Azita Ghanizada (b. 1979)
An Afghan American actress in the United States who has appeared in a number of television series. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her family fled her native country to the US and were granted asylum to remain. She was raised in Northern Virginia.
Television
Fahim Fazli (b. 1966)
Fazli was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He escaped Afghanistan and settled in the United States. He returned to Afghanistan as an interpreter with the U.S. Marines from 2009–2010. He wrote a memoir, Fahim Speaks, that was released in early 2012. He has provided voice work to the popular video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
His film career spans from 2008-current. Some of his films include:
Television appearances include:
Donnie Keshawarz (b.1969)
Television Series
Films
Sonita Alizadeh (b.1996)
Rapper and activist who has been vocal against forced marriages. Alizadeh grew up in Herat, Afghanistan, under the rule of the Taliban. Her family first considered selling her as a bride when she was 10. Instead, her family fled to Iran to escape the Taliban. In 2014, Alizadeh entered a U.S. competition to write a song to get Afghan people to vote in their elections. She won a $1,000 prize and sent the money to her mother. When Sonita Alizadeh was 16 years old, her mother who had returned to Afghanistan asked her to return, too, saying she had found a man to buy her. Her mother was trying to earn a $9,000 dowry so that her elder brother could purchase a bride and thought she could get at least $9,000 by selling her daughter. Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, director of the documentary Sonita, paid $2,000 to Sonita's mother and asked for six months of time for Sonita to appear in the documentary. During that time she wrote "Daughters for Sale" and Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami filmed the music video, which gained international attention. The video was not only popular with women in Afghanistan, but also drew the attention of the nonprofit Strongheart Group, which arranged to bring Alizadeh to the U.S.
Awards and Honors
Ehsan Aman (b. 1959)
An Afghan American singer. He gained fame in Afghanistan during the 1970s and early 1980s with his first singles and the performances he held at Kabul University. Exiled in the US since the early 80s, he has continued writing and producing music. In spite of economic and technical difficulties, he collaborated with other exiled musicians from Afghanistan and, in 1983, he released his first album: Musafer.
Ehsan limited his involvements from 1985 to 1993 to a career in engineering. After 1993, at the request of fans, he returned to music.
In January 2002, he was asked by the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. to re-arrange the national anthem of Afghanistan.
Mohammad Qayoumi (b.1952)
Engineer and Professor
Nazif Shahrani (b.1955)
Department of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
Authored
Awards and Honors
Shaesta Waiz (b.1987)
First female certified civilian pilot born in Afghanistan. The youngest female to make a solo flight around the world in a single-engine aircraft in 2017. She started the Women's Ambassador Program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to mentor and support young women pursuing an education in aviation and engineering. She founded the non-profit organization Dreams Soar, Inc.
Queen Soraya Tarzi (1899-1968)
As the first Queen Consort of Afghanistan and wife of King Amanullah Khan, she became one of the most powerful figures in the Middle East in the 1920s and was known throughout the world for her progressive ideas. Queen Soraya was the first Muslim consort who appeared in public together with her husband, something which was unheard of at the time. In 1921, she founded and contributed to the first magazine for women, Ishadul Naswan (Guidance for Women), the first school for girls (Masturat School in 1920), the first theatre for women in Paghman, and the first hospital for women (the Masturat Hospital in 1924). She is featured in Time Magazine's 2020 100 Women of the Year.
The image to the right shows the freedom of Afghan women in 1927, during the reform period of Amanullah Khan.
Queen Humaira Begum (1918-2002)
In 1946, Queen Humaira became the protector of the newly founded Women's Welfare Association, which was the first-ever Women's Institute in Afghanistan. In 1959, she supported the call by the Prime minister Mohammed Daoud Khan for women to voluntarily remove their veil by removing her own. This was a big event in the history of women in Afghanistan, and it was also an intentional part of the women's emancipation policy of the Daoud Government at that time. She was the last queen consort of Afghanistan.
Sonia Nassery Cole (b.1965)
Filmmaker, author, human rights activist, and philanthropist
After fleeing Afghanistan on her own as a young teen, she wrote a nine-page letter to President Ronald Reagan who in return invited her to the White House and then to testify in front of the Congress. Since then, she has been a permanent fixture in the world of philanthropy. She founded the Afghanistan World Foundation in 2002 and worked with world leaders to rebuild the lives of refugees around the world.
Films
Authored
Awards and Honors
David Ahmed Najem (b.1992)
Professional footballer / soccer player
Current Team: New Mexico United (#6 / Midfielder)
Najem grew up in Clifton, New Jersey and attended Paramus Catholic High School, where he set school career records for both goals and points.
Plays as a defender for USL Championship club New Mexico United and the Afghanistan national team.
Ahmad Arash Hatifie (b.1986)
Professional footballer / soccer player (Midfielder)
Current Team: CD Aguiluchos USA and his national team Afghanistan
Ahmad Hatifi was born in Oakland, California. He began his professional football career in 2013, joining the Indian league; Ist League club, Mumbai FC. He made his official move to the club on 1st November 2013 and made his debut for the club on 2nd November 2013. His only season with the club ended up with total 15 appearances and a goal. He then moved to the American club, CD Aguiluchos USA in 2016 and still plays for the team.
He has played for clubs like Bay Area Ambassadors, Mumbai, IFX Ballistic, and CD Aguiluchos USA.
'Āyisha Durrānī was the daughter of Yaʻqūb Ali Khān Barakzai and the wife of Tīmūr Shāh Durrānī (1742 or 1743-93), the second ruler of the dynasty. She was well educated in Arabic and Persian literature and in the Islamic canon. She is also credited with opening the first school for girls in Afghanistan. Collected works of a noted Afghan poetess 'Āyisha Durrānī can be found online through the Library of Congress.
Tamim Ansary (b. 1948)
Author and public speaker. He is the author of Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes; West of Kabul, East of New York, and other books concerning Afghan and Muslim history. He was previously a columnist for the encyclopedia website Encarta.
Works:
Khaled Hosseini (b.1965)
Novelist, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) goodwill ambassador, and physician
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, to a diplomat father, Hosseini spent some time living in Iran and France. When Hosseini was 15, his family applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a naturalized citizen. He later established The Khaled Hosseini Foundation nonprofit, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
Authored
Awards and Honors
Nadia Hashimi (b.1977)
Pediatrician turned novelist
Born and raised in New York and New Jersey. Both her parents were born in Afghanistan and left in the early 1970s, before the Soviet invasion.
She is a member of the US-Afghan Women’s Council and an advisor to Kallion, an organization that seeks to elevate leadership through humanities. She serves as a Montgomery County health care commissioner and organizing committee member of the Gaithersburg Book Festival.
Authored
She is a founding member of AAAWA and a Brooklyn-based artist and educator whose artistic production takes the form of drawings, prints, and artists’ books. Her work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions and is archived various libraries. Osman’s family left Afghanistan for the U.S. when the Soviet Union invaded in 1979. Since then, she connects to her Afghan culture through her family, community, and the media. Osman wants to present the richness and diversity of her Central Asian culture and hopes to challenge the one-dimensional representation of Afghan and Muslim people that fuels today’s atmosphere of racism and xenophobia. She has been awarded residencies at The Lower East Side Printshop, Kala Art Institute and Women’s Studio Workshop, as well as grants from Brooklyn Arts Council and Jerome Foundation. Currently, she teaches at Parsons School of Design and makes prints with local poets.
Artist and Author
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan and raised in rural Washington state. Her work in photography, video, and mixed media has been exhibited across the US and internationally, including at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; the California Museum of Photography, Riverside; the South Dakota Museum of Art, and the Slamdance Film Festival, Park City, UT. Her pieces are part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY; and En Foco, NY.
Samizay's writing has been published in One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature, and she is an organizing member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association.
Honors and Awards
Aman Mojadidi (b.1971)
Degrees in Cultural Anthropology. His art work utilizes an experimental ethnographic approach.
Exhibited Work
