I was born in 1973 in Ali Chupan village, Mazar-e-Sharif city, Balkh province, Afghanistan. I am the fourth of eight children in the family. My father had an elementary education but my mother is illiterate. I had just entered the third grade of elementary school when the only school in our village was set on fire during a clash between communist government forces and fighters, so I had to stay at home. I grazed sheep and cattle for three years, something that every child over the age of 6 had to do in our village. My father had gone to work in Iran a few years before the occupation of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union, but when the communist government came to power, he could not return and stayed in Bandar
Abbas, Iran. My father was a mason. When the war and insecurity escalated, my grandfather brought my mother, brothers and sisters to Iran. My older sister and I stayed with my grandmother. My grandfather used to say: “I kept you to graze and take care of cows and sheep and to fill the water pitcher for your grandmother”. In the winter of 1983, two years after my mother, I also came to Iran, I went to the beautiful city of Bandar Abbas with
my parents. I had 6 months to start school again.
At that time, I read Iranian books with my younger brother, and when I started school again, I sat in the third grade of elementary school. I studied elementary, middle and high school in Bandar Abbas and in 1994 I received my diploma in mathematics and physics from Bandar Abbas model high school which was the best high school in the city.
In 1995, I was accepted through the entrance exam at the University of Tehran in the field of agricultural machinery. In 2000, with the cooperation of two of my roommates at the university, we set up a school of Farhang (culture) whose name was Amir Al-Momenin at the beginning in the immigrant area of Tehran and since then, I have been working as the director of the school of Farhang (culture) for children who have been unable to attend to public school systems (due to lack of proper documents).
In 2008, I was accepted for a master’s degree in sociology at the University of Tehran, and I graduated in 2012. I have been able to develop activities that promote reading and literacy among children such as:
Abbas, Iran. My father was a mason. When the war and insecurity escalated, my grandfather brought my mother, brothers and sisters to Iran. My older sister and I stayed with my grandmother. My grandfather used to say: “I kept you to graze and take care of cows and sheep and to fill the water pitcher for your grandmother”. In the winter of 1983, two years after my mother, I also came to Iran, I went to the beautiful city of Bandar Abbas with
my parents. I had 6 months to start school again.
At that time, I read Iranian books with my younger brother, and when I started school again, I sat in the third grade of elementary school. I studied elementary, middle and high school in Bandar Abbas and in 1994 I received my diploma in mathematics and physics from Bandar Abbas model high school which was the best high school in the city.
In 1995, I was accepted through the entrance exam at the University of Tehran in the field of agricultural machinery. In 2000, with the cooperation of two of my roommates at the university, we set up a school of Farhang (culture) whose name was Amir Al-Momenin at the beginning in the immigrant area of Tehran and since then, I have been working as the director of the school of Farhang (culture) for children who have been unable to attend to public school systems (due to lack of proper documents).
In 2008, I was accepted for a master’s degree in sociology at the University of Tehran, and I graduated in 2012. I have been able to develop activities that promote reading and literacy among children such as:
- The establishment of the school of Farhang (culture) for the education of immigrant
- children behind on their education aftering being denied an education in Tehran in 2000
- Launching the competition “Getting To Know Afghanistan” among self-governing school students in 2001
- Establishing a library for school students and other immigrant students in the area since 2003
- Establishing the publication Nowruz magazine called Red Anemone for students of self-governing schools in Iran
- Participated in Yade yare Mehraban book fair and got books for the school library for 15 years (since 2002)
- Launched Taravat magazine for Afghan immigrate children in 2001 (this magazine was published for four years)
- Published and distributed the book The History of Afghanistan in 2003
- Launched Pulpalak (Ladybug) Magazine in 2004
- Published and distributed the book Geography of Afghanistan in 2004
- Compiled the book, bazgasht (Return), a special
- Social Education for Afghan Immigrant Students in 2000
- Compiled the book A Letter to The Taliban in 2016
- Launched Aftab Children’s Magazine in 2014
- Collaborated with Dr. Homa Hoodfar, Professor of Anthropology, Concordia
- University, Canada, for the publishing of Refusing the Margins: Afghan Refugee Youth In Iran
- Received an invitation from the University of Oxford to participate in a seminar that focused on prolonged conflict and forced migration among refugees
Established Aftab children’s house ( Children of the Sun house ) (Afghanistan) - to provide educational and cultural services to self-governing schools in Iran since 2005
- Established Amu Publishing; the publisher of Afghanistan’s Fiction and Poetry 2017
- Held numerous letter writing competitions among the students of self-governing schools beginning in 2005
- Launched storytelling classes for children from 2014
- Participated in Tehran International Book Fair since 2014
- Collaborated creating the first documentary about self-governing schools called “The Teacher’s Final Assignment” in 2006
- Created the compilation Self-governing Schools in 2004
- Was elected as the father of self-governing schools by a majority vote from self-governing school principals and teachers in 2016