The WAY OF THE DRAGON

After escaping the Taliban, the 'Afghan Bruce Lee' dreams of making his country proud in Hollywood

- BECHU S.

When Abbas Alizada looks in the mirror, he sees The Dragon. For over a decade, he has been emulating a titan who knocked the socks off film lovers with his flying sidekicks and lightning-fast punches, but left the world too soon. Needless to say, Abbas—the 'Afghan Bruce Lee'—is an expert in the nunchuck and spinning heel kicks.

The drama in Abbas's life can match any Bruce Lee movie. Being the doppelganger of a legend with followers around the world inevitably led to him becoming a social media star. Sadly, fame would only make him an easier target. For, when the Taliban came storming back, art and artists once again became enemies of the state. To make things worse, Abbas is a Hazara, an ethnic group that has been systemically targeted in Afghanistan.

Hazaras, who speak an eastern variety of Farsi, are a mostly Shia community with Turkic and Mongolic lineage. Distinguishable by Asiatic features, they have endured massacres, enslavement and forced displacement under different regimes.

Under 19th century ruler Abdur Rahman Khan, around 60 per cent of Hazaras were massacred, enslaved or forced into exile. Hazara lands were confiscated and given to Pashtun settlers and nomads from other parts of the country by Khan, forcing them to take shelter in the central mountainous region, now known as Hazarajat (land of Hazaras). They currently inhabit Hazarajat and are also in Kabul and Balkh, among other places.

After the Soviet withdrawal from Kabul, the mujahideen's brief stint in power and the Taliban's subsequent rule led to further atrocities against Hazaras. The Taliban even imposed blockades on Hazarajat, blocking humanitarian relief and crippling the local economy in an effort to enforce a famine.