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Afghanistan’s anti-Iranian syndrome: denying the Hazaras’ political agency
Talking in favor of nationalism brings up scorn from fellow academics and scholars at a university setting. Prioritizing one’s ethnicity or group’s security and well-being above others as contemptible and scornful. However, the pitfall of such a blanket dislike of nationalism is that academics and scholars fall short of differentiating between different forms of nationalism, maybe due to humanistic tendencies prevalent in academia.
Discussing nationalism in a multi-ethnic country like Afghanistan is even more challenging. In Afghanistan, the official narrative for the nation goes something like “our country has a 5000 years old civilization, and it is the graveyard of empires”. But sometimes, we also define our nationalism based on anti-Pakistani or anti-Iranian fervent, thus labeling those who do not share the official line as Pakistani or Iranian puppets, denying the agency of Afghani citizens in politics or its articulations. Particularly the Hazaras in Afghanistan suffer from the anti-Iranian syndrome prevailing in the country.
Since the 1978 Iranian revolution when Wilayat Faqih, a Shiite theocratic state, took power in that country, the Hazara Shiites in Afghanistan have been seen as pawns and puppets of the Iranian government. When the Hazaras raise a demand, the state apparatus is…
