Afghan living in Portugal says Hazara minority has been left behind and denounces genocide
The Afghan Ali Akbar Ahmadi, living in Portugal for almost three years, denounced a possible genocide against the Hazara people, a minority to which he belongs, that the Taliban will do everything to expel them from Afghanistan.
Ali Akbar Ahmadi arrived in Portugal on a work visa more than two years ago, after having spent many years in Switzerland and having lived in Iran, where he has most of his family, who left Afghanistan when he was still a child for because of the harassment and discrimination they were subjected to in the country for belonging to the Hazara ethnic minority.
In an interview with Lusa, Ali said he does not want to give up hope, but criticized the fact that the Hazara had been “left behind”.
“When a Hazara member goes dead nobody will want to know of his death, they will be killed, it’s as simple as that, we don’t have people. You can say no, but this is the reality, it’s as simple as that. [os Hazara] live, live, but if they die, they die”, he pointed out.
He admitted that it was not just the Hazara who were targeted by the Taliban, but noted that this is a minority that has long been persecuted, since in the 18th century “a king killed almost half of the Hazara population because they didn’t want to obey him”.
“Since then, there has always been a desire on the part of the ethnic group that is in power, the Pashtun, to eliminate us”, he pointed out, revealing that the Taliban will do everything for the Hazara to end up leaving the country.
According to Ali, the Hazara are “conformed by the facial features and the way they pray”, taking into account that this population is Shiite Muslim, while in Afghanistan the Sunnis predominate.
By the way, he said that at the time the Taliban invaded and took over the country, he had a sister still living there, who worked for US conditions and who immediately tried to leave, explaining that even if her sister chose to stay , by being from the Hazara minority “it would be like dying day after day”.
“You’re not living, you’re just living to die and that happens to almost every Hazara in Afghanistan, mostly women and I know girls who tried to leave the country but couldn’t. (…) It’s not easy for us, it may be easy for other ethnic groups, but it’s not for us,” he stressed.
Ali is not afraid of words and believes that this is “a kind of genocide” against the Hazara people who, in addition to not being able to move in the country or have any freedom, also have no rights and are not represented at the level of the central power, which will also prevent them from having access to any type of international humanitarian aid that may reach the country.
From the perspective of this Afghan, the Taliban “know nothing about running a country”, nor are they present to help as people: “It is only they are interested in being in power and saying that they are the real locals”.
Still, Ali said he hopes the Taliban will manage to do something rather than just destroying what has been built in the last 20 years, although discouragement is stronger and eventually admits that “a military group cannot be believed to change in one night”.
During the conversation, she recorded the days she followed the entry of the Taliban into Afghanistan and the growing concern for her sister because “everything was too fast” and because everything that was built ended up “completely destroyed, at least for women and children “
“At that time my main concern was my sister, we were planning to take her out of the country. She was very brave and had friends who helped her out, but for three to four nights I didn’t sleep very well,” he recalled.
Although one sister managed to escape and is now in the United States, Ali stressed that it is not just her sister, but all 16 million Afghan women who are now forced to stay at home.
For the future, Ali said he has no desires or hope, but rather the certainty that in the coming years nothing will change, admitting three possible scenarios for the country: A scenario of hunger and widespread exodus, a second scenario in which the country enters in civil war or a third in which Afghanistan splits into two factions and there will be “much bloodshed”.