‘Taliban sharpening their knives’: Hazara community in Australia terrified for relatives in Afghanistan
Members of the Hazara community in Australia have said the capture of the Afghan capital by the Taliban has retraumatised them and left many terrified for their families still in Kabul.
It comes as parts of the capital Kabul, and in particular the airport, descended into chaos as residents desperate to get out of the country scrambled to find an escape.
The Hazaras are an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan, who have previously, and continue to face violent persecution from the Taliban.
Thousands sought refuge in Australia when the Taliban came to power in the 1990s. Arif Nabizada from the Kateb Hazara Association told Guardian Australia he could barely describe his emotions watching them return to power.
“I’m heavily traumatised myself and it has triggered in me my past trauma. The whole community here is in shock, and feel anger and frustration. They feel hopeless and helpless,” he said.
He said many in the community felt anxious for the safety of their family in Afghanistan, both due to the Taliban’s history of violence against the Hazaras, and because of a declaration made more recently, warning the Hazaras of the danger they’re in.
“We have faced persecution from them for many years. The Taliban publicly announced that if they take control of Afghanistan they would kick us out of our country, that we wouldn’t be safe.”
He described the situation as impossible and said he hoped to see more of a response from the Australian government, including processing visa applications for vulnerable people.
“We want the government to quickly process their application. As we’re speaking, we have so many people here in Australia whose families are trapped while they have launched family reunion applications.
“We want the government to grant permanent residency for people who are already onshore. To provide a permanent pathway for people who are on protection visas.”
The Australian government said on Tuesday it would not be returning 4,200 temporary visa holders to Afghanistan while danger persists.
“No Afghan visa holder currently in Australia will be asked to return to Afghanistan while the security situation there remains dire,” the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, said.
Dr Niamatullah Ibrahimi, a lecturer in international relations at La Trobe University, said the Hazaras had a long history of being persecuted by the Taliban since the extremist group’s emergence in the 1990s.
“When they ruled Afghanistan, they engaged in mass killings of the Hazaras, they repressed the Hazaras and they forced tens of thousands of them at that time to flee Afghanistan in very large numbers,” Ibrahimi said.
“The Taliban is also a fundamentalist Sunni group. It has many individuals in its ranks that do not see Shia Islam, to which the Hazaras subscribe, as falling within the acceptable traditions of Islam.”
Ibrahimi said the Hazaras were also deeply worried because they had invested so much hope and confidence in the international efforts to rebuild Afghanistan – efforts that now leave them vulnerable to being identified.
“Hazaras were among the first to embrace democratic exercises like elections. They would send their girls to schools and universities in large numbers. And now they see all of those avenues for the future closing.”
Ibrahimi said the unfolding events were hitting the Australian Hazara community particularly hard because they are a relatively new community, with many having a large number of friends and family still in Afghanistan.
“It is very traumatic. The first group of asylum seekers who came here were fleeing persecution after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the 90s.”
“So this re-traumatising them, the horrors and fears, the nightmare of living under the Taliban rule is now coming back to life for many people. It’s giving people flashbacks to the brutal persecution they had experienced in Afghanistan under the Taliban.”
Parwin Taqawi is a youth worker based in Penrith and is part of the Hazara diaspora. She said she’s barely been able to sleep as she watches the news unfold.
“These past few nights, my family and I haven’t been able to sleep because of everything that’s happening. I get goosebumps thinking about the situation, and the thought of the Taliban ruling the country,” Taqawi said.
“We’re watching 20 years of hard work go down the drain in just three to four days. It’s so hard to comprehend, every day I wake up hoping it’s just a nightmare.
“Now that the Taliban has taken over the country, we’ve started coming to a point where people are starting to lose hope that there is something that can be done. I think we’re all still numb, shocked at how quickly things happened.”
Taqawi said her community was terrified at the fate of their relatives in Afghanistan, saying she’s heard stories of the Taliban door knocking and threatening people already.
“We definitely feel very, very scared for the people, especially for the Hazara, especially for the women and girls, because they’re the ones who will be affected the most.
“My family are all staying at home, just looking at the situation. They told me that when they do go out, there are Taliban on the streets walking around. So they can’t even go out.
“They’re more united now. There are more powerful. They have more equipment and resources to fight. They’ve just basically been sharpening their knives over the past 20 years, waiting for this moment.”