[csaa-forum] CWADRN Seminar, Friday 18 November, H2.22, Monash University

[GJ Breyley]

Central and West Asia and Diasporas Research Network (CWADRN) Seminar
<http://www.facebook.com/events/196287230818543/>, Friday 18 November,
11am-12:30pm, Room H2.22, Monash University Caulfield Campus, Melbourne

Special guests Farkhonda Akbar and Mediya Rangi present their research

*The Hazaras of Afghanistan and Hazara activism in the diaspora*
Farkhonda Akbar

The Hazaras of Afghanistan are a long-persecuted minority group. Their
facial features and religious sect set them apart from the rest of their
countrymen. As a result, 63 percent of the Hazaras have been persecuted in
the 1890s and thousands massacred by the brutal Taliban regime. The US
invasion of Afghanistan brought hope for the Hazaras as the new
constitution guaranteed their equal rights. However, the century-old
discrimination did not disappear from the ground reality. Since 2001 the
Hazaras are struggling to raise their voice against 'systematic
discri...mination'
from the Kabul Government through civil activism.
The recent example is the Ghani Administration diverging the route of a
billion-dollar aid project from impoverished Hazara provinces. The Hazaras
protested in millions on streets of Kabul and around the world to demand
their equal rights. The failure of the Government to protect their security
resulted in twin bomb blasts that killed more than 90 people and wounded
another 300 people - 95 percent of whom were young and educated Hazaras.
The Hazara diaspora plays an important role in solidarity and support of
their people in homeland. In the midst of other chaos in Afghanistan, the
Hazaras have another layer of wounds to be part of their wounded homeland.

*Farkhonda Akbar* arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2003. She began her
first year of formal schooling from grade 8. Farkhonda is an active member
of the Australian-Hazara community and an enthusiast cultural and human
rights activist. She has just completed an Advanced Master in Diplomacy at
the Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy, the Australian National University.
Motivated and passionate to bring peace to her homeland, Farkhonda wrote
her thesis on whether the Taliban can be a diplomatic actor and negotiate a
meaningful peace settlement in Afghanistan. Farkhonda also obtain a Master
in International Relations from The University of Melbourne and a Bachelor
in International Relations from La Trobe University.
In 2014, Farkhonda interned at the Department of Political Affairs of the
United Nations Headquarter in New York, and worked with the Afghanistan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Kabul.


*Australian Kurdish Youth – Leading Diasporic Consciousness*
Mediya Rangi, University of Melbourne

Kurdish people, known as the largest stateless nation on earth, numbering
approximately 40 million, are dispersed across all corners of the world.
They have formed diverse diasporic communities in Europe, Americas, Asia,
and Australasia. Although the largest Kurdish diaspora of Northern and
Western Europe have been the subject of extensive academic research, their
counterparts in Australia and New Zealand remain largely neglected by the
scholarship. Additionally, Kurdish diasporic identity has been a topic of
discussion in the last decade, with a particular focus on Europe’s Kurdish
communities. This paper argues that Australian Kurdish youth are leading
the collective diasporic consciousness in new directions. Similar to their
European peers, the second generation Kurds born and/or raised in Australia
are interested in homeland politics via engaging in diplomatic and lobby
activism within the hostland political landscape. However, they are also
key players in creating and maintaining social cohesion within their
diasporic communities. They are also locally recognized as integral
contributors to the multicultural fabric of their hostland society.
Presented here are the Australian Kurdish youths’ lived experiences of
transnational identity formation via a narrative ethnography. Furthermore,
the study of youth enlightens the diaspora studies literature on the
potentials of such communities moving beyond identity politics and
belonging.

*Mediya Rangi *is a migrant from Iran who lived in New Zealand for 10 years
before moving to Australia in 2013. She is currently a PhD candidate at the
University of Melbourne. Mediya’s academic background is in Sociology with
a focus on Iranian peoples’ resistance movements and artistic expressions
particularly art cinema. Her current project focuses on the ethnic
repression of Kurdish people via a narrative ethnography.

www.facebook.com/events/196287230818543

All welcome!

-- 
*GJ BREYLEY  *
ARC DECRA Fellow
Monash University <http://monash.edu>
Convener, Central and West Asia and Diasporas Research Network
<http://cwadrn.wordpress.com/>
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