Jafar Mahdavi

Born in 1975 in Ghor, central Afghanistan, Jafar Mahdavi is a prominent Afghan scholar, politician and civil society activist. Mr Mahdavi’s educational background is in sociology in which field he obtained a bachelor degree from Tehran University and a doctorate from the University of Tarbiat-e-Modarres in Tehran. In Afghanistan he co-founded the Gharjestan University. He is the author of a seminal book on the emergence and nature of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In 2010, Mr Mahdavi was elected to the Parliament as a representative of Kabul. He went on to found the Afghanistan Nation political of which he is currently the Secretary General. In 2016, amidst the outbreak of youth protests in various parts of Afghanistan, Mahdavi played a central role in creation of the Enlightenment Movement, a civic movement demanding social and economic rights for the Hazara ethnic group in central Afghanistan. Mahdavi is also a founding member of the Mehwar-e-Mardom-e-Afghanistan political party.

Mahdavi remains highly engaged in Afghanistan’s politics and currently plays an active role in the Afghan peace process.