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Photographer: Hekmatullah Basseri After closing female businesses and women-led organizations, the Taliban recently banned women from leaving their homes unless necessary, always accompanied by a male chaperon. They are banned from viewing public sports, or walking in public parks. After sending girls back home from schools, and forbidding women to get an education, the Taliban has ensured their point comes across with two attacks on the Kaaj Institute, located in...

How Western documentary-makers are unwittingly supporting the divisive political agendas of Afghanistan’s Pashtun elite

by Dr. Homira May Rezai

September 9, 2022

On 22nd August 2022, Netflix revealed the release date for a “Clinton-produced” documentary called ‘In Her Hands’ directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen. The documentary is about Zarifa Ghafari, an Afghan woman, who is presented as “Afghanistan’s first female mayor”, as claimed by HiddenLight Productions’ co-founders, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton. It is commendable to see the achievements of women of Afghanistan are documented. However, there is an...

Title Image - One Year Taliban Rule - English

Afghanistan: The Situation of Hazaras During One Year of Taliban Rule

by Bolaq

August 15, 2022

A year past since the reemergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It has been a disastrous year for the people of Afghanistan especially the women, the Hazaras, as well as the religious minorities. A totalitarian regime has taken power in the country where every sign of progress is undermined and the achievements of the last twenty years have gone to waste. The viable media and press are stifled; the thriving...

Hazara Genocide in Afghanistan (1892-1901)

by Ishaq Mohammadi

September 4, 2022

The Hazara nation, now living mostly in Central Afghanistan region known as Hazarajat, faced the worst genocide at the hands of Amir of Kabul, Abdul Rehman Khan (1880-1901) in the late 19th century. Hundreds of thousands of Hazaras were massacred, sold out as slaves to neighboring countries, and forced to migrate to Central Asia, Iran, and the Indian Subcontinent after losing their lands, but unfortunately, despite all these horrors, their...

Girls Education Jaghori Ghazni Hazaristan

Afghanistan Suffering Under the Taliban

by Sajjad Aasim

March 28, 2022

High school female students in Afghanistan were left with tears after the Taliban kept girls schools closed, back-tracking from their earlier promise. The schools were to reopen on Wednesday, 23rd March, after the Taliban’s so-called ‘Ministry of Education’ had already made an announcement a week earlier. Nevertheless, many girl students, with unparalleled excitement and hope, reached their schools only to find them closed. They had hoped against hope; and the...

All-time Victim: Women of Afghanistan

by Khatima Afzali

February 7, 2022

After 20 years of struggle for democracy and women’s rights in Afghanistan, the country turned to a black death hole -- hundreds of thousands of Afghans trying to escape the country after the Taliban returned to power on August 15, 2021. Listen to Audio version of this article on Bolaq’s YouTube Channel Though there is no exact data available to indicate how many Afghan refugees, legally and illegally, have entered...

Hazara Genocide Remembrance and Solidarity Week: 25 September to 1st October

by Thella Changezi

August 12, 2021

In the aftermath of 2nd Anglo Afghan War (1879 – 1880) and decisive British military victory over Ayub Khan in the battle of Baba Wali just outside southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the British selected Amir Abdur Rehman as new Amir of Afghanistan, who in return not only ratified the Treaty of Gandamak but also promised to help British achieve all their geopolitical ambitions in the region. Due to its...

Advocating Hazara Cause and Recognition of Hazara Genocide: The lessons we could learn from Armenian US community