Abdul Bari Jahani (, born 14 February 1948) is an Afghan poet, novelist, historian and journalist. He wrote the lyrics for the national anthem of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Early life and education
Jahani was born in Ahmad Shahyee area of Kandahar city, in southern Afghanistan. Jahani often recalls his old good days of childhood in Kandahar where he spent most of his teenage years and talks about how Kandahar was once a melting pot and a common home for all ideologies and beliefs. In his Raazo-Niyaaz book Jahani talks about how he grew up playing in Kandahar as a kid and how peaceful Kandahar was during his high school time.
Jahani is from the Ludin tribe, a sub-tribe of Ghilzai, one of the two main tribes of Pashtuns. He considers the ethnic diversity of Afghanistan, with its various tribes and ethnic groups, as constituting the country's strength, and thinks that Afghans have shown throughout the history of their country that they are united and one hand. Their unity is better portrayed when they face an outside threat as a nation or when their country is celebrating a national victory.
Jahani completed his primary, secondary and high school in Mirwais Nika high school of Kandahar city--- a well -known public school in the south. Kandahar University was not yet built when Jahani finished his high school. Upon completing his high school at Mirwais Nika, Jahani only had two options for his higher education. He could either move to Kabul to study what he wanted to study which was history and literature or move to Nangarhar province—home to the second Afghan university at the time in the country. He chose the former one because unlike Kabul University where students had the option to pursue various majors, Nangarhar University only offered education in the field of medicine.
Jahani graduated from Kabul University in 1972 with a BA in Pashto literature and history. Upon his graduation from Kabul University, Jahani joined the Pashto Tolana which is a very prestigious literature body in Afghanistan whose members have been prominent Afghan philosophers, historians, poets and writers. Getting into Pashto Tolana is the equivalent of getting into Harvard Law Review if someone was pursuing legal education in the U.S. Pashto Tolana approves the entrance of new terminologies into Pashto language and is tasked to develop Pashto language to be richer in terms of new vocabulary. Jahani had tremendous contribution to the development of Pashto language while at Pashto Tolana
Career
Jahani has just been given parliamentary vote of approval to serve as a minister in the cabinet of Afghan unity government 2015 for the ministry of information and culture.
Besides being a member of the Pashto Tolana (Pashto Society), Jahani served as the Managing-Editor of a well-known Afghan magazine, Kabul Magazine. Under his leadership, Kabul Magazine witnessed considerable increase in its readership. In his capacity as the Managing Editor of the Magazine, Jahani oversaw the flow of hundreds of informative and educative social, economic and political articles aimed at keeping the Afghan public aware of the state of affairs of their country. Subsequently, Jahani served in the Afghan Ministry of Education (MoE) for two years before he was forced to leave the country during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Jahani's mission from the very beginning was to inspire Afghan society to walk towards knowledge and education and for that noble goal he join the Afghan government's education sector.