Cooking with the Community

Hazara Refugees Share their Traditional Recipes in Indonesia

IOM - UN Migration
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read
Local Indonesians taking notes at a cooking event where Afghan refugees share recipes from their homeland. Muse Mohammed/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

Like many ethnic Hazara, Musa faced considerable discrimination in his home province in Afghanistan, including threats from armed militants. Eventually, he fled to Indonesia, was granted refugee status and moved from an immigration detention centre to community accommodations in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to await resettlement.

Traditional bread from Afghanistan is baked vertically in a specialized oven. Muse Mohammed/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

Prohibited from working or going to school, Musa and his fellow refugees are building relationships with their neighbours through a variety of charitable and volunteer activities including hosting cooking classes. Although Makassar has been a crossroads for merchants and other travellers for centuries, Afghan cuisine remains exotic fare for the enthusiastic local women who attend their classes with pen and paper to jot down delicious new recipes for their families

Especially popular are Afghan naan breads, which are baked vertically inside a drum-shaped oven called a tandoor. Musa says that back home he would have baked the bread using a clay tandoor, which is placed in a hole dug in the ground.

Musa with some of his freshly baked bread. Muse Mohammed/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017

For many of the refugees, these recipes are among the few things they have left from their homeland. As they patiently wait for the day they will be resettled abroad, Musa hopes the recipes they’re sharing will be enjoyed by those who attend and foster good relations between the refugees and host communities.

Even without a tandoor, you can make traditional Hazara cuisine like Musa’s. Here is a simple recipe for naan bread.


Paul Dillon is the UN Migration Agency (IOM)’s Communication Officer in Indonesia. You can reach him at pdillon@iom.int

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IOM - UN Migration

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Official account of IOM, the United Nations Migration Agency.

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