Afghan Biographies

Rahmani, Walilullah


Name Rahmani, Walilullah
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth
Function/Grade Kabul Center for Strategic Studies Founder
History and Biodata

3. Background:
Wailiullah Rahmani is the Founder and Chief Executive of Kabul Center for Strategic Studies(founded 2007). As a terrorism analyst based in Kabul, he has written for a variety of international publications on terrorism and other issues facing Afghanistan. He is also a terrorism analyst for Jamestown Foundation, an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Washington that focuses on global security threats.

Abdul Ghafoor Rahmani, the chairman of Nawid Rahmani Brothers Trading Company and Ali Hesarnai Logistics Ltd, is a cofounder of Kabul Center. In addition,  Rahmani serves on the board of Kabul Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Previously,  Rahmani owned and operated trading companies in Dubai, Iran, and Pakistan. These companies include the Al Fajar Al Moshriq, Al Jemi and Al Ebrathu Measea, a trading company with operations in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Iran, and Russia.  Rahmani provided Kabul Center with its initial operating budget.

Advisory Board:
1. Ex-Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, the former Interior Minister of Afghanistan (2003-2005), is a Distinguished Professor in the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the Institute for National Strategic Studies in Washington, DC.As Interior Minister, Minister Jalili was responsible for disarming militias, and creating 50,000 Afghan National Police and 12,000 Border Police.The ministry was also tasked with developing strategies to counter narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and other criminal activities.He is published in three languages (English, Pashto, and Dari/Farsi), is regularly asked to comment in the international media, and has taught at the U.S. National Defense University, U.S. Army War College, U.S. Naval Postgraduate College and the British Army Staff College.
2. Ex-Minister Abdullah Abdullah was the former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan (2001-2006). During the Taliban era, he was the resistance leader in the Afghan United Front, the organization headed by Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated on September 9, 2001 by suicide bombers posing as journalists. The assassins were later linked to Al Qaeda. During the Soviet War in Afghanistan, Minister Abdullah, who is also a physician and opthamologist, practiced medicine in Afghanistan and in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan.
3. Professor Mohammad Nazir Shahrani is a Professor of Anthropology and Central Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University. Professor Shahrani left Afghanistan while he was a student at Kabul University to complete his studies in the United States. Professor Shahrani is the author of two books on the Kirghis and Wakhi of Afghanistan (2002 and 1979), and a co-editor of a third, Revolutions and Rebellions in Afghanistan (1984). He also studies and has written about the human consequences of “low-intensity” wars, how Islam has impacted social planning in Afghanistan, the politicization of ethnic minorities, multi-ethnic state fragmentation, the impact of international assistance, the failure of the Afghan Mujahideen to build a functioning state after the Soviet withdrawal, Central Asian Muslims under the U.S.S.R. and in the post-Soviet phase too.
4. Minister Professor Hamidullah Farooqi is on the Economics Faculty of Kabul University and is the elected CEO of Afghanistan‟s International Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on boards of Bank Millie Afghan and the Afghan Traders and Industrialists Center. He is the president and CEO of Hamed-Lias Construction Company LLC, a company based in Kabul. He regularly writes about scientific and economic issues. He received his Master‟s Degree in Economics from Queens College, New York.

Research Team: Waheed Mujda is a recognized authority on the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hizb-e Islami and extremism. He is frequently asked to comment in the Afghan media in this capacity. Previously, Mujda served as the Middle East desk officer in the Taliban‟s foreign ministry. He also worked with other jihadi parties and was at one point a member of Afghanistan‟s other insurgent party, Hizb-e Islami. Dr. Farqoo Ansari, a founding member of Afghanistan Strategic Research and Studies Center, has published many books on Afghanistan history and has written for a variety of scholary journals, both domestic and international. He has a Ph.D in history.

Executive Director
Walilullah Rahmani
Information Technology
Rahmathullah Ali Zadah Jawid Nawid,
Assistant Security
Shaik Buniadi
Research Analysts
Narges Parsa
Ali Habibi Ehsan Amiri
American Office Director
Sharon Chadha

Last Modified 2015-02-01
Established 2009-11-04