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Following a suicide attack that killed at least 43 civilians — mostly students — and injured 83 others in Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, scores of women chanting “Stop Killing Hazaras” and “Stop Hazara Genocide” demonstrated on October 1 against the repeated atrocities committed against the ethnic minority community.

Women dressed in black headscarves shouted slogans criticising the authorities for failing to protect their rights and ensure their security. The protesters marched past a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi where several injured victims are being treated. According to Khadim Hussain Karimi, former editor of Etilaatroz, the government responded by .

Two improvised explosive devices were detonated on September 30 inside an education center in western Kabul, in a predominantly Hazara-majority region. According to Al Jazeera, : “Students were preparing for an exam when a suicide bomber struck at this educational center." There were reportedly nearly 600 students at the centre when the attack was carried out.

, saying that “violence in or around education establishments is never acceptable. Such places must be havens of peace where children can learn, be with friends, and feel safe as they build skills for their futures. Children and adolescents are not, and must never be, the target of violence.”

While no militant outfit has so far taken responsibility for the attack, similar attacks in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood have been attributed to Afghan ISIL affiliates in the past. 

took place in April, both targeting education centers (Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School and Mumtaz Education Center) killing at least six people and injuring 20 others. In May 2021, explosions near a girls’ school in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood left 85 dead.

Educational institutions — especially those for women — have been at the centre of contention in Afghanistan following a ban imposed by the Taliban on secondary education for girls. International rights organisation that “almost 80% of girls have been denied their right to education in provinces in Afghanistan where secondary schools have remained closed for girls.”

The situation in Afghanistan continues to remain dire following US sanctions and their seizure of Afghan central bank assets. According to the , at least 24 million people in the country require humanitarian assistance to survive, while 25 million live in poverty and 19 million face major food insecurity.

[Abridged from .]