Life is getting better for oppressed Afghans

Steven Glass, a lawyer for Hazara asylum seekers (”One man’s struggle to find a safe place to live”, December 29), writes that many Afghans consider the Hazara ”foreigners” and ”infidels”. That may be so, but the statement belies the considerable improvement in the condition of the Hazara minority in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

For the first time in Afghanistan’s history, the 2004 constitution gives the courts the right to apply Shia jurisprudence in family matters involving Shia Muslims. As the largest group of Shia in Afghanistan, the Hazara consider this a major victory.

A Shia personal status law was adopted in 2009. Although some regarded it as an excessive codification of family matters, all Shia MPs supported it as a recognition of minority rights.

An area populated by Hazara was declared a new province in 2004 (Daikundi in the central region, adjacent to Bamiyan, the other main Hazara province).

During the last elections the Hazara won 59 of 249 seats in the lower house. This is quite an achievement for a minority estimated to constitute 10 per cent of the population.

Individual Hazara have held, or are holding, high political office. One of the country’s two vice-presidents is a Hazara, and so was the minister for justice from 2004 until last June. The head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission since it was established in 2002 is also a Hazara.

Legal and institutional recognition does not always translate into practice. Like all Afghans, the Hazara live in a country racked by violence, uncertainty and corruption. However, the Hazara have become politically more assertive, are moving into higher education in what appears to be unprecedented numbers, and, in Kabul, many have entered the new middle class that has

developed around the international presence.

Astri Suhrke Associate, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, ANU, Canberra


Source:
http://criminologycareers.net/dealing-with-loss-faces-new-test