{"id":659,"date":"2022-12-10T03:12:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T03:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=659"},"modified":"2022-12-22T03:54:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T03:54:10","slug":"lives-cut-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2022\/12\/lives-cut-short\/","title":{"rendered":"Lives Cut Short\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stories from the genocidal campaign against ethnic Hazaras in Afghanistan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A poster with photos of 54 people, mostly students and girls from ethnic Hazara community, killed in the September 30, 2022 suicide attack on Kaaj in Kabul. Source: Freshta\u2019s uncle Arif Joya\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ali Yawar Adili<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night before her death, Hajar Muhammadi had dinner with her family. She retired early unlike other nights when she would stay awake until midnight to study. She was unusually quiet that night. Her older sister Parwana was chatting with a group of friends from the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was laughing and Hajar said there must be something naughty going on with me,\u201d Parwana said. \u201cCome and see, I responded. Hajar did not and went straight to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, on September 30, 2022, Hajar was sitting in a lecture hall of Kaaj \u2013 a tutoring center \u2013 in west Kabul with hundreds of other girls taking a practice exam in preparation for kankor<\/em> \u2013 a university admission exam \u2013 scheduled for the following week. A suicide attacker blew himself up, killing 54 people and wounding 124 others, mostly students and girls. The students were members of the ethnic Hazara community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A genocidal campaign<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Afghanistan\u2019s Hazara community has lost count of such attacks. Attacks against the community began to increase in 2016 according to a 2017 United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan report<\/a> that recorded 12 attacks resulting in 689 civilian casualties from January 2016 to November 2017, compared to five incidents in the previous six years. Since then, the Hazaras have been subject to increasing violence and bloodshed that bears the hallmarks of a genocidal campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hazaras are one of the major ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The exact size<\/a> of each group is unclear. The Hazaras speak a Persian dialect and the majority of them adhere to Shia Islam in Sunni-majority Afghanistan. A significant number of the Hazaras also follow the Ismaili Shia or Sunni Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack on Kaaj shook the community to its core and inspired a widespread \u201cstop Hazara genocide\u201d campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time there is an attack, the lives lost are summed up with numbers. The stories below paint portraits of some of the lives cut short, dreams shattered into pieces and families devastated in the September 30 attack on Kaaj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hajar\u2019s shattered dreams<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

At 7:36 am, Parwana was at home when she heard someone knocking on the door. It was her cousin, Onsia. She broke the bad news that a blast had hit Kaaj. Parwana and Onsia rushed to Kaaj, but the Taliban soldiers did not let them in. After the pair insisted, they were able to get inside but were told that the \u201cmartyrs\u201d had been transferred to the nearby mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a pile of dead bodies and we were unable to check one by one,\u201d Parwana said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After they arrived at Muhammad Ali Jinnah Hospital, they learned that Onsia\u2019s sister, Marzia, had been killed and her body found, but Hajar was missing. Hajar\u2019s body was eventually found at the Forensic Science Department at noon. Marzia\u2019s uncle, Zaher Modaqeq, posted<\/a> on Facebook that they had identified Hajar from among more than 20 other students who \u201chad been torn into pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of her head had been ripped off,\u201d Sirat said. \u201cIt was Hajar\u2019s body. They recognized it from her liver-colored clothes, black sports sneakers, and silver earrings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 5:00 pm, they buried Hajar and Marzia next to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hajar and Marzia are buried next to each other. They were cousins and killed in a 30 September suicide bombing on Kaaj in Kabul.<\/em> Photo: Hajar\u2019s family<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hajar started tutoring courses, she promised herself that she would study engineering. In her last practice exam, she achieved a score of 325, which further boosted her confidence. It made her think she could get a scholarship to study abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hajar wrote about her daily life, experiences, and dreams in a diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of Hajar\u2019s diary entries is particularly painful for me,\u201d Parwana said. \u201cShe wrote when she passes the kankor<\/em> exam, she will celebrate it at home and take sweets for her teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parwana studies psychology at Kabul University. Hajar\u2019s death affected her so much that she wanted to drop out of university but was able to muster her strength. She promised to pick up Hajar\u2019s shattered dreams and never abandon her studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marzia\u2019s wishlist<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Marzia Muhammadi would have turned 18 in February 2023. She attended Kawsar Danesh \u2013 another tutoring center \u2013 before the Taliban takeover that disrupted education centers at least for two months. After they resumed, Marzia enrolled in Kaaj because it offered a 50 percent discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father studied up to grade two and makes a living by working for a government agency. Her mother is uneducated and a housewife, but also does tailoring to support her children\u2019s education fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 30, Marzia\u2019s sister Onsia had been invited by her cousin Sara to lunch. Sara had asked Onsia to show up early to help her. Onsia was getting ready to go to Sara\u2019s home when Marzia\u2019s cell phone rang \u2013 Marzia had forgotten to take her phone. When Onsia answered the phone, the caller checked on Marzia because of an explosion at Kaaj and then hung up without identifying themselves. Onsia guesses it might have been one of Marzia\u2019s classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onsia turned to Facebook which was abuzz with the news about the explosion. She then woke up her mother, who was still sleeping. She called her father and uncle, Hajar\u2019s father, who were attending khatm-e Quran <\/em>(recitation of the Quran), a common ritual on Friday mornings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, Onsia\u2019s father found Marzia\u2019s body in Watan Hospital, took her to Muhammad Ali Jinnah Hospital for registration, and then returned home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time Onsia talked to Marzia was the night before the attack. Marzia did not talk and laugh much that night. She asked Onsia to help her download a song, nafas<\/em> (breath). Onsia told her that she would do it another time because the internet was down. Marzia then went to sleep. She overslept and told Hajar that she would catch up with her later at Kaaj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hajar and Marzia\u2019s families have placed their favorite books in a makeshift library on their graves. Photo: Hajar\u2019s family<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marzia also wanted to major in engineering. Her younger sister, Zahra, was in tenth grade when the Taliban captured power. The Taliban banned girls from attending school beyond grade six. She now studies only English at a private school in Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onsia was lucky that she was absent on the day when her own tutoring center, Kawsar Danesh, also in the Hazara-majority area, was hit by an explosion two years earlier, in October 2020. According to a UNAMA  report<\/a>, the explosion killed 40 people and injured 79 others, mainly students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marzia kept a diary. In one entry, she listed her dreams in life which included meeting<\/a> Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak. Another particular entry in her diary is heartbreaking for Onsia. When Onsia passed the kankor<\/em>, Marzia wrote, \u201cI am very happy today.\u201d Onsia wept as she described the entry. She wishes Marzia could have lived long enough to attend the kankor<\/em> so she would return her happiness. She muted her mic to sob before she resumed the conversation and referred me to her uncle\u2019s Facebook post that expressed her family\u2019s feelings the day kankor<\/em> results were announced this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 6, Marzia\u2019s uncle Modaqeq wrote<\/a> that he had been with Marzia\u2019s family the night before when the newscaster read the news of kankor<\/em> results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, a hush fell over the room and everyone stopped talking,\u201d he wrote. Perhaps, we were all waiting to hear Marzia\u2019s name because she had decided to be among the ten top scorers in the kankor<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freshta never celebrated her 20th birthday<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Freshta Nawruzi graduated from Baba Girl\u2019s School in Jaghori district of Ghazni in 2021. She spent the last two winters in Kabul attending tutoring center to prepare for kankor<\/em>. Her uncle, Arif Joya, said that the family had planned to celebrate Freshta\u2019s belated 20th<\/sup> birthday one of those days around September 30, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that day, Freshta\u2019s grandma had planned to throw a baby shower for one of her daughters-in-law. She had invited Freshta\u2019s mother from Jaghori. Arif had just woken up and asked if Freshta had breakfast before heading out to her class when he received a call. His friend informed him that there had been an explosion at Kaaj. He started shivering and sweating. His niece was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ran the 20-minute long distance in 5 minutes to get to Kaaj,\u201d Arif told me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Freshta Nawruzi and the books she was reading in preparation for the university entry exam. Photo: Her uncle Arif Joya<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arif evaded the Taliban so he could find his niece. He looked inside the lecture hall and saw harrowing scenes of a bloodbath. He then went to the nearby mosque where the bodies had been piled up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the girls were without heads and some of them had parts of their heads torn off,\u201d said Arif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sat next to a body that looked like Freshta\u2019s, but when his cousin arrived, she told him that it was not Freshta. Joya dashed to Watan Hospital where he found Freshta along with three other bodies in the basement. Freshta\u2019s mother, who had come for the baby shower, now had to travel back with her daughter\u2019s coffin, Arif noted as he sighed a deep sigh of sorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in their home village, Freshta\u2019s teachers and schoolmates had lined up on the sides of the road to pay tribute to her. They buried Freshta that night. Her school\u2019s teachers and students named the school\u2019s library after Freshta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freshta also kept a diary. One of the entries that Arif read to me was on life: \u201cDo not forget that life is not that eternal to delay kindness to tomorrow. So be kind because there may not be a tomorrow. Life, life, life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could write the stories of 51 other students whose lives were cut short in a single attack which will sadly remain one of the most shocking attacks against the Hazaras only until the next one. Modaqeq after burying Marzia and Hajar wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhom to curse and what to do? It is our everyday story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Y. Adili is an MIA candidate at Columbia University. He has previously worked with<\/em> <\/em>New America<\/em><\/a> and Afghanistan Analysts Network. His research publications are available<\/em> <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>
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Stories from the genocidal campaign against ethnic Hazaras in Afghanistan A poster with photos of 54 people, mostly students and girls from ethnic Hazara community, killed in the September 30, 2022 suicide attack on Kaaj in Kabul. Source: Freshta\u2019s uncle…<\/p>\n

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