The Ismailis, a branch of Shia Islam, are a small minority spread across several countries, including Afghanistan, Tajikistan, India, Kenya, and Tanzania. In Afghanistan, they have historically lived in Badakhshan, Kabul, Bamiyan, Parwan, Baghlan, Samangan, Balkh, and Maidan Wardak, with today’s communities concentrated in Kabul, Badakhshan, Baghlan, and the Wakhan Corridor.
For over a century, Ismaili-populated regions have endured repression. Under the republic, however, they found limited recognition and protection: registration offices were opened, services provided, and civil rights safeguarded. That fragile progress collapsed after August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power.
A campaign of religious erasure
The Taliban government recognizes only one interpretation of Islam: its own ultra-conservative reading of Hanafi jurisprudence. This leaves no space for Ismailis. No Ismaili holds a senior government post, and there have been reports of government employees being dismissed simply for their faith.
The Taliban’s rhetoric has fanned hostility. In Badakhshan, a cleric declared that Ismailis were outside Islam, while others branded them mushrik (polytheists), apostates, or heretics. Such language has fueled violence and repression. The Taliban’s Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law has institutionalized intrusion into people’s lives, allowing oppression and reinforcing ideological conformity.
Reports over the past four years point to a systematic campaign against Ismailis: jihadist schools established in their areas, children forced into Sunni instruction, bans on religious ceremonies, attacks on jamaat-khanas (Ismaili places of worship) converted into mosques, shrines destroyed, and marriages between Ismaili men and Sunni women prohibited.
Forced conversions and displacement
Accounts of coerced conversions are mounting. Some Ismailis report being compelled to recite the shahadatain as if reconverting to Islam. In Badakhshan, at least 50 Ismaili men were forced to convert to Sunni Islam in early 2025, some under beatings and death threats, according to UNAMA. In Baghlan, whole villages have been pressured to change sect, while dozens of families were expelled from their homes. In Bamiyan, Ismaili Hazaras say they were purged from local government offices for their faith.
Others face violence. In July 2025, Fazl Ahmad Paeez, the religious head of the Aga Khan Foundation in Zebak, Badakhshan, was assassinated after reportedly arguing with Taliban officials over the closure of Ismaili centres.
Cultural and social marginalization
Beyond religious persecution, the Ismaili community faces social and economic exclusion: confiscated homes and farmland, blocked access to public services, restrictions on employment, and forced migration. Some conceal their identity to survive, while others fear that their history, culture, and literature are being erased. Taliban-controlled textbooks describe the Ismaili faith as a “pseudo-religion,” reinforcing indoctrination among the next generation.
A community under siege
Geography compounds their vulnerability. Concentrated in remote, mountainous provinces, Ismailis are strategically exposed to Taliban coercion. Many have fled abroad or been displaced inside Afghanistan. Those who remain live under constant pressure to assimilate, convert, or disappear.
What is happening to Afghanistan’s Ismailis is not simply persecution — it is an attempt at erasure. Forced religious conformity, cultural destruction, and targeted violence are reshaping one of Afghanistan’s oldest minority communities. If the Taliban continue down this path, the future of Ismailis in Afghanistan may be one of exile, silence, or extinction.
Farzad Ramezani Bonesh is a writer and researcher.
