The Atlantic: Life as One of the Most Persecuted Ethnic Groups on the Planet

You are a Hazara, and you've been on the run for centuries. Now you're in Syria, and things aren't looking up.

JEFFREY E. STERN
MAY 21, 2013
GLOBAL


Three girls from the Hazara ethnic group sit in a cave in Bamiyan, Afghanistan on December 15, 2001. The Taliban forced tens of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims to flee into the mountains during their rule over the country in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Peter Andrews/Reuters)

Imagine that you live in Afghanistan. Your ancestors have lived there for hundreds of years, but you are a minority. In fact, you are a minority two times over, because the religion you practice is different from the one most people practice, and the way you look is different from the way most people look.

In the 1890's, Emir Abdur Rahman comes along. He is a king who reserves special scorn for your people, and in order to control territory and to scare troublesome groups into obedience, he makes an example out of yours. Your people are easy to target -- the different-believers, the different-lookers....Continue Reading...