Thank you for that question, which I think really goes into the heart of what is happening at the moment under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
As we know, historically the Taliban are a group that embraces two different types of tendencies in Afghanistan. One is an extremist interpretation of Islam in which Shia Islam is not regarded as a legitimate sect within the broader Islamic community. Second, the Taliban also embraces a particularly violent and exclusionary form of ethnic nationalism in Afghanistan, which I have recently discussed in an article that was published by The Review of Faith & International Affairs.
I think what is happening now in Afghanistan with regard to the Hazaras is that those two types of tendencies and forces are coming together. One is a religious tendency that is very strong; it goes back to the 1990s. The Taliban leaders have quite frequently made it quite clear that they do not see Shias as on par with Sunni Muslims in Afghanistan.
We have seen that in their policies on marginalizing Shias, deliberately excluding Shias from being taught at the university—for example, in a Hazara Shia majority area such as Bamiyan, where there is a university that was teaching Shia jurisprudence. The Taliban have also systematically removed all Shia judges from the courts across Afghanistan. At the moment, as we speak, there is not a single Shia judge anywhere in Afghanistan. That is also being reinforced by this historical tendency of land grabbing, which is something that was already mentioned by another witness, Dr. Shaaran. There is an ongoing pattern of land grabbing and violence towards the Hazaras, which is also backed by the Taliban leaders through their nominal court proceedings as well.