For Afghan Hazaras, where to pray can be life and death choice

A woman walks past graves at a Hazara cemetery for the Shi'ite community martyrs on a hill on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan October 20, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

KABUL (Reuters) - Each time Hussain Rahimi leaves his Kabul home for the mosque to pray, he recites the Kalima - a short verse that is the central tenet of Islam - because he is not sure he will come home alive.

"I am afraid. My family is afraid when we go to the mosque," said 23-year-old Rahimi, an ethnic Hazara - a predominantly Shi'ite community that has been at the receiving end of some of the most violent attacks in Afghanistan's bloody history.