Gul Jehan* is a young Afghan woman who fled to Germany in 2015. A member of the minority Hazara community in Afghanistan, Gul and her family faced severe discrimination while growing up. Gul left Kabul when her family was subjected to death threats.
With her parents and siblings, Gul escaped to Iran and finally to Turkey before taking a boat to reach Greece. She spoke to Infomigrants about the problems faced by the Hazaras in Afghanistan and why it was not a safe place for her to go back to.
*Note: Name was changed to protect identity
I was born in Kabul during the Mujahideen war [The Soviet-Afghan war from 1979-1989]. We took refuge in Mazar-i-sharif because of war, but the Taliban came there too. Most of our relatives fled Afghanistan to other countries because the Taliban was killing Hazaras. But we did not have any money and could not travel.
The Taliban came and killed lots of our relatives and neighbors. I was really small when they came and took away our father just because we were Hazara. I still remember when they walked down the street, shouting loudly: "Is there any Hazara here?" Our Pashtoon neighbors said they wanted to kill all of us. Then we left the area.
For the first time I saw dead people on the street, which was red with blood. There were headless corpses all around - all of them were Hazara people who had been killed by the Taliban. The first person I saw was our neighbor. He was dead and a dog was eating his body.
Life after the Taliban
We tried to escape to Pakistan, but were unable to do so. Then we reached Kabul, where we lived hidden in a house for two or three years. We never went out. Then the Americans came and the Taliban was gone.
We started school and my mother went back to her job. But we were still Hazaras and that was our biggest problem, or I could even say, our biggest crime.
People harassed me on the way to school because I was Hazara. It was really difficult because people would shout "Hazara" when they saw me walking down the street. Or they would hit me with stones. In school, our teachers behaved badly with me when they came to know I was a Hazara girl.
They asked me why I was coming to school and that I should just work as a laborer. They made fun of me and because I was a child, I felt really bad and cried a lot. They said Hazara people were ugly and "kafir" [non-believers] and that they didn’t accept the Quran or Prophet Mohammed. Some of my classmates wouldn’t eat with me because they said it was "Haram" for them.
In my first job in a national television channel, they started harassing me when they found out I was Hazara. They even stopped paying me my salary. Then I joined a private TV channel. The chief was really nice, because he was also a Hazara, but my colleagues behaved really badly with me. For example, I was reading the news when a Pashtoon girl came into the studio and asked me why I was working. She said I was a Hazara and shouldn’t be on television.
Who are the Hazaras?
The Hazaras are people who live in the mountains in the central area of Afghanistan. They have Mongolian features and are Shiite Muslims. Around 20 percent of Afghans belong to the Hazara community. They speak Hazaragi, which is close to Persian. Pashtoons on the other hand look like Indians and Pakistanis. They have black hair and black eyes with a dark skin. They are Sunni and speak Pashto.
As Shiite Muslims, Hazaras celebrate the two major Islamic holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Fitr is a three-day celebration that comes after a month of fasting called Ramadan. One other holiday celebrated among Hazaras is Nawruz, the Persian New Year and Muharam, which is the first month of the Islamic calendar.
We are originally from Ghazni and all my life, we could not travel to Ghazni even just for one day to see my motherland. It is not possible because we are Hazara but other people like the Pashtoons can easily travel and live all over Afghanistan. Just because we were Hazara we could not travel even within our own country because the Taliban or some other gunmen would stop people's cars and kill Hazaras, who are easily recognizable from their facial features.
Most of the refugees who come from Afghanistan are Hazaras because in Afghanistan they have a problem. The big problem which Hazara people face - even here in Germany - is that no one really cares about the discrimination against them. I feel, they don’t even want to talk about it and they say everything is alright with Hazaras in Afghanistan. No one shows the real problem that Hazaras face because the government and everyone else in Afghanistan are Pashtoon and they hide everything which is happening to Hazara people. Only Hazaras know about this discrimination.
This interview was conducted by Manasi Gopalakrishnan
I was born in Kabul during the Mujahideen war [The Soviet-Afghan war from 1979-1989]. We took refuge in Mazar-i-sharif because of war, but the Taliban came there too. Most of our relatives fled Afghanistan to other countries because the Taliban was killing Hazaras. But we did not have any money and could not travel.
The Taliban came and killed lots of our relatives and neighbors. I was really small when they came and took away our father just because we were Hazara. I still remember when they walked down the street, shouting loudly: "Is there any Hazara here?" Our Pashtoon neighbors said they wanted to kill all of us. Then we left the area.
For the first time I saw dead people on the street, which was red with blood. There were headless corpses all around - all of them were Hazara people who had been killed by the Taliban. The first person I saw was our neighbor. He was dead and a dog was eating his body.
Life after the Taliban
We tried to escape to Pakistan, but were unable to do so. Then we reached Kabul, where we lived hidden in a house for two or three years. We never went out. Then the Americans came and the Taliban was gone.
We started school and my mother went back to her job. But we were still Hazaras and that was our biggest problem, or I could even say, our biggest crime.
People harassed me on the way to school because I was Hazara. It was really difficult because people would shout "Hazara" when they saw me walking down the street. Or they would hit me with stones. In school, our teachers behaved badly with me when they came to know I was a Hazara girl.
They asked me why I was coming to school and that I should just work as a laborer. They made fun of me and because I was a child, I felt really bad and cried a lot. They said Hazara people were ugly and "kafir" [non-believers] and that they didn’t accept the Quran or Prophet Mohammed. Some of my classmates wouldn’t eat with me because they said it was "Haram" for them.
In my first job in a national television channel, they started harassing me when they found out I was Hazara. They even stopped paying me my salary. Then I joined a private TV channel. The chief was really nice, because he was also a Hazara, but my colleagues behaved really badly with me. For example, I was reading the news when a Pashtoon girl came into the studio and asked me why I was working. She said I was a Hazara and shouldn’t be on television.
Who are the Hazaras?
The Hazaras are people who live in the mountains in the central area of Afghanistan. They have Mongolian features and are Shiite Muslims. Around 20 percent of Afghans belong to the Hazara community. They speak Hazaragi, which is close to Persian. Pashtoons on the other hand look like Indians and Pakistanis. They have black hair and black eyes with a dark skin. They are Sunni and speak Pashto.
As Shiite Muslims, Hazaras celebrate the two major Islamic holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Fitr is a three-day celebration that comes after a month of fasting called Ramadan. One other holiday celebrated among Hazaras is Nawruz, the Persian New Year and Muharam, which is the first month of the Islamic calendar.
We are originally from Ghazni and all my life, we could not travel to Ghazni even just for one day to see my motherland. It is not possible because we are Hazara but other people like the Pashtoons can easily travel and live all over Afghanistan. Just because we were Hazara we could not travel even within our own country because the Taliban or some other gunmen would stop people's cars and kill Hazaras, who are easily recognizable from their facial features.
Most of the refugees who come from Afghanistan are Hazaras because in Afghanistan they have a problem. The big problem which Hazara people face - even here in Germany - is that no one really cares about the discrimination against them. I feel, they don’t even want to talk about it and they say everything is alright with Hazaras in Afghanistan. No one shows the real problem that Hazaras face because the government and everyone else in Afghanistan are Pashtoon and they hide everything which is happening to Hazara people. Only Hazaras know about this discrimination.
This interview was conducted by Manasi Gopalakrishnan