DefinePK

Abstract

Since the resurgence of the Taliban on August 15, 2021, Afghanistan has witnessed a reconfiguration of internal power dynamics, exhibited by deep human security issues -- specifically for ethnoreligious minorities who endured systemic exclusion under the Taliban’s first regime. These insecurities, rather than curtailing solely from direct violence, are deeply rooted in structures of socio-political and economic inequality, associating with Galtung’s (1969) theory of structural violence wherein deprivation becomes normalised through institutional silence and selective governance. In this context, the Iran-Afghanistan barter trade agreement --formally ratified on December 28, 2022 -- emerged as a fundamental mechanism that redefined the Taliban’s stance towards the Hazara, affording them conditional developmental privileges in Hazarajat regions such as Bamyan, Daikundi and parts of Ghazni, in exchange for sustained trade access and geopolitical calm. Simultaneously, the Farsiwan communities of Herat and adjacent borderlands including Islam Qala, Injil and Guzara, have experienced a detailed de-marginalisation as facilitators of cross-border commerce, benefiting from Iran’s strategic engagement in western Afghanistan. This emergent leniency has been tentatively noted in recent studies by Fakhrizadeh & Zaheer (2025), Gulejami & Zaheer (2025), and Darakhshan Afsari (2025), who highlight sectarian flexibility born of economic necessity rather than ideological reform. Methodologically, this study utilises a neo-colonial structural violence lens (Arian Sharifi, 2024), complemented by a synthesis of David Keen and Paul Collier’s conflict economy thesis (called Keen-Collier Approach), wherein “each ethnic community attains variable political and economic rights based on its locational influence and satisfaction level", ultimately proposing that such arrangements may incubate a reimagined Afghan social contract grounded in decentralised, multicultural cosmopolitanism. Accordingly, this study is guided by research questions concerning how trade-induced exceptions reshape governance narratives and what policy instruments can institutionalise equitable inclusion in post-conflict state-building.