海角大神

As a young girl, Halima Bahman was forbidden to peer round the thick blankets her mother had placed over their windows, but she often took a quick peek anyway.

It was 1998. The Taliban had taken over her town in northern Afghanistan, Mazar-e-Sharif, staging a massacre of her fellow Hazaras, an ethnic minority.聽

One day, from a second floor window, she was watching her neighbors flee in their cars over the hills when one vehicle was struck by a rocket. Inside was her childhood friend, Hafiza.

Shaken as she was at just 11 years old, living through a killing spree that took thousands of lives, Ms. Bahman forgot Hafiza. For over 20 years, as she fled to Uzbekistan, then moved to Austria and eventually to Canada, she never thought of her friend鈥檚 face or demeanor, so pale, so quiet and calm.

She didn鈥檛 even recall her name 鈥� until this August, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan and the trauma and loss she had felt as a young girl swept over her in a rush of grief.

Today, that pain is fueling her determination to identify and protect vulnerable Hazara women and children who face an increasingly desperate situation under Taliban rule.

It has been heartbreaking and exhausting work, she acknowledges. 鈥淚 go through different emotions,鈥� she says, sitting on the back deck of her home in the comfortable neighborhood of Vaughan, north of Toronto. 鈥淔rom being very hopeful that I can do something now that I鈥檓 an adult and I鈥檓 here, not like the last time when I was a kid, I was just helpless.

鈥淏ut then feeling really angry about why this happened 鈥� to feeling helpless again, like there is so much need and I cannot do much.鈥�

Moving heaven and earth

Ms. Bahman has been an activist on behalf of her minority since arriving in Canada nearly 15 years ago. The predominantly Shiite Muslim Hazaras, who some say are descended from Genghis Khan鈥檚 army, often have Asian features and have suffered persecution in Afghanistan for over a century.

The 鈥淗azara鈥� label was almost used as a swear word, she says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e ugly, you鈥檙e Hazara; you鈥檙e backwards, you鈥檙e Hazara,鈥� she heard as she grew up.

The Sunni Muslim Taliban was particularly brutal when it ruled in the 1990s, and international human rights groups have issued dire warnings about the Hazaras鈥� safety now, threatened by both the government and a rival Islamic State affiliate聽group. 聽

Before the fall of Kabul, Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced a program to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable Afghans. Priority groups included those who had helped the Canadian army and religious minorities such as Sikhs and Hindus.

But not Hazaras. Ms. Bahman decided to do something about that.

As images of desperate Afghans pushing their way onto evacuation planes in Kabul shocked viewers around the world in August, she joined a group of refugee advocates and successfully pressed for a meeting with Mr. Mendicino. He was persuaded that Hazaras should be listed, and promised that Canada would 鈥渕ove heaven and earth to help.鈥�

But as the details of how the program will work are developed, Ms. Bahman is keeping up the pressure, which is key to the Hazaras鈥� protection, says Stephen Watt, a leader of the refugee cause in Canada.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to make the case that these are people in need of help if you don鈥檛 know about them or their unique history of persecution,鈥� he says. 鈥淗alima is both extremely articulate about the situation as an advocate and is somebody who personally experienced one of the worst massacres of Hazara history.鈥澛�

Driven by hope

Ms. Bahman says her advocacy work grew from her direct exposure to terror in Mazar-e-Sharif. The Taliban had threatened to kill every male Hazara between ages 7 and 70, and rounded up thousands of them. She once visited a holding center, she recalls, and still thinks about what may have happened to them.

In Canada, she began working with women specifically because of the discrimination they have long faced, and co-founded the Hazara Women鈥檚 Organization last year. 鈥淏eing underprivileged or being oppressed is not something you should be ashamed of. It鈥檚 something you have to address and change,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here is so much beauty in being Hazara.鈥�

She says that when she first arrived in Canada she often found herself the only woman at the table. But that has started to change, with a new generation of Hazara refugees in Canada who are today responding to the crisis. Tahira Razai is one of them.

鈥淲omen have always been oppressed. They have always been pushed down and told 鈥榶ou can鈥檛 do it; you can鈥檛 lead the community,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淥nce given the opportunity, [women] will show they can do it.鈥� She met Ms. Bahman at a demonstration in Toronto to bring attention to the plight of the Hazaras, and the two women continue to work together.聽

Their priority now is to find safe houses for the Hazara families in Afghanistan with whom they are in touch, and to try to arrange their clandestine escape from the country. They have not yet succeeded in this, but the need is urgent: The women鈥檚 WhatsApp channels are full of grim news about the disappearance and death of their fellow Hazaras, including some of Ms. Bahman鈥檚 own family.

鈥淚鈥檓 here in my warm home with food. Nothing is my concern. Safety, nothing,鈥� says Ms. Bahman.聽鈥淚 have lived everything close to death that the people are experiencing right now. So I鈥檓 just driven by hope, hope that we can save someone鈥檚 life.鈥�