From the community and beyond
First-person narratives, cultural features, news from Afghanistan and from Hazaras abroad, and advocacy updates.
Refugee Resettlement Policy and the Hazara: What the Numbers Show
The global resettlement quota fell 84 percent in a single year. Four countries made commitments to Afghan refugees after 2021. A country-by-country account of what was promised, what was delivered, and why Hazaras - the most persecuted subgroup - remain invisible in every government's data.
The Case for Hazara Representation in International Bodies
Why Hazara civil society lacks formal standing in the UN system - and what needs to change at the IIMAA, UNHCR, and ECOSOC level.
Dr. Sima Samar: Physician, Commissioner, Exile
Sima Samar has operated from the center of danger - as a Hazara woman in a state that has treated both categories as targets - and she has kept moving. From Jaghori to Kabul to exile at Tufts, a documented account of her life, the institutions she built, and what her refusal to stop has meant.
The Hazara Case at the ICC: What Is Happening and What Is Not
The International Criminal Court has an open investigation into Afghanistan and has issued arrest warrants. No one is in custody. The worst crimes against Hazaras fall outside the court's jurisdiction entirely. A plain-language account of where the case stands and what accountability would actually require.
Hazaras Under the Taliban: What Has Happened Since 2021
A documented account of what has happened to Afghanistan's Hazara population since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021 - targeted killings, economic exclusion, displacement, and the erasure of civic life.
The Kart-e-Se Massacre of 1993: What Happened and Why It Matters
On the night of February 10-11, 1993, forces allied to the Afghan government launched an offensive into Afshar, a Hazara neighborhood in west Kabul. What followed was one of the worst atrocities of the Afghan civil war. Almost no one outside Afghanistan knows it happened.
Hazara Soldiers in World War I: The Forgotten Regiments of the British Indian Army
The 106th Hazara Pioneers served on three continents in the First World War. Almost no one remembers them - not in the histories of the war, and not in Hazara community memory. This is an attempt to recover the record.
A Name For Everyone: The Case For Renaming Afghanistan
The country's name was given by one group. It can be taken back by all of them. The argument for treating renaming as a serious political project that Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Aimaqs, Turkmen, Baloch, Nuristanis, and Pashais can build a coalition around.
Whose Land Is Afghanistan? A History of the Country's Name
The country's name is not a neutral geographic label. It is a political claim, written into the founding documents of the modern state, that the land belongs to one of the peoples who live on it. This is what that has meant for everyone else.
The Hazara Resistance at Guldara: A Battle That History Forgot
The 19th-century Hazara uprisings against Abdur Rahman Khan - one of the most significant and least-covered episodes of Hazara history in any language.
Dambura: The Soul of Hazara Music
A deep profile of the dambura - the two-stringed lute at the center of Hazara musical tradition - covering its construction, repertoire, the players who defined it, and its survival.
Why Persecution Fragments a People Instead of Uniting Them
The counter-intuitive truth about communities under sustained threat: persecution does not forge unity. It contracts trust to the smallest verifiable circle. A look at why this happens, what it has done to Hazaras, and why naming it matters more than denying it.
Suspicion Travels With the Language and the Food: How Trust Patterns Are Inherited
Suspicion was protective for the generation that lived through displacement and loss. It does not switch off when the danger recedes - and it gets passed down to children and grandchildren who never lived through the original event. An honest look at how trust patterns travel between generations, and what that means for community-building today.
Building What We Don't Have: A Strategy for a Hazara Unifying Institution
An honest look at what a unifying Hazara institution would need to do, why earlier attempts fractured, and what could realistically be built over the next decade.
The Lines Inside the Line: Hazara Sub-Groups, Internal Division, and the Question of Unity
An honest look at the regional and tribal sub-identities within the Hazara people, the historical and sociological reasons internal divisions persist, and what unity would actually require.
Bamiyan Before the Buddhas: What the Valley Looked Like at Its Peak
Reconstructing Bamiyan as a Silk Road hub and Buddhist center long before the Taliban era - the archaeology, the Kushan Empire, and what the valley looked like at its height.
Hazara Embroidery: Pattern, Color, and the Women Who Made Them
The geometric embroidery traditions of Hazara women: the stitches, the garments, the regional variations, and the conditions under which the practice now survives.
Hazara Food: A Guide to the Flavors Nobody Writes About
A serious look at Hazara culinary tradition: the dishes, the ingredients, the seasonal and ceremonial food culture, and what makes it distinctly Hazara.
What Genocide Recognition Actually Means: A Plain-Language Guide
What recognition involves in legal and political terms, what it does and does not achieve, and where the Hazara case currently stands in that landscape.
The Oral Epic Tradition: Hazara Storytelling Before It Was Written Down
The folk tales, epic cycles, proverbs, and oral poetry of the Hazara people. What forms they took, who carried them, and what is being done to preserve them.
Hazara Scientists: A First Record of Researchers in International Academia
An opening entry, deliberately partial, toward a record of Hazara scholars and scientists working at universities and research institutions abroad. One verified profile, with an open invitation for the community to add more.
How the Hazara Became Shi'a: Faith, Conversion, and the Safavid Connection
The contested, centuries-long process by which Hazara communities adopted Twelver Shi'a Islam, and how that religious identity was later weaponized against them.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan: What Was Lost and What Remains
Two thousand years of cultural history, destroyed in two days. The story of the Bamiyan Buddhas - and why their loss belongs to the Hazara people.
Who Are the Hazara? Everything You Need to Know
A comprehensive introduction to the Hazara people - their history, culture, language, global community, and resilience.
Hazaragi: A Language Under Threat
Spoken by millions across three continents, Hazaragi carries a history that most of the world has never heard. A language under pressure - and the people working to preserve it.
The Network Is the Opportunity
First-generation professionals build their networks from scratch. Here is why that network may be the most important thing you build - and how to start.
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Your story belongs here
Hazara United publishes writing by and for the community. We welcome personal accounts of displacement, migration, and belonging; cultural essays on language, tradition, and identity; historical research; and the experience of building a life outside Afghanistan. If you have something worth saying, we want to read it.
- Personal narratives and life abroad
- Cultural essays and language documentation
- Historical research and community memory
- Advocacy and human rights perspectives
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