 Biography
Hamid Karzai was born on December 24, 1957 in the village of Karz, near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, had served in Afghanistan’s war of independence and as Deputy Speaker of the Senate. His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was a Popalzai tribal elder and a significant political figure who served as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament during the 1960.
Hamid Karzai studied at Mahmood Hotaki Elementary School, Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani School, and Habibia High School. After graduating high school in 1976, he traveled to India as an exchange student and was accepted by the International Relations and Political Science M.A. program at Simla University. He obtained his Master’s Degree in 1983, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzai traveled to Pakistan and joined the Mujahideen resisting the Soviet occupation of his homeland. In 1985, he traveled to Lille, France to attend a three-month journalism course. Upon returning to Pakistan, he served as Director of Information for the National Liberation Front led by Professor Sebghatullah Mujadidi. He later became the Deputy Director of its Political Office.
After the formation of the Mujahideen's transitional government in 1989, Hamid Karzai was appointed as Director of the Foreign Relations Unit in the Office of the President of the Interim Government. When the Mujahideen Government was established in Kabul in 1992, he was appointed as its Deputy Foreign Minister.
When the civil war between various Mujahideen groups began two years later, he resigned from his post and began to work actively for the organization of a national Loya Jirga (Grand Council). A devoted Muslim and Afghan patriot, he believed that only a Loya Jirga could resolve the differences of the competing parties peacefully. This hope was borne out by the Emergency Loya Jirga of 2002 and the Constitutional Loya Jirga in 2003
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