Hazara children attacked at school, at play, even at birth

June 7, 2021 GMT

Shukria Ahmadi loved poetry and drawing. On the pages of her favorite notebook, which she always kept with her, were her much-loved poems, a delicate drawing of a pale pink rose, a bold attempt at calligraphy and even some algebra.

The torn, scorched notebook, Shukria had named “Beautiful Sentences,” is all that Abdullah Ahmadi has of his 18-year-old daughter, missing since May 8 when three powerful explosions outside her school in the mostly ethnic Hazara Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul. Nearly 100 people died that day, most of them young girls, students of Syed Al-Shahada School.

“What is our sin? That we are Hazara? That we are Shias?” 20-year-old Maryam Ahmadi, no relation to Shukria, asked sitting in the mostly empty school clutching the hands of her friend 13 -year -old Zahra Hassani. “Is that our sin that we are studying?”

On the walls of Syed Al-Shahada school large paintings promise that education will unlock the future. Maxims speak to the value of hard work. Says one banner emblazoned large and bright across one wall: “Your dreams are limited only by your imagination.”

At the Syed-Al-Sahada School students who survived cried and held each other. Some were angry.

“We have no expectation from government, such incidents happened in past too. If it was really a government, it would have prevented it.,” said Maryam. “Only Allah can have mercy on us, we don’t have any expectation from others. ”

But for scores of Hazara children, relentless violence has cut short their dreams.

These are some of their stories:

NEKBAKHT ALIZADA, 17

Seventeen year old Nekbakht Alizada, dreamed of being a doctor because she told her father Abdul Aziz “I want to help my family and I want to help poor people, like us.”


NORIA YOUSUFI, 14

Fourteen year old, Noria Yousufi, dreamed of one day being an engineer said her father Mehdi, who said kind is the one word that best described his little girl.


AMEENA RASWAI, 17

Naseem Raswai said his 17- year old daughter Ameena Raswai always had a smile on her face. She dreamt of becoming a surgeon.


AREFA HUSSAINI, 14

Fourteen year old Arefa Hussaini had a slogan she lived by said her uncle Mohammad Salim: ’Where there is a will there is a way.” She promised one day she would be a lawyer, but even as she studied she worked as a tailor to help support her family.


FRESHTA ALIZADA, 15

Fifteen year old Freshta Alizada shone in her classes and twice had skipped a grade, her aunt boasted. Freshta was always telling her family that one day she would become a journalist, said her Aunt Sabera.


HADISA AHMADI, 16

Sixteen year old Hadisa Ahmadi was a math genius, her older sister Fatima boasted. Hadisa dreamed of becoming a mathematician and would always solve her older sister’s math problems, occasionally teasing Fatima that even though she was older, she just didn’t get the math. In her spare time Hadisa wove carpets to earn money for her poor family and to pay for the additional math tutoring.


FARZANA FAZILI, 13

Thirteen -year old Farzana Fazili was the jokester in the family said her brother Hamidullah. She too wove carpets in her spare time to earn money for her family. When she wasn’t teasing her younger brother, she would help him with his homework.


SAFIA SAJADI, 14

At 14, Safia Sajadi would make clothes for other people to earn money to pay for her English-language lessons, said her father Ali, who boasted his young daughter always had the highest marks. He wept as he spoke.


HASSINA HAIDERI, 13

Hassina Haideri 13, was forever in the kitchen helping her mother, says her father Alidad. She loved to cook but her dream was to become a doctor. She sold clothes she made in a nearby shop to earn extra money for her family.


AQILA HUSSAINI, 16

Mohammad Amin, said his 16 year old daughter, Aquila Amin, loved him better than anyone. She would read him poetry and dreamed one day of being a doctor.