Rawadari, an Afghan human rights organisation, says the Taliban are imposing cash fines on Ismaili families in northeastern Badakhshan province if they refuse to send their children to Taliban-controlled religious schools.
In a report on the human rights situation of Afghanistan’s Ismaili community, Rawadari said the Taliban are demanding fines of up to 200,000 afghanis ($2,800) from each Ismaili family whose children do not attend Hanafi Sunni religious schools.
The report said Taliban officials in Badakhshan have forced Ismaili boys to attend the schools through threats and intimidation, where they are taught Hanafi jurisprudence, the dominant Sunni school of Islam in Afghanistan.
Rawadari said families have been warned that if their children flee the schools or fail to complete their studies, their homes and property would be burned and family members could be killed.
In some cases, the group said, Ismaili community elders who resisted the measures were detained, beaten or tortured.
The findings echo concerns raised earlier by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which reported that Ismaili families could face fines ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 afghanis if they did not enrol their children in Sunni religious schools.
Rawadari said its report was based on 25 in-depth interviews and documented what it described as a wide range of rights violations against the Ismaili minority since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
One interviewee cited in the report said Taliban officials forcibly took Ismaili and Shi’ite students to religious schools and later threatened their families after some children escaped.
“They told the parents that if the children did not return, their homes would be burned and their relatives killed,” the interviewee said.
Another interviewee said Taliban authorities had set up religious schools in Ismaili-majority districts of Badakhshan, assigned village quotas for enrolment, and appointed imams to local mosques to teach Hanafi jurisprudence. The imams were paid monthly by the Taliban, the report said.
Rawadari said its research points to a “systematic and targeted” campaign over the past four years – particularly in Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces – to force Ismailis to abandon their faith and adopt Sunni Islam, using coercion, threats and violence.
The group said much of the effort was concentrated in Badakhshan’s Darwaz districts and was allegedly overseen by a local Taliban commander. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Taliban have not commented on the report. The Taliban have previously said Afghanistan’s religious minorities are protected and that no one is forced to change their beliefs.
