By: Sherin Yousfi
Hazara female university students say some lecturers are failing them unjustly just because they belong to the Hazara Shia community.
Students said they are being failed mostly by those lecturers who have been appointed the Taliban following the fall of the former government.
“When you see the result sheets, only Hazara girls are failed, even if they answered the questions correctly,” said Masuma, a 22-year-old computer science student at Kabul University.
Masuma said she argued with a lecturer who failed her and requested the inspection of her exam papers because she was confident she did well in the written test.
But the lecturer told her that even if she answered all the questions correctly on paper, he could still fail her on the grounds that she failed to submit her assignments.“Don’t bother unnecessarily,” Masuma recalled being told mockingly by the lecturer.
Ten students were interviewed for the story, all of whom claimed that they were failed due to their ethnic and religious affiliation. They all requested to use pseudonyms and Rukhshana Media is not mentioning the name of the lecturers for security reasons.Rukhshana Media has also obtained the result sheets from Kabul and Polytechnic Engineering Universities which corroborate the accounts provided by the students.
Students said when they bring up the issue with their school, they are told to resolve the problem directly with the lecturers who intentionally fail the students.
Discrimination against Hazaras is nothing new in Afghanistan’s education system.
But Hazara students, including women and men, went to schools and universities in large numbers in the past two decades, despite the systemic prejudice they faced.
The Taliban’s return to power, however, has made things even more difficult for thousands of Hazara female students.
The Taliban, who persecuted Hazara Shias during their rule in the 1990s, have completely marginalized the community from power after they took control of the government for the second time one year ago.
The unjustly failing of Hazara students at universities is believed to be part of a concerted effort to create obstacles on their way and prevent them from getting education.
The Taliban have appointed unqualified loyalists to replace hundreds of professors and lecturers who fled Afghanistan following the fall of the former government.
The newly appointed professors are “propagating for the Taliban in their classes,” said Mahtab, 21, a student at Polytechnic Engineering University. She said she was failed by one such lecturer.
Marzia, another student at Kabul University who lives in the University’s hostel, said she and her five Hazara roommates all failed in one or more subjects this semester.
She spent days studying each subject before taking the exam, and she is confident she did well. But the professors failed her anyway.
She protested the results and asked the lecturer why he failed her.
“You’re a village girl, and have no idea how the system works, you still don’t know me well, and you’re not accustomed to my method,” she recalled being told by the lecturer.
“I left his office crying,” Marzia, 22 said.
Marzia got one of the highest scores — 320 out 360 — at the national university entrance exam in 2020 but now she doubts if can continue her studies.
“Lecturers are forcing us to leave school. They make new excuses everyday. Just because we are Hazaras,” she added.
Being a female student has been difficult since the Taliban takeover.
The Taliban have shown little interest in supporting female education in general. They have imposed numerous restrictions on female students, and have banned millions of secondary schoolgirls from returning to school since they came to power.
But being a Hazara female student seems to be even a greater challenge in Taliban’s Afghanistan.
“There is no committee to hear the complaints, and schools aren’t taking the complaints seriously,” said Amina, a 23-year-old student at Kabul University. “To whom do we complain? Taliban are in charge of everything.”
Discrimination against Hazara students has become so evident that some professors from the former government have started complaining about it secretly.
“Higher education has fallen into the hands of people who, unfortunately, have explicit ethnic prejudice,” a professor at Kabul University said on the condition we don’t use his name. “Education has become completely politicized.”
“It is a shame that I am still working with such people,” he added.
