[ Frontline ] What Is the Fatemiyoun Brigade and Why Does It Make the Taliban Nervous?
In the new FRONTLINE report Leaving Afghanistan, correspondent Najibullah Quraishi investigated how Afghanistan’s neighbors — particularly Iran, through its proxy militia, the Fatemiyoun — are looking to fill the void as America withdraws.
Quraishi spoke to Taliban leaders and former fighters who claimed Iran is mobilizing the Shia Fatemiyoun within Afghanistan. In return, a Sunni Taliban leader told Quraishi he would target and kill Afghanistan’s Shia minority, accusing them of harboring Fatemiyoun fighters.
The Iranian-backed Fatemiyoun Brigade is drawn from Shia Afghan refugees in Iran and also from members of the Hazara Shia minority inside Afghanistan. Hazaras currently make up 9 to 10% of Afghanistan’s total population of 38 million. Considered infidels by the Sunni Taliban and the target of deadly attacks since the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Hazaras have fled to Iran, where the government has recruited them to the militia.
Fatemiyoun members are “mostly in their 20s and 30s … motivated mainly by economic deprivation and vulnerabilities due to their migrant status,” per the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). According to media and human rights reports, Iran offered these refugees and their families payment, citizenship and other legal protections in return for serving in the brigade, although some refugees “report[ed] being coerced into joining with threats of arrest and deportation,” according to a report from the Middle East Institute. Iran is also known to have armed Fatemiyoun fighters in Yemen and Syria.
Estimates put the number of Fatemiyoun troops Iran deployed to Syria, to fight ISIS on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad, as high as 20,000 or even 50,000. In Leaving Afghanistan, sources told FRONTLINE that Iran is now sending Fatemiyoun back to Afghanistan, with thousands already in the country.
USIP estimates the total number of Fatemiyoun fighters between 30,000 and 60,000.
The Taliban has had a historically hostile relationship with Iran and views the Fatemiyoun as Iran’s proxy. At the same time, the Hazaras and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan have begun taking up arms and forming militias.
Ibraheem Bahiss, a consultant with the International Crisis Group who analyzes peace and conflict developments in Afghanistan, told FRONTLINE the Hazaras have been the targets of many aggressors, including the Taliban and ISIS in Afghanistan, with little protection from the Afghan government.
“This makes the potential for a Hazara resistance against the Taliban that much more likely, in comparison to other groups,” Bahiss said.
According to Bahiss, while most Fatemiyoun are recruited from Afghan Shia refugees living in Iran, and most commanders have spent years in Iran, the majority of Fatemiyoun commanders and fighters appear to be ethnically Hazara.
“The fact that the Fatemiyoun are experienced veterans of the Syrian conflict and also have strong connections in the Iranian establishment make the potential of a Fatemiyoun-led Hazara resistance not only more likely but also more threatening,” Bahiss told FRONTLINE.