The impassioned chants of Perth's Hazara community could be heard at a vigil to honour the victims of a terrorist attack that killed 54 young people at a school in Afghanistan.
"Stop Hazara genocide," went the call and response between a group of community leaders and the crowd.
Hundreds gathered in the Perth CBD on Saturday as part of a national call for action and awareness in response to escalating violence against the Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan.
Most of the victims of the latest bombing, which targeted the Kaaj learning centre in a predominantly Hazara neighbourhood of Kabul on September 30, were young girls.
Hazara woman Zahara Ahmadi said she had aspirations, just like the victims of the bombings.
"Their only fault is that they were born in Afghanistan," she said.
"Education is a basic human right, they should not be targeted and killed for it."
Leaders of the Hazara community spoke at the vigil about a lack of international awareness and intervention to stop the violence.
They called for the Australian government to commit to 20,000 additional emergency humanitarian visas focused on at-risk groups such as the Hazara minority, and for permanent protection to be granted to Hazara refugees on temporary protection visas in Australia.
Leaders urged the government to formally recognise and condemn violence against Hazaras in Afghanistan, and to convene an emergency roundtable with the Australian-Hazara community.
The Australian government formally condemned violence against the Hazaras in a response to questions from the ABC on Wednesday.
"The Australian government condemns the deplorable attacks targeting the Hazara community at schools and places of worship," a Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.
"The Taliban is failing to provide protection to all Afghan people, and the marginalisation and discrimination of the Hazara people must stop."
Assad Khurami said the impact of attacks against Hazara people in Afghanistan was felt deeply by their community in Australia.
"Almost everyone here from the Hazara community, they have connections with the people that have been killed in the past here," Mr Khurami said at the vigil.
"Every weekend, unfortunately, we have funeral services for family members that are killed in Afghanistan."
He said some of the victims of the Kaaj school bombing had cousins in Perth.
Perth student Somaya Mirzaie said it was painful to know that young women were killed while seeking education.
"It breaks my heart to know that I live in Australia, I have the right to pursue anything I want," Ms Mirzaie said.
"I have the right to pursue education and embrace my ethnicity, practice my religion, and yet, my fellow Hazaras back home in Afghanistan don't have that ability.
"We need the international community to be speak up on their behalf."
