The Multi-Layered Minority: Exploring the Intersection of Gender, Class and Religious-Ethnic Affiliation in the Marginalisation of Hazara Women in Pakistan

The Shia Hazaras in Pakistan are one of the most persecuted religious minorities. According to a 2019 report produced by the National Commission for Human Rights, a government formed commission, at least 509 Hazaras have been killed since 2013 (NCHR 2018: 2). According to one of the Vice Chairs of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan, the country's leading human rights watchdog, between 2009 and 2014, nearly 1,000 Hazaras were killed in sectarian violence (Butt 2014). The present population of Shia Hazaras is the result of three historical migrations from Afghanistan (Hashmi 2016: 2). The first phase of migration occurred in 1880 1901 when Abd al Rahman Khan came to power in 1880 in Afghanistan and declared war against the Hazaras as a result of a series of revolts they made against the regime.