Iqbal,

This essay does something very impressive: it doesn’t just fulfill the requirements of the
assignment, but actually goes far beyond those requirements. You’re actually using the structure
of compare/contrast to think through really complicated ideas about the political positions of
people around the world. You could have written a much simpler essay and gotten a good grade
for it, but you chose to be intellectually curious. That’s every teacher’s dream for a student!

Grade: A

Using Atrocity to Attain Social Closure

On July 23, 2016, thousands of people gathered from different parts of Kabul, marching

towards the presidential palace in form of civil disobedience, named Enlightenment movement,

to protest against the Afghan government decision. The government had decided to change the

route of a major power project which was supposed to cross central Afghanistan and particularly

Bamiyan, a predominantly Hazara province. Central Afghanistan is one of the most undeveloped

part of this country, with its harsh environment that makes living almost insufferable. Hazaras as

the third largest ethnic group, which has dominated a vast part of central Afghanistan, would

profit from passing the power project across their reservation. The change in government

decision about the power project deprived Hazaras from electricity and this would result in

extreme seclusion of this nation from industrial infrastructures and other socio-economic

amenities. Another protest was formed by Native Americans, concurrently to Hazaras’ protest in

Afghanistan, against the building of pipelines by private companies along Cheyenne and

Missouri River like Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline that resulted in water

contamination and an environmental threat for Native American reservations. Native settlers of

America suffer the same circumstances such as water shortage, unemployment, and historical

trauma that Hazaras undergo in Afghanistan. An analytical comparison of these two nations from
socio-economic, political, and historical standpoint causes the manifestation of similarities and

differences between Hazaras and Native Americans. We will, therefore, have a deeper

understanding of the two specific historical events and search for a systematic resolution of their

challenges. Political and socio-economic marginalization of

Hazaras and Native Americans are analogous from various points of view. The existence of

persecution, poverty, water crisis, demarcation from social conveniences, and delimitation of

educational opportunities are exceedingly notable in territories of both Hazaras and Native

Americans. Continuous peaceful protests, for instance, of these two nations against their states

such as Standing Rock protest in North America and Enlightenment protest in Afghanistan are

similar forms of civil disobedience in order to achieve social equity, economic opportunity, and

engagement in political authority. Although Standing Rock protest’s purpose was to embargo the

building of pipelines alongside rivers that were flowing through Indian Reservations, they want

to show the disapproval of their agonizing challenges and deprivation from innumerable

opportunities throughout perpetual centuries by launching the protest. In like manner,

Enlightenment protest’s aim was to run a civil demonstration against systematic persecution of

the government towards Hazaras, not just bypassing the power project.

Historically, Hazaras and Amerindians endure

similar historical trauma, one due to atrocious acts of tyrannical Afghan government and another

because of oppressive actions of White Europeans. Successive wars, for instance, between

European and Native Americans exposed them to starvation in the Dakota War and the massacre

of men, women, and children at Wounded Knee. Additionally, their children were sent to

boarding schools to wipe out their ethnic identities and become reluctant to participate in cultural

and religious practices. In the same way, Afghanistan's first modernizer king, Abdul Rahman
Khan, mobilized broadly and implemented the most brutal measures by massacring sixty-three

percent of Hazaras’ population in order to gain administrative control throughout Hazarajat, the

Hazara dominated regions. The foremost consequences of this action were in terms of casualties,

migration, administrative and political submission, and economic affliction. Hence, Hazaras and

Amerindians were marginalized due to the historical trauma that have been suffering until the

current situation. Hazaras responded to various ruinous

traumas differently in order to reassure their social-economic stability and come out from

marginalization. Migration has been an effective way that abetted Hazaras to cope with harsh

social and political circumstances. According to Alessandro Monsutti, “Migration is not only a

response to violence and war, or even to poverty. Rather, it is a planned strategy by which the

Hazaras widen their social and cultural horizon.” Millions of Hazaras, for instance, have

migrated to Iran, Pakistan, European countries, Canada, and Australia since the twentieth

century. They have woven effective migratory and economic networks based on the dispersion of

members of kin groups between Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Consequently, millions of

dollars have transferred from different countries in poverty-stricken Hazarajat. Native

Americans, however, did not expand their relations internationally by migrating to other

countries and remained in specific reservations and adhere to constant disastrous situations

throughout many centuries.

Although there are some similarities such as economic and political marginalization as

well as historical trauma that both nations have gone through, Hazaras are different from Native

Americans based on cultural values, social rituals, religious beliefs, and political relations. Both

nations, which are stuck amid high rates of poverty and decrepit economy, are in deep need of

systematic strategies to attain sustainable economic growth that pull them out of marginalization.
Economic growth can mobilize them to overcome the consistent deprivation such as socio-politic

privation and cultural decline. Starting of industrial revolution, for instance, in Britain made this

kingdom economically influential that resulted in appearance of Great Britain as global power.

Economic development, therefore, can enable Hazaras and Native Americans to mitigate the

disastrous circumstances that they are confronting now.

References
Monsutti, Alessandro. (2001). Afghanistan’s International Trade Relations with Neighboring
Countries.
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/SAR/sa.nsf/Attachments/8/$File/intltrade.pdf
Mousavi, Sayed Askar. (1995). The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic
and Political Study.
Elbien, Saul. (Oct 2019). The Youth Group that Launched a Movement at Standing Rock. The
New York Times.
E. Quinn, Anna. (Feb 2019). Qualitative Examination of Historical Trauma and Grief Responses
in the Oceti Sakowin.
https:/www.scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dessertations