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Kabul, Afghanistan – The mother said her family came to the Afghan capital from Bamiyan province six years ago in search of better opportunities and security. They settled in Dasht-e-Barchi – mainly the Hazara Shia Muslim district of western Kabul.
Last month, 85 people, mostly female students between the ages of 11 and 17, were killed in bombings outside the Sayed-ul-Shuhada institute in Barchi, Bonch. Among them was his teenage niece Amena.
“We came here to work, but all we found was death,” said Amena, 50, who added that her family is thinking of returning home to Waras, where some of the girls and boys who died were.
The relative security of the neighborhood – which is home to about a million people – has attracted hawks, such as Amena, from all countries affected by the war, as well as those returning. refugee neighbor in Pakistan and Iran.
Barchi Hazara was created as a safe haven for the population, the South Asian nation fell into the civil war in the 1990s and became the battlefield of armed groups fighting for control of the country in Kabul.
We’re not going anywhere. We have the honor, we cannot be afraid
But in recent years the neighborhood has become the target of savage attacks, many of which have been claimed by ISIL (ISIS), Hazara genocide people say the Kabul administration has not corrected it.
In recent years, the government has made efforts to secure Barchi, allowing additional security to the neighborhood in Ashura’s memories every year. Memories of the death of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad have been attacked at least three times Since 2011 President Ashraf Ghani has made a point of condemning every attack in the area.
For the residents of Barchi, however, they have not been enough. They say in Barchi, there is no safe place. Armed groups have attacked educational testing centers, a fighting gym, ID card distribution center, mosque, motherhood, and in the last month, girls school.
At least seven people were killed twice on Saturday separate explosions around.
Discrimination against Hazaras
Afghan youth have suffered decades of abuse and state-sponsored discrimination, most recently under the Taliban regime from 1996-2001. In neighboring Pakistan, they are under attack armed groups largely because of Shiite beliefs, while in Iran, they have a marked racism as an outspoken refugee in Afghanistan and as a soldier in Tehran’s foreign wars.
Analysts and officials believe the attacks are being used by ISIL to pile up sectarianism in multiple ethnic countries, at a time of increasing insecurity, and regional leaders are reporting that they are setting up local armed militias with ethnic militias on ethnic lines for fear of the Taliban returning to power after the US withdrawal.
The U.S. withdrawal is part of a peace deal signed with the Taliban since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 led to a brutal armed uprising. The Taliban have since curtailed attacks on U.S. forces but targeted Afghan forces across the country.
Despite the threats, the neighborhood – especially with its steep roads that stretch for miles – remains vibrant and lively with hundreds of thousands of people who know their ethnicity and geographical location becoming clear targets.
Fereshta, originally a student at Maidan Wardak provincial university, admits the panic in one of Kabul’s most populous neighborhoods.
“You can’t escape the fear, it’s around,” the 20-year-old said outside a small grocery store in the neighborhood.
The economic diversity of the area
Feresht accuses the Taliban, who have learned that thousands of Hazaras have been attacked and killed in a five-thousand-year rule, of ISIL, the Afghan government, for increasing Hazaras’ insecurity.
“When an area is attacked again and again in five years and the government is not actively trying to secure it, it raises a lot of questions,” a local academic declined to name for security reasons. he said.
Zainab Zafarkhil moved to Dasht-e Barchi from Iran in 2007. In his day, his family’s decision to move to the neighborhood was fairly easy. He was safe.
“At one time Barchin was an unthinkable suicide bomber. It was the safest place in all of Kabul, “the 22-year-old university student said.
It is an example of the economic diversity surrounding the Zafarkhil family. It has simple mud houses, unpaved roads turn to mud in the cold winters, and huge multi-colored shopping malls where young people shop for Gucci abayas and the latest new iPhones.
His family is happy. As business owners and government employees, Zafarkhils has the financial resources to go anywhere else in the city, but for thousands of other families in Barchi, especially those from distant provinces like Ghor, Maidan Wardak and Ghazni, this is just not an option.
Despite the threats, the neighborhood – mostly with dirt roads that stretch for miles – remains a lively home for hundreds of thousands of people. [Fatimah Hossaini/Al Jazeera]
Hussain and his wife, Bas Gol, moved their family from the Lal Wa Sarjangal district of central Ghor province seven years ago when the violence began.
They came to Barchira in 2014 with the aim of giving their children better educational and economic opportunities than what was available in Ghor. However, the couple knows that it would be almost impossible to return home safely to more than 130 armed groups in a province.
“Going back would cost us more money. We just hope for the best here. ”Hussain says if his family returned to Lal Wa Sarjangal, they would not have enough financial opportunities to help their families.
What attracts people to Dasht-e-Barchi?
Qayoom Suroush, a Kabul-based researcher, says that like Hussain and his wife, tens of thousands of families from other provinces moved to Barchi mainly because of their economy, security and culture.
“In Barchi you are among your people, here you don’t have to worry about social acceptance, because everyone is like you,” says Suroush about the cultural incentive that attracts so many hazaras to the neighborhood.
Many Al Jazeera residents spoke about the importance of being close to family and that living in Barchin makes it easier to attend local religious and political gatherings that are considered an essential part of their social life.
Moreover, after spending the last 16 years living and studying in Barchin, Suroush says the quality of education offered by young people in Barchin is very important for people in the least secure and underdeveloped countries in the country.
“Education is very important for Hazaras. You can get quality Barchin education at a much better price than other areas of Kabul, ”he said. Like Suroush, other residents noted dozens of schools, language courses and college preparation centers along the highway to prepare for college entrance exams.
Even for those who are somehow allowed to return to their hometown, it often means moving from one unsafe site to another.
‘Pashtuns against Hazaras’
Farzana has lived in Azghari Barchin all his life.
“We even went here before we prayed,” the 19-year-old told Al Jazeera. Then his sister trio, Raihana, Habiba and Hakima, were born. Like the other young girls who grew up in Barchin, the Azghari sisters had little fear at first. They felt safe and protected in their enclave.
But in the last two years, Farzana and other residents of Barchi said the Shuhada high school was under threat, so much so that the students themselves began stroking every person who entered the premises.
“For two years none of us carried backpacks to school,” Azgharik said in fear of consuming Barchi’s neighbors.
When the school was attacked, it was Raihana who would not survive. He was buried on a hill divided between the victims of various attacks in Barchi, along with dozens of other young girls.
Farzana Azghari, dressed in black, lost one of her sisters in a May attack on a girls ’school. The other two sisters dressed in red narrowly escaped the bombings [Fatimah Hossaini/Al Jazeera]
Azgari says these attacks are being led by groups that want to turn “Pashtuns against Hazaras and Hazaras against Pashtuns”.
The government has doubled the number of attacks blamed on the Taliban, including school bombings. But the armed group denies the allegations. No team has claimed responsibility for the school attack.
Recently, Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington’s special representative for reconciliation in Afghanistan, said ISIL forces have been responsible for the school attack. ISIL has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on the people of Hazara, the Shia place of worship and ceremony, and the attacks on Barchi.
Fereshta, a college student, lost her friend in an explosion. His teenage friend was among 30 people killed in the October 2020 attack on the Kowsar-e Danesh education center in Barchi.
But the Hazara of Barchi says the people will last.
“We’re not going anywhere. We have the honor, we can’t be afraid, ”Fereshta told Al Jazeera.
“We will show the world that Afghanistan is not a cemetery for the people of Afghanistan.”
In recent years, attacks by insurgent Dasht-e-Barchin have increasingly targeted civilian organizations, such as Maiwand Wrestling Gym. [File: Ali Latifi/Al Jazeera]
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