- Sediq Afghan
Sediq Afghan is a prominent Afghan philosopher known for his outspoken criticism of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, of the secular governments that followed, and of the Taliban regime. In Kabul, he led anti-U.S. protests during May of 2003. He studied in Tajikistan. For the past 19 years he has kept himself busy studying the Qur'an as a science. He has memorized the Qur'an. He is the head of International Center for Mathematical Philosophy.
- Hamid Karzai
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai 's days may be numbered . I wrote the 25 Must-Know Facts about Afghanistan . How about 19 must know facts about their possible ex-president Hamid Karzai .
- Abdul Rahman
Abdul Rahman is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Rahman's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 357. American intelligence analysts estimate that Rahman was born in 1976, in Haji Baras, Afghanistan.
- Abdul Aziz
Abdul Aziz is a member of the Taliban's leadership. He was the Secretary to his brother Abdul Kabir, the former Governor of Nangarhar Province. The two were captured on July 16 2005,
- Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a popular figure as an Afghan Mujahideen or rebel commanders. He is a former Prime Minister of Afghanistan, labelled as a warlord by many. He is currently wanted by the United States for taking part in the insurgncy in Afghanistan against the new government of President Hamid Karzai. Hekmatyar speaks several languages, including English. It is reported that he has two wives and many children and grand-children.
- Zalmay Khalilzad
Zalmay Khalilzad is the program directory for strategy, doctrine, and force structure of RAND's Project AIR FORCE and director of RAND's Greater Middle East Studies Center. He was assistant deputy under secretary of defense for policy planning between January 1991 and December 1992.
- Ismail Khan
Ismail Khan (b. 1946) was a powerful Afghan Mujahedeen commander, then the Governor of Herat Province in Afghanistan and is now the Minister of Energy for the country. He has been involved with the political organization Jamiat-e-Islami, an Islamic party.
- Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar (born c. 1959, Nodeh, near Kandahar) or simply Mullah Omar, is the reclusive leader of the Taliban of Afghanistan and was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to 2001, under the title Commander of the Faithful. Since the Post-9/11 war in Afghanistan began in 2001 he has been in hiding and wanted by U.S. authorities for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization. He is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
- Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini (born March 4 1965) is an Afghanistani American novelist and physician. His 2003 debut novel, "The Kite Runner", was a bestseller. His second, "A Thousand Splendid Suns", was released on May 22 2007.
- Abdul Samad
Abdul Samad is a citizen of Afghanistan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 911.
- Abdul Rashid Dostum
General Abdul Rashid Dostum (also Abdurrashid Dostum, born in 1954) is the Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Afghan Armed Forces and a powerful warlord. His role as the Chief of Staff, however, is often viewed as ceremonial. He is the principal leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek community. Dostum was born in Khvajeh Do Kuh, Afghanistan. In 1970 he began to work in a state-owned gas refinery in Sheberghan, Jowzjan Province, …
- Burhanuddin Rabbani
Burhanuddin Rabbani, an ethnic Tajik, is a former President of Afghanistan. Burhanuddin Rabbani is the leader of Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Society of Afghanistan). He also served as the political head of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UIFSA), an alliance of various political groups who fought against Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
- Ahmad Zahir
Ahmad Zahir (June 14, 1946 - June 14, 1979), was an Afghanistani singer, songwriter and composer. A celebrity of enduring popularity more than a quarter century after his death, he is considered an icon of Afghan music.
- Farhad Darya
Farhad 'Darya' Nasher, born on September 22, 1962, in Gozargah, Kunduz province, is a singer and composer from Afghanistan. Widely popular, he has earned affection for not only his music but also patriotism. He has fan base that stretches from his native Afghanistan to Pakistan, Europe, North America and extending to Australia. Farhad sings in various languages including: Pashto, Persian, Uzbek, and Hindi.
- Abdul Salam
American intelligence analysts assert a Taliban leader named Abdul Salam "(or alternatively Abdul Salaam)" was one of the Taliban's commanders on the Kabul front, during the Taliban's collapse, during late 2001.
- Malalai Joya
Malalai Joya (born April 25, 1979) is a controversial Afghan politician. A member of the Afghan Parliament, she has been both celebrated by many as an advocate for women's rights and publicly denounced by some fellow politicians for her criticism of those she considers "warlords" and "drug-lord" in the current Afghanistan government.
- Abdul Karim
Abdul Karim is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. American intelligence analysts estimate Abdul Karim was born in 1982, in Sangin, Afghanistan.
- Ahmad Shah Massoud
Ahmad Shāh Mas'ūd (c. September 2, 1953-September 9, 2001) ("variant transliterations include Ahmed, Masood, etc.") was an ethnic Tajik and a Kabul University engineering student turned military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, earning him the nickname "Lion of Panjshir". His supporters call him "Amer Sahib e Shaheed", translating to our "Martyred Commander".
- Akbar Khan
Mohammed Akbar Khan (1839-1842) was an Afghan general. He was active in the First Anglo-Afghan War, which lasted from 1839-1842. He is prominent for his siege of Kabul from 1841-1842, and of Gandomak near Jalalabad in 1842. Akbar was the son of Dost Mohammed Khan, and he led a revolt in Kabul against the British mission of William McNaughten, Alexander 'Sekundar' Burnes and their garrison of 4,500 men.
- Abdul Salam
American intelligence analysts assert a Taliban leader named Abdul Salam the Taliban's commander on the Karabak front. Three of the factors justifying Guantanamo captive Abdul Rahman Mohamed Saleh Naser continued detention were: *"The detainee received training from Emir Abdul Salam on the Karabak front lines, along with forty other troops." *"Abdul Salam served as a commander at the front lines for Abdul Hadj Al Iraqi, …
- Abdul Salam
Abdul Salam was the Chief Justice of the Taliban's Supreme Court. On May 8 2003 the "Christian Science Monitor" quoted Salam that: "...the Taliban are back as well. Regrouped, rearmed, and well-funded, they are ready to carry on guerrilla war as long as it takes to expel US forces from Afghanistan."
- Abdul Sattar
Mullah Abdul Sattar is one of three Taliban commanders the Afghan Justice Project has accused of bearing overall responsibility for the summary execution of hundreds of civilians, on January 8 2001, in Yakaolong, Afghanistan.: During his testimony before his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Guantanamo captive Muhibullah, a Taliban conscript, said he worked in an area under the jurisdiction of a Mula Satar.
- Said Mohammed
Said Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Mohammed's Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 1056. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate that Mohammed was born in 1977. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts listed his place of birth simply as Afghanistan.
- Asadullah Khalid
Asadullah Khalid, an ethnic Pashtun, was Governor of Ghazni Province in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2005. He is currently the Governor of Kandahar Province. On October 19 2006 he told it appeared that no Taliban fighters were in the village at the time of the airstrikes by NATO helicopters, which left giant pieces of mud packed with straw scattered along the narrow lane of the village Ashogho. Khalid, who traveled October 18 2006 to Ashogho, …
- Abdul Haq
Abdul Haq (born Humayoun Arsala; April 23, 1958 - October 26, 2001) was an Afghan Pashtun mujahideen commander who fought against the Soviets and Afghan commmunists during the Soviet-Afghan War. He was executed by the Taliban in October 2001 while trying to create a popular uprising in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
- Abdul Haq
The Chinese News Agency "Xinhua" reported that a Taliban leader named Mullah Abdul Haq was one of a group of five Taliban leaders captured in Nowshera, Pakistan, on July 16 2005. The most senior member of the Taliban leadership captured in this incident was Abdul Kabir. Also capture were Kabir's brother and assistant Abdul Aziz, Mullah Abdul Qadeer, and a fifth unnamed member of the Taliban leadership. Haq was described as a protege of Mullah Omar, …
- Steve McCurry
Photographer Steve McCurry is renowned for his evocative and moving photographs of Asia and its people. His career reached a turning point in the 1980s when, disguised in native garb, he crossed into Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion. And in 1984, while visiting an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, he took his famous "Afghan girl" photograph, which became a National Geographic icon after it was published on the cover of the June 1985 issue.
- Shah Wali
Ustad Shah Wali is one of those living Pashtun singers who have sung more than 10,000 songs in Pashto, Dari, and Urdu. An Afghan by birth, Shah Wali’s father was a businessman and had nothing to do with music. It was on his own account that Shah Wali carved a name for himself in this line. Before his migration to Pakistan, Shah Wali had already sung more than 250 songs for Afghanistan Television.
- Ashraf Ghani
Dr Ashraf Ghani , Chancellor of Kabul University; former Afghan Minister of Finance ( biographical sketch )
- Habib Qaderi
Habib Qaderi is an Afghan singer. Ranking second to Farhad Darya in popularity, is of the new generation exiled artists who’ve achieved fame outside of Afghanistan, and then subsequently exporting their work to their native country. Although widely popular in his homeland, he has not gone back to perform since gaining celebrity. He currently lives in Los Angeles where from he continues his music career. His brother Faiz Qaderi is also a singer.
- Ahmad Wali
Ahmad Wali is a popular Afghan singer. He now resides in USA, having immigrated from Afghanistan to Germany and then subsequently to the Americas due to the political turmoil of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. He is one of the celebrities of Afghanistan's Golden Years of music that lasted up until the late 70s. A legendary singer whose fame has perpetuated over three decades, he is considered an iconic singer of Afghanistan music industry.
- Abdul Wali
Abdul Wali was an Afghan man who died in US custody on June 21, 2003, aged 28. At the time of his death, he had been held for three days at the US base 10 miles south of Asadabad, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on suspicion of involvement in a rocket attack on the same base. The cause of his death was at first reported to be a heart attack, …
- Sima Samar Sima Samar
Dr. Sima Samar is the Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Darfur, Sudan. Dr. Samar obtained her degree in medicine from Kabul University in 1982 and fled Afghanistan two years later for Pakistan, where she spent more than a decade as refugee. In Pakistan, Dr. Samar established the Shuhada Organization and Shuhada Clinic in Quetta for Afghan women and girls refugees.
- Gul Agha Sherzai
Gul Agha Sherzai is the current Governor of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. He was the Governor of Kandahar province from 2001 until 2004.
- Rangin Dadfar Spanta
Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta (born 1954 in Herat) is the foreign minister of Afghanistan. He was appointed to that position by Hamid Karzai during a cabinet reshuffle on March 21, 2006 and approved by the 249-seat lower house on April 20, 2006. He was previously the Senior Advisor on International Affairs to President Hamid Karzai. Before returning to Afghanistan, he spent many years as a scholar and assistant professor of political science at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, …
- Abdul Malik
Abdul Malik is a Uzbek warlord/politician based out of Faryab Province in northern Afghanistan. He is currently head of the Afghanistan Liberation Party and was heavily involved the factional fighting that consumed Afghanistan for many years. His arch-rival for control of the Uzbek north is Rashid Dostum, and their militias have clashed several times since the fall of the Taliban. Previous to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Malik's alliances shifted continuously, …
- Abdul Salam Zaeef
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, born 1968 in Kandahar, was the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan before the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was crippled during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He was detained in Pakistan somewhere in the winter or spring of 2001/2002 as an "unlawful combatant" in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps and was kept there as of June 2004. Zaeef was a minister of transportation until he became the Taliban's envoy to Pakistan.
- Bismullah
:"To distinguish between the different individuals named Bismullah see the disambiguation page." Haji Bismullah is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Bismullah's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 968. American intelligence analysts estimate Bismullah was born in 1979 and was from Musa Qala, Afghanistan.
- Ehsan Aman
Ehsan Aman is an Afghanistani singer. He is one of the few veterans of Afghanistan’s lost musical Golden Age who've maintained their popularity over the decades. He already had public exposure in Afghanistan in the 1970s and early 1980s with his first singles and the performances he held at Kabul University. Exiled since the early 80s in the USA, he has continued his music from the state of Virginia which has also been since then his residence.
- Amin Tarzi
Dr. Amin Tarzi is an analyst for Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and Senior Fellow with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. He previously served as Senior Research Associate for the Middle East at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he taught graduate seminars on Middle East security policies and threat perceptions.. Dr.