CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As hundreds assembled in the Loop to support women’s reproductive rights Saturday, dozens from Chicago’s Afghan community rallied at nearby Daley Plaza for a woman’s right to earn an education, a career — or simply to exist — in Afghanistan.
Attendees specifically demanded that the international community recognize the genocide of the nation’s Hazara population. Less than two weeks ago, dozens were killed in a suicide bombing at the Kaaj Educational Center in Hazara-occupied Kabul.
“Their dreams, their wishes for a better life, all were lost,” said Lailoma Nabizada, who was recently a student at the Kaaj Educational Center. “I really cannot express my feelings with words. It’s hard, it’s so hard to express my feelings seeing my sisters and brothers studying there, knowing that they no longer exist.”
Hazaras are the third-largest ethnic minority in Afghanistan, and historically they’ve been heavily discriminated against. They compose about 20% of the country’s population and were allies of United States soldiers during the war.
The Hazara people have strived for better education and a democratic Afghanistan.
Of the dozens killed in the Kaaj Educational Center bombing, most were Hazara women.
“I was badly affected emotionally and mentally because I lost many friends,” Nabizada said. “Last year I was with them, I was studying. But that day I was seeing them, [dead], their body on the floor feeling … because of education, because of learning, this happened not only in Kaaj but in many other places recently.”
Among dozens gathered in Daley Plaza, Hussain Yekta said the Hazara people in Afghanistan, for over 100 years, have been subject to all of the measures used by the United Nations to describe genocide.
“The Hazara people are in that category,” Yekta said. “They’ve been displaced from their locations, they’ve been prosecuted, they’ve been sold as a slave, their men were killed in thousands.”
In addition to recognizing the Hazara genocide, those at Saturday’s rally also demanded the international community not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government.
“In the University of Kabul, at least 50% of the students being Hazara,” Yekta said. It shows that these people are looking for a future, they are looking to improve their situation, they want to improve and get to the international community and to the democratic society.”
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