaders in this country or to improve,” said Qasim, a 15-year-old boy in the top of his class. But that will change. “By studying we can dictate our future.”

From a neutral perspective, all the above evidences could be seen as signs of new leadership for the future of Afghanistan from the deserving nation who were once deprived of their very basic right. Now it seems to be the time for the nation who called for democracy throughout the history, but every time suffered slaughters from other ethnic groups to stop this king making but rather be the kings of the country.