A Letter to My Nephew: On Being Hazara

Author: Anis Rezaei People were hastily—anxiously, even—rushing past each other to catch the next train. Just another normal day at a train station in our fast-paced city: London. My nephew J and I were walking up the stairs to reach the platform. I was immersed in the crowd, yet attentive to his energetic and playful […]

Report on Access To Education for Women Under the Taliban

Shared Report – the following report is a shared report that Bolaq does not own. Introduction The full report as PDF here… When the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the Taliban’s first action was to prohibit the education of girls above the sixth grade, closing the doors of schools to them. Following this, over […]

2024: Hazaras Still at Risk of Genocide and Oppression Under the Taliban Regime

Besmillah Taban[1] Abstract The Hazara community in Afghanistan has faced a long history of persecution, discrimination, and violence, dating back to the time of Abdur Rahman Khan (Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901) and continuing into the present under the Taliban regime. Despite historical changes in government and legal systems, the […]

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

Zarifa Ghafari

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 […]

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement Dilemma

Left to Right: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader, Mohsin Dawar, and Afghan nationalist leader Ismail Youn on occasion of inauguration ceremony of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai in Kabul, Afghanistan (2020)

The emergence of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), as an organized voice of educated and progressive Pakistani Pashtuns, was like a fresh breeze in the suffocating environment of Pakistani Politics back in 2018. PTM has been successful to disseminate awareness on the plight of the Pashtun community suffering from the scourge of war in Tribal […]