Shiites gaining clout in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — For the past week, caravans of cars have raced triumphantly around the Afghan capital, trailing huge green and red banners. Overpasses are draped with black cloth, and loudspeakers blare religious chants punctuated with the slow rhythm of clanking chains.

This is Muharram, the 10-day period of ritual mourning — including emotional bouts of chest-beating and self-flagellation — observed by Shiites worldwide in remembrance of Imam Hussein and other Shiite martyrs who died defending their faith in the 7th century.

But in Afghanistan, a Sunni-dominated country where Shiites have been a despised and oppressed minority during many periods of history, this Muharram is being observed with new boldness and political acceptance.

It is a sign of the rapid emergence of Shiism under democratic rule in the seven years since the overthrow of the ultraconservative Sunni Taliban.

"I think the current situation is the best Shiites in Afghanistan have ever had. We not only have more freedom, but our rights to worship are specified in the constitution," said Syed Hussein Alemi Balkhi, a Shiite cleric and member of parliament.

Moreover, Sunnis are now coordinating with Shiites in observing Muharram. "They celebrate it a little differently than we do, but we respect each other," Balkhi said.

Shiites still make up less than 25 percent of the Afghan populace, which is nearly all Muslim. Many Shiites, especially the ethnic Hazaras, remain isolated in some of the most impoverished regions of the country.

In the capital of Kabul, many Hazaras are still relegated to such menial jobs as domestic servants or handcart pullers, who strain like animals under loads of furniture or commercial cargo.

But since the departure of the Taliban, which forcibly suppressed Shiism as un-Islamic, tens of thousands of Shiites have returned from exile in next-door Iran, many bringing professional skills and modernized views.

Young Shiite women are generally more emancipated than Sunni women, and female voter turnout in the 2004 national elections was highest by far in Shiite districts.

Shiites have been elected to parliament from numerous provinces and named to various government posts. One of the most prominent young leaders was former commerce minister Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, who was killed in a suicide bombing last year.

The Shiite emergence has been openly aided by Iran, which has built mosques, gymnasiums and a brand-new university in Kabul, a complex of soaring blue-tiled domes and towers.

This boon is viewed as a worrisome development by some Afghans, who mistrust Iran's intentions and fear that its Shiite theocracy seeks to gain undue influence over Afghanistan and weaken its government.