Slavery in Afghanistan

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Slavery in Afghanistan was present in the post-Classical history of Afghanistan, continued during the Middle Ages, and persisted into the 1920s.

The origin of the enslaved people in Afghanistan shifted during different periods, and slaves in Afghanistan never had any particular ethnicity. Slavery was formally abolished in 1923.

History

After the

It was considered legitimate to enslave war captives; during the Afghan occupation of Persia (1722–1730), for example, thousands of people were enslaved, and the Baluch made regular incursions into Southeastern Iran for the purpose of capturing people and turning them into slaves.[2] The slave traffic in Afghanistan was particularly active in the northwest, where 400 to 500 were sold annually.^[2] In Southern Iran, poor parents sold their children into slavery, and as late as around 1900, slave raids were conducted by chieftains in south Iran.^[2] The markets for these captives were often in Arabia and Afghanistan; "most of the slave girls employed as domestics in the houses of the gentry at Kandahar were brought from the outlying districts of Ghayn".^[2]

The rulers of Afghanistan customarily had a harem of four official wives as well as a large number of unofficial wives for the sake of tribal marriage diplomacy,

Most slaves were employed as agricultural laborers, domestic slaves and sexual slaves, while other slaves served in administrative positions.[6] Slaves in Afghanistan possessed some social mobility, especially those slaves who were owned by the government. Slavery was more common in towns and cities, because some Afghan tribal communities did not readily engage in the slave trade; according to some sources, the decentralized nature of Afghan tribes forced more urbanized areas to import slaves to fill labor shortages. Most slaves in Afghanistan had been imported from Persia and Central Asia.^[6]

According to a report of an expedition to Afghanistan published in

Recently in Kabul it was very common sight to see a gang of Hazara women with their unveiled faces and their dingy dresses ragged and dirty conducted through the town by a small guard of soldiers with bayonets fixed. As the war progressed, they became so plentiful that His Highness would often reward a faithful servant or officer by presenting him with one or more as an addition to his Harem.

Segments of the Hazara people were still living in slavery and sold in the slave market of Kabul as late as in the early 20th century.^{[15][16][17][18][5][12][13]}

Abolition

When Amanullah Khan banned slavery in the 1920s,^[15] many of the slaves at the time of the abolition were of Hazara origin.^{[16][17][18][10][11][12][13]}

By the time of the official abolition of slavery in 1923, there were about 700 enslaved people in Kabul, called begar or impressed labor.^[5] Slaves under the age of twelve were sold for a price of 50 rupees and slaves over twelve cost 30 rupees; most wealthy families had at least one or two slaves, and it was common to exchange them as gifts.^[5] Male slaves were often referred to as ghulam, and female as either kaniz (domestic maidservants) or surriyat (referring to concubines).^[4]

In Afghanistan, one of the atrocities committed by the Taliban was the enslavement of the Afghan women for use as concubines.^[22][23] In 1998, eyewitnesses in Mazar e Sharif reported the hundreds of Shia girls had been abducted by Taliban fighters.^[24] One source suggests that up to 400 Afghan women were involved.^[25]

See also

• Bukhara slave trade
• Khivan slave trade
• Slavery in Iran
• History of slavery in the Muslim world
• History of concubinage in the Muslim world
• Slavery in Saudi Arabia
• Slavery in Oman

References