Mr. Chair and honourable committee members, today I'm very grateful for your time and the opportunity to share my untold experiences as a survivor of many systemic attacks on my people.
One day around noon while I was in my classroom in Pakistan, the air darkened and the city was overtaken by an eerie silence. My school announced there was an attack on Hazaras in mosque. My heart was shaken and shattered. I was praying that the school would let us go home and praying to find my family alive.
When I got home, my mother was crying and my father wasn't home. We found out that two of our relatives died in that mosque attack. I ran to the street. Our neighbours were crying. One was slapping her face upon learning her husband had perished, too. I decided to go to find my two little brothers. I ran to the hospital where injured Hazaras were taken. I searched every bed to find my brothers, but couldn't find anyone. I was lost among the mutilated, bloody bodies. Every single innocent and lifeless face I saw that day remains with me until this day.
The attacks on Hazaras continued in many places—at schools, on school buses, in the streets and at workplaces. The darkness and hopelessness remained in place in that city. My only question was, “What is our crime?”
Mr. Chair, I returned to Afghanistan in 2011 as an adult, where I experienced renewed mistreatment as a second-class citizen within my own homeland.
There, as a student at the faculty of science, one day during the finals, the guard entered the classroom and started violently beating Hazara students with the point of a Kalashnikov for cheating. Hazara boys in my class begged to have their pockets searched, but the guards wouldn't listen. I was sweating. My paper got wet and other students were falling from their chairs out of fear.
The systemic attacks on my people and the profoundly traumatic impacts on my generation have deeply wounded my soul, those of our grandparents and many generations since the late 1800s genocide.
Mr. Chair, my question was never answered by anyone. What is our crime, to be perpetually condemned to such pain and suffering? I hope this committee does not leave our people's request unanswered—the Hazaras who are looking at us to end this suffering, inherited and passed on from generation to generation. Our future generations deserve to live a life free of persecution.
Mr. Chair and honourable committee members, your decision to respond positively to the ask of Hazara Canadians for the recognition of our genocide is truly the only first step towards closure and healing.
Thank you.