Alessandro Monsutti is a leading Italian expert on the Hazaras, a Persian-speaking people who mainly live in central Afghanistan.
Monsutti is currently professor of anthropology and sociology at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, in Geneva, Switzerland. He was previously a research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Yale University. He has been a grantee the MacArthur Foundation.
In 2012, he gave the annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture at Oxford University. [1]
He is often cited in the media for his expertise. [2] [3] [4]
The Hazaras are an ethnic group and a principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan region in central Afghanistan and the northern regions of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in Afghanistan, and a significant minority group in Pakistan, mostly in Quetta, and as well as in Iran. They speak the Dari and Hazaragi dialects of Persian. Dari is one of the two official languages in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist and Pashtun nationalist militant political movement in Afghanistan. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the American invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 following the departure of most coalition forces, after nearly 20 years of insurgency, and currently controls all of the country. However, its government is not recognized by any country. The Taliban government has been criticized for restricting human rights in Afghanistan, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.
The population of Afghanistan is around 41 million as of 2023. The nation is composed of a multi-ethnic and multilingual society, reflecting its location astride historic trade and invasion routes between Central Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia. Ethnic groups in the country include Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbeks, Nuristanis, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baloch and some others which are less known. Together they make up the contemporary Afghan people.
Hazaragi is an eastern dialect and variety of Persian language that is spoken by the Hazara people, primarily in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, as well as other Hazara-populated areas of Afghanistan. It is also spoken by the Hazaras of Pakistan and Iran and also by the Hazara diaspora living elsewhere.
Abdul Ali Mazari (Dari: عبدالعلی مزاری; 1946 – March 13, 1995) was an ethnic Hazara politician and leader of Hezb-e Wahdat during and following the Soviet–Afghan War, who advocated for a federal system of governance in Afghanistan. He was allegedly captured and killed by the Taliban during negotiations in 1995, and posthumously given the title "Martyr for National Unity of Afghanistan" in 2016 by the Afghan government.
Charles Wendell Colson, generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as President Nixon's "hatchet man", Colson gained notoriety at the height of the Watergate scandal, for being named as one of the Watergate Seven, and also for pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to defame Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg. In 1974, he served seven months in the federal Maxwell Prison in Alabama, as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.
Daykundi, also spelled as Daikundi, Daikondi, or Daykondi, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the central part of the country. It has a population of about 516,504 and is a Hazara dominated province.
General Muhammad Musa Khan was a Pakistan Army senior general who served as the 4th Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army from 1958 to 1966, under President Ayub Khan. Following his tenure as C-in-C of the Army, he later became a politician.
Jaghori is one of the main districts of the Ghazni province in Afghanistan. It is located in the highlands in the southern fringes of the Hazaristan region. It occupies 1,855 km2. in the upper Arghandab valley. The population is estimated to be around 560,000 in 2015. The district capital, Sange-e-Masha, is where major business transactions take place. The district is heavily dependent on agriculture, and migrant workers as the main sources of income. Other major marketplaces are in Ghojor and Anguri.
Afghanistan is a multiethnic and mostly tribal society. The population of the country consists of numerous ethnolinguistic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashai, Nuristani, Kurds, Gujjar, Arab, Brahui, Qizilbash, Pamiri, Kyrgyz, Sadat and others. Altogether they make up the Afghan people.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi or "Army of Jhangvi", is a Deobandi Sunni Muslim supremacist, terrorist and Jihadist militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.
Hezb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan, shortened to Hezbe Wahdat, is an Afghan political party founded in 1989. Like most contemporary major political parties in Afghanistan, Hezb-e Wahdat is rooted in the turbulent period of the anti-Soviet resistance movements in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was formed to bring together nine separate and mostly inimical military and ideological groups into a single entity.
Hazara Town is a lower- to middle-income area on the western outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan with a population of up to 2,500,000, of which an estimated two-thirds are ethnic Hazaras, with the remainder mainly Pashtuns and Baloch.
Kristian Berg Harpviken is a Norwegian sociologist and researcher, and since 2009 director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Harpviken is foremost known for his competence on Afghanistan, where he has travelled extensively and conducted multiple field works since he first engaged with the country in 1989.
Mariabad is an inner eastern suburb of Quetta, capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province. It is the most populous area of Quetta with almost 500,000 population. Most of the population are Hazara people. This place is the birthplace of many Hazara political, social, military, writers, sports personalities of Quetta city. It is quite famous for its cleanliness compared to other places around it.
The Hazaras have long been the subjects of persecution in Afghanistan. The Hazaras are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan, and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.
Hazara culture or Hazaragi culture refers to the culture and tradition of the Hazara people, who live primarily in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, the Balochistan province of Pakistan, and elsewhere around the world where the Hazara diaspora is settled as part of the wider Afghan diaspora.
The 1888–1893 Hazara uprisings or massacre and displacement of Hazaras occurred in the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Afghan War when the Afghan Emirate signed the Treaty of Gandamak. Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan set out to bring the Turkistan, Hazaristan, and Kafiristan regions under his control. He launched several campaigns in the Hazarajat due to resistance from the Hazaras, culminating in the Battle of Uruzgan and he conducted a widespread campaign against its population.