Afghan Biographies

Hazar, Kamran Mir


Name Hazar, Kamran Mir
Ethnic backgr. Hazara
Date of birth 1976
Function/Grade Kabul Press Editor-in-Chief
History and Biodata

1. Editor-in-Chief Kabul Press:
Kamran Mir Hazar,
Email: editor at kabulpress.org
English Editor Robert Maier:, Email: rmaier at kabulpress.orgKabulpress.org was founded in 2004 by Kamran Mir Hazar in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghanistan Press Kabul Press mirror website www.afghanistanpress.com www.afghanistanpress.net www.afghanistanpress.org

2. Previous Functions of Kamran Mir Hazar:
Editor-in-Chief Kabul Press (2004)

3. Biodata Kamran Mir Hazar:
Hazar_Kamran_MirKamran Mir Hazar was born 1976 in Daikondy Daikundi province in central Afghanistan. His familiy immigrated from Afghanistan 1977, when he was 6 month old. In 1985 he was a secondary student in Mashad, Iran. At age 18, he was awarded a bronze medal for being the best poetry student in Iran.

During the same period, he was awarded a Khorasan Province student writing and poetry prize. For eight years he had worked for Iranian newspapers and magazines. In 1995, he decided to publish his first poetry collection, but the Iranian censor office didn’t accept it. After that he chose seclusion and didn’t publish any work in Iran. In 1999 he released a contentious open letter with the help of Hooshang Golshiri, which was addressed to the heads of the UN, UNESCO and UNICEF about the guiltless Afghan children, women, and men and. The letter bore Afghan mixed myths, legends, fables and historical places.

Around 330 Iranian and Afghan writers, poets and intellectuals have associated with him and added signatures to that letter. Ahmad Shamlu, Mahmood Dowlatabadi, Anvar Khamei and Naser Zarafshan were some of those poets, writers and intellectuals. Two days later, a media conference followed, and two of his young poets were killed by the Iranian secret service in Tehran, Toos ST. Circa 2000 was yet another year for him in which he could publish the first issue of RAHA, covertly with the help of Afghan workers. The first RAHA issue showed that it’s a protest movement that will not accept censorship. After publishing three issues, the Iranian secret service arrested his mother in Mashad and held her captive for nearly one month. He couldn’t print RAHA after that and chose the Internet for publishing independent writers’ works and opinions.

He married his wife Zahra, who was born and grew up in Iran. He returned to Afghanistan from Iran in 2003, and some months later his wife joined him. Today Kamran Mir Hazar is an Afghan journalist and in charge of the Kabulpress website. Kamran Mir Hazar, a professional poet, writer and journalist. He has published two books, Ketab-e- Mehr, a collection of verse, and Reading and Writing, a collection of articles about the new generation of Afghan literature, which have, later, published under a single title, Afghanistan Literature Engineering.

Hazar, chief editor of Kabul Press and reporter for Salaam Watandar radio, was arrested by National Security Directorate (NSD) officials without any charges on July 4, 2007. Kabul Press had been publishing articles that were highly critical of ranking government officials. Four days later, on July 8, he was released on bail. On August 8, 2007 he was re-arrested outside his office by gunmen who belonged to the National Security Directorate. Following increasing pressure from journalists and media freedom activists, he was released after six hours of detention unharmed.

He later travelled to India and left in November for Norway after being granted political asylum. Kabulpress.org, Afghanistan’s news site was knocked off the Internet for about 18 hours beginning late Sunday July 6, 2008 after an unauthorized party gained access to its on-line files, and replaced the home page with a video warning that death would be coming soon. The Media Commission of Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture sent Kamran an official letter contains threatening that if he continues this kind of publishing, they would send his case directly to the court. At the same time, journalists have also been warned by the Taliban against publishing critical articles against them.

In August, 2007 Kamran was given a freedom award by Afghan Civil Society Forum. In 2008 he is one of 34 writers and journalists who win Hellman/Hammett Grants administrated by Human rights watch. On 20100427 Kamran Mir Hazar, editor-in-chief, Kabulpress.org Kabulpress.org received a copy of an official letter from the Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (ATRA) to the Ariana Network Service Company (ANSC) ordering it to block Kabulpress.org's website on its servers in Afghanistan. ANSC is one of Afghanistan's largest Internet service providers and a branch of the large Afghan/American tele-communications company, TSI, based in Ft. Lee, New Jersey that includes the Afghanistan-based Ariana Television Network, Ariana FM Radio, and the Afghan Wireless cell phone network.

Hazar Kamran is living with his family in Oslo, Norway.

Last Modified 2011-04-15
Established 2010-08-11