AFGHANISTAN USCIRF–RECOMMENDED FOR SPECIAL WATCH LIST KEY FINDINGS I n 2020, religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan continued to trend negatively amid the country’s ongoing political instability. Lack of security remains the primary challenge to protecting the freedom of religion or belief in the country. In February 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement stipulating the withdrawal of foreign presence. In September, the Afghan government and the Taliban commenced peace negotiations. However, these landmark strides toward peace failed to improve security conditions. An increase in attacks by extremist groups—most notably the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) and the Taliban—not only threatened Afghanistan’s overall stability but also decimated religious minorities, particularly the Sikh community, which faces near extinction in Afghanistan. The Afghan government’s limited control over the country’s territory and lack of capacity within the areas it did control continued to hamper its ability to protect its citizens. The United Nations (UN) documented 8,820 civilian casualties (3,035 killed and 5,785 injured) in 2020, with some of the most brutal attacks targeting religious minorities. Antigovernment, nonstate actors, including ISIS-K and the Taliban, were blamed and some claimed responsibility for the deadliest attacks. The UN reported the Taliban were responsible for 45 percent of civilian casualties. While the Taliban rejected these findings and denied responsibility for or involvement in attacks targeting civilians, particularly religious minority communities, the Afghan government alleges that the Taliban use Islamic militant groups as proxies and continue to target progovernment Muslim leaders, institutions, and leaders of other faiths throughout the country. Although their use of antiminority rhetoric has diminished, reports indicate that the Taliban continue to exclude religious minorities and punish residents in areas under their control in accordance with their extreme interpretation of Islamic law. During the current peace negotiations, the Taliban also refused to acknowledge or allow the integration of Shi’a jurisprudence in the current Afghan legal system, causing concern among Shi’a Muslims. During their time in power, the Taliban discriminated against and violently persecuted the Shi’a Hazara community, which they labeled as heretical. Although ISIS-K lost significant territorial control in 2020, it continued to target minority faiths and Muslims who it believes deviate from Islam. Terrorist and criminal attacks against Sikh and Shi’a communities continued, targeting their leadership, neighborhoods, festivals, and houses of worship. In March, a gurdwara (Sikh house of worship) in Kabul was attacked, killing 25 Sikhs—including women and children—and causing many of the few Sikhs remaining in Afghanistan to flee. In March, ISIS-K once again attacked a memorial service held for a Shi’a Hazara leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, who was killed by the Taliban in 1995—killing 32 people and wounding over 50. In November, two roadside bombings perpetrated by ISIS-K killed 14 and injured 45 others in the Shi’a province of Bamiyan. In May, terrorists attacked a maternity hospital in Dasht-eBarchi, a majority-Hazara neighborhood of Kabul. The attack killed more than 20, including two newborns, causing Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières to end its longstanding activities and withdraw from the hospital. In another incident in October, a suicide bomber detonated in the street outside the Kawsar-e Danish Centre, an educational institute in a Shi’a Hazara neighborhood, killing dozens of students. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT • Include Afghanistan on the U.S. Department of State’s Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) and continue to designate the Taliban as an “entity of particular concern” (EPC) for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by IRFA; • Incorporate protections for freedom of religion or belief into U.S.-supported peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban, emphasizing to Afghan political leadership the close relationship between religious freedom and overall security; • Integrate religious freedom concerns, including the protection of houses of worship, into assistance and training programs focused on countering terrorism, resolving sectarian conflict, and bolstering law and order funded by the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Defense; and • Facilitate cooperation between faith leaders and scholars of all religions in Afghanistan to foster societal religious tolerance and encourage the Afghan Ministries of Education, Information and Culture, and Hajj and Religious Affairs to ensure that textbooks and curricula do not propagate intolerant teachings that denigrate religious minorities. The U.S. Congress should: • Appropriate funding specifically for the protection of freedom of religion or belief in Afghanistan and continue oversight activities of these expenditures and related programs in conjunction with the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. KEY USCIRF RESOURCES & ACTIVITIES • Press Statement: USCIRF Strongly Condemns Terrorist Attack against Sikh House of Worship in Kabul 54 USCIRF | ANNUAL REPORT 2021