The state, identity politics and ethnic boundaries in Afghanistan: The case of Sunni Hazaras

Abstract

In recent years, a growing number of activists in Afghanistan have been proactively self‐identifying as Sunni Hazaras. The trend demonstrates an important shift that illuminates how ethnic boundaries may change and evolve in response to elite politics and state policies in Afghanistan. Many of the communities that are the subjects of new collective identity discourses share important commonalities, including shared belief in a common origin, with the Shi'a Hazaras. However, because the Shi'a Hazaras were persecuted and marginalised under successive regimes in Afghanistan, it was not common for these communities to publicly identify as Hazaras. Instead, they tended to identify with local identity categories such as those based on places of origin or as Tajiks because, like most Tajiks, they speak Dari and practise Sunni Islam. This article contributes to understanding these dynamics through a detailed examination of the National Council of the Sunni Hazaras of Afghanistan. Taking a social constructivist approach, it develops an argument that emphasises an interactive process between state formation and top‐down programmes of national identity construction and bottom‐up resistance by groups that appropriate and articulate ethnic and other forms of ethnic identities to demand political representation and symbolic recognition.

Dual Identity as a New Identity Model in Peacebuilding: On the Context of Afghanistan Case

“…Although there is occasional friction between Shia and Sunni groups, the main line of conflict is between ethnic groups. The Hazaras, for example, are predominantly Shia (although a small number are Sunni) and face severe persecution, particularly from the Pashtuns, because of this identity, but members of this group identify themselves by ethnicity rather than sect ( [19], p. 670). In other words, this group does not identify itself as Shia or Sunni, but only as Hazara ( [18], p. 9).…”

Afghanistan 2001-2021

“…Sie verleiht damit der ethnischen Hierarchie eine gesetzliche Grundlage, die sich in vielen offiziellen Reden und sonstigen öffentlichen Aufzählungen bis hin zur ethnischen Zusammensetzung der Führung der meisten Regierungen manifestiert. 92 Diese Hierarchie folgt bemerkenswerterweise dem Ranking nach zahlenmäßiger Gruppenstärke, welches sich aus den thematisierten fragwürdigen Angaben zur prozentmäßigen ethnischen Zusammensetzung Afghanistans ergibt. Wenn man bedenkt, dass das Amt des Präsidenten seit 2004 immer ein Paschtune, das Amt des ersten Vizepräsidenten in der Regel ein Tadschike und das Amt des zweiten Vizepräsidenten immer ein Hazara innehatte, scheint sich in der afghanischen Politik stillschweigend ein politisches Machtaufteilungssystem nach dem Vorbild des libanesischen Konfessionalismus, allerdings auf der Grundlage von Ethnizität, etabliert zu haben.…”