Dehmazang | Afghanistan
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, recent reports by international and human rights organisations indicate that pressure on ethnic and religious minorities — particularly Hazaras and Shia Muslims — has not subsided. Instead, restrictions have expanded across areas including religious freedom, religious education, land ownership, access to justice and media activity.
A recent report by Pakistan TV brings together findings from the United Nations, human rights organisations and legal researchers, describing multiple and overlapping threats facing Hazaras: violence and extrajudicial killings, forced displacement and land disputes, the gradual erosion of Shia religious rights, and deadly attacks by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).
Restrictions on Shia Religious Life
One of the most significant changes since the Taliban’s return has been the diminished status of Ja’fari jurisprudence within Afghanistan’s legal and educational systems.
The European Union Agency for Asylum’s Afghanistan: Country Focus 2026 reports that Ja’fari jurisprudence has been excluded from the Taliban’s judicial system and from school and university curricula, with Hanafi jurisprudence taking its place. The report also documents orders to remove books and educational material deemed inconsistent with the Taliban’s religious interpretation, including Shia-related works, in provinces such as Bamyan, Daikundi, Ghazni and Ghor.
The restrictions extend beyond education.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in its 2026 annual report that the Taliban imposed restrictions on Muharram commemorations and the display of black flags during 2025. It also reported the closure of the office and religious school of Ayatollah Waezzada Behsudi in Kabul and pressure on Ismailis in Badakhshan to follow Hanafi Islam.
Human Rights Watch similarly reported in its World Report 2026 that Taliban authorities in Bamyan banned Shia religious books and prohibited a Shia gathering. Citing United Nations reporting, HRW also noted allegations that approximately 50 Ismailis in Badakhshan were subjected to physical abuse and death threats intended to pressure them to change their religious practices.
Land as Another Source of Pressure
Land disputes and forced displacement have repeatedly appeared in human rights reporting since the Taliban returned to power.
Pakistan TV, drawing on human rights investigations, reports that Hazara families in parts of Daikundi, Uruzgan, Helmand and Balkh have faced land disputes, eviction and loss of property. In some cases, longstanding disputes between local Hazara communities and Kuchi groups have been reopened, with decisions resulting in Hazara families losing access to land.
Such incidents continued in 2025.
Human Rights Watch reported that on 27 July 2025, Taliban authorities forcibly evicted 25 Hazara families approximately 200 people, including women, children and elderly residents from Rashk village in Bamyan province.
For many rural Hazara families, losing land means considerably more than losing a home. Land is also the basis of agriculture, livestock farming and household income. Forced eviction can therefore result simultaneously in physical displacement and economic devastation.
From Direct Violence to Persistent Insecurity
Alongside pressure from Taliban authorities, Hazaras continue to face attacks by ISKP.
Over recent years, Hazara and Shia schools, educational centres, mosques, healthcare facilities and public gatherings have repeatedly been targeted in deadly attacks. International organisations have consistently highlighted the particular vulnerability of Hazara communities to such violence. Pakistan TV also refers to documented killings of Hazaras by Taliban fighters during the period surrounding the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
Amnesty International previously documented the killing of nine Hazara men in Mundarakht village in Malistan district, Ghazni province, in July 2021. According to Amnesty, six were shot and three others were tortured before being killed.
In Daikundi, Amnesty International also documented the killing of former members of Afghanistan’s security forces after they had surrendered. These incidents were among the early indications of concerns over Hazara security as Taliban control expanded across Afghanistan.
Pressure on Media Serving Hazara and Shia Communities
Developments in recent weeks indicate that restrictions have also reached media organisations with significant Hazara and Shia audiences. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Taliban forces shut down Rah-e-Farda TV in Kabul on 6 September 2026 and detained its owner, Salman Akhlaqi. According to CPJ, the action followed increasing pressure on the broadcaster over its coverage of a Taliban crackdown on a Shia religious educational centre in western Kabul.
It was not the first time Rah-e-Farda had been targeted. CPJ reported that the television station had previously been shut down for three months in February 2026. Taliban Justice Ministry officials also closed the headquarters of Tamadon TV, another Shia-affiliated media outlet, in June.
These developments are particularly significant because restrictions on media, when combined with restrictions on religious institutions, can also reduce the capacity of Hazara and Shia communities to document and publicise violations affecting them.
Other Religious Minorities
Religious pressure in Afghanistan is not confined to Hazaras and Shia Muslims. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom described religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan as extremely poor in its 2026 report, saying the Taliban continued to impose their interpretation of Islam across society. Ismailis, Salafis and other religious communities have also faced restrictions.
Afghanistan’s historic Sikh and Hindu communities have meanwhile almost disappeared from the country. The European Union Agency for Asylum estimated in February 2026 that only around 100 Hindus and Sikhs remained in Afghanistan, while other sources cited by the agency estimated that fewer than 50 Sikhs remained in the country in 2025.
Decades of discrimination, insecurity and migration compounded by targeted ISKP attacks have contributed to the dramatic decline of these communities.
A Pattern of Overlapping Pressures
What makes the current situation of Hazaras particularly concerning is not any single form of abuse, but the convergence of multiple pressures.
Restrictions on religious ceremonies and education, the exclusion of Ja’fari jurisprudence, land disputes and evictions, discrimination, continuing insecurity caused by ISKP attacks, and restrictions on media serving Hazara and Shia communities together create a broader picture of vulnerability. At the same time, there is an important legal distinction regarding how these developments are characterised.
Some human rights organisations and international-law researchers have examined elements of the persecution and violence against Hazaras within the framework of crimes against humanity. Some legal assessments have also argued that there is sufficient basis for investigating whether genocidal crimes have been or are being committed against the Hazara community.
Genocide, however, has a specific legal threshold under international law. Establishing it requires evidence of prohibited acts accompanied by the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Five years after the fall of the former Afghan republic, the question facing Hazaras is therefore no longer limited to protection from bombings or armed attacks.
The growing body of international reporting indicates that religious practice, education, land, access to justice, media freedom and participation in public life have also become central concerns.
When these rights are restricted simultaneously, a larger question emerges: to what extent will Hazaras and Afghanistan’s other minorities be able to preserve their identity, institutions and independent social presence under the political and religious order established by the Taliban?
Sources: Pakistan TV; Human Rights Watch, World Report 2026; United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Annual Report 2026; European Union Agency for Asylum, Afghanistan: Country Focus 2026; United Nations reporting; Committee to Protect Journalists; Amnesty International.
