List of Afghan Americans

Lists of Americans
By US state
By ethnicity or nationality
Afghan African Americans African-American Jews Albanian Algerian Amish Angolan Antiguan and Barbudan Arab Argentine Armenian Asian Assyrian Australian Austrian Azerbaijani
Bahamian Baloch Bangladeshi Barbadian Basque Belarusian Belgian Belizean Beninese Berber Bermudian Bissau-Guinean Bolivian Bosnian Brazilian British Bulgarian Burmese
Cajun Californios Cambodian Cameroonian Canadian Canarian Cape Verdean Catalan Caribbean Garifuna Indo-Caribbean Central Asian Afghan Kazakh Tajik Uzbek Chechen Chilean Chinese Fuzhou Hakka Hoklo Circassian Colombian Congolese Coptic Cossack Costa Rican Croatian Cuban Cypriot Czech
Danish Dominican Americans (Dominica) Dominican Americans (Dominican Republic) Dutch Dutch West Indian
Ecuadorian Egyptian English Equatoguinean Eritrean Estonian
Faroese Fijian Indo-Fijian Filipino Finnish French French Polynesian Frisian Fula
Gabonese Galician Gambian Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Grenadian Guatemalan Guinean Guyanese
Habesha peoples Ethiopian Eritrean Haitian Hmong Honduran Hongkongese Hungarian
Icelandic Igbo Indian Bengali Gujarati Indo-Caribbean Indo-Fijian Punjabi Tamil Telugu Indonesian Iranian Iraqi Irish Israeli Italian Iu Mien Ivorian
Jamaican Japanese Jews Jordanian
Kalmyk Karen Kashubian Kazakh Kenyan Kittian and Nevisian Korean Kurdish Kuwaiti
Laotian Latino Latvian Lebanese Liberian Libyan Liechtensteiner Lithuanian Louisiana Creole Luxembourg
Macedonian Malawian Maldivian Malian Maltese Malaysian Manx Māori Marshallese Mauritanian Mexican Micronesian Monégasque Mongolian Montenegrin Moroccan
Native American Native Hawaiian Nepalese New Zealand Nicaraguan Nigerian Igbo Yoruba Nuevomexicano Norwegian
Pakistani Baloch Pashtun Punjabi Sindhi Palauan Palestinian Panamanian Paraguayan Peruvian Polish Portuguese Puerto Rican
Romani Romanian Moldovan Russian Rusyn
Saint Lucian Salvadoran Sami Sammarinese Samoan Saudi Scotch-Irish Scottish Senegalese Serbian Sicilian Sierra Leonean Singaporean Slovak Slovene Somali Sorbian South African South Asian Bangladeshi Bhutanese Indian Indo-Caribbean Indo-Fijian Nepalese Pakistani Sri Lankan South Sudanese Spanish Hispanos Sri Lankan Sudanese Surinamese Swedish Swiss Syrian
Taiwan Tajik Tanzanian Tejanos Thai Tibetan Togolese Tongan Trinidadian and Tobagonian Tunisian Turkish
Ugandan Ukrainian Uruguayan Uzbek Uyghur
Venezuelan Vietnamese Vincentian Virgin Islander
Welsh
Yemeni Yoruba Yugoslav
Zimbabwean
Category
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This is a list of Afghan Americans, including both original immigrants from Afghanistan who obtained American nationality and their American descendants. To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing that they are Afghan American or must have independent references showing that they are Afghan American and are notable.

Academia and science

Ali Ahmad Jalali (born 1940, Kabul), Distinguished Professor at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.; former Afghan ambassador to Germany
Mohammad Qayoumi (born 1952, Kabul), former President of San Jose State University
Nake M. Kamrany (born 1934, Kabul), professor at the University of Southern California (USC) and economist
Adib Farhadi (born 1972, Kabul), assistant professor at University of South Florida and coordinator of USF's Executive Education Program; the former Afghanistan Deputy Minister of Commerce
Nazif Shahrani (born Badakhshan), professor of anthropology at Indiana University
Ishaq Shahryar (born 1936, Kabul), Afghan Ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2003

Arts and entertainment

Leena Alam (born 1978, Kabul), actress in television, film, and theater, human rights activist^[1]
Sonia Nassery Cole (born 1965, Kabul), human rights activist, filmmaker, and author^[2]
Zohra Daoud (born 1954, Kabul), television host and Miss Afghanistan 1974
Josh Gad (born 1981), actor, comedian, and singer whose father is an Afghan Jew
Sameer Asad Gardezi, screenwriter and television writer
Mariam Ghani (born 1978), multi-media visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, human rights activist; of Afghan–Lebanese descent
Azita Ghanizada (born 1979, Kabul), actress and television host
Donnie Keshawarz (born 1969), Canadian-born American stage, film and television actor; of Afghani–Canadian descent
Mahaley Patel (born 1987), actress, singer, songwriter; her father is from Afghanistan
Aman Mojadidi (born 1971), visual artist
Vida Samadzai (born 1978, Kabul), actress, model, Miss Afghanistan 2003, and Beauty for a Cause of Miss Earth 2003
Jawed Wassel (1959–2001, Kabul), filmmaker^[3]
Noor Wodjouatt, classical Indian musician and television producer, founder of Zarin TV

Business

Hafizullah Emadi (born Shibar), independent scholar and development consultant for Focus Humanitarian Assistance
Masuda Sultan (born 1978), entrepreneur, international human rights advocate, and memoirist

Literature

Tamim Ansary (born 1948, Kabul), author
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965, Kabul), author of three books including the Kite Runner, activist, humanitarian, and UNHCR goodwill ambassador

Media and journalism

Nabil Miskinyar (born 1948, Kabul), television anchor for Ariana Afghanistan
Fariba Nawa (born 1973, Herat), journalist and author

Music

Sonita Alizadeh (born 1996, Herat), rapper and activist
Ehsan Aman (born 1959, Lashkargah), musician
Farhad Darya (born 1962, Kabul), musician
Qader Eshpari (born 1967, Kabul), soft rock singer
Qais Essar, rabab musician, songwriter
Naim Popal (born 1954, Kabul), musician
Haidar Salim, musician
Farid Zoland (born 1951, Kabul), musician

Politics and civil service

Ashraf Ghani (born 1949, Logar), 14th President of Afghanistan
Zalmay Khalilzad (born 1951, Mazar-i-Sharif), United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2007 to 2009
Safiya Wazir (born 1991, Baghlan), New Hampshire State Representative 2018-present
Nadia Hashimi (born 1977), Democratic congressional candidate for the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 6th congressional district, pediatrician, and novelist
Laili Helms, former Taliban supporter and public speaker
Ahmed Wali Karzai (born 1961, Karz), politician in Afghanistan until his death in 2011
Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani (born 1947, Nuristan), politician, Governor of Herat Province in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010
Mariam Solaimankhil (born 1984), member of House of the People from 2019 to 2021
Stephen J. Townsend (born 1959), West German-born American four-star general of Afghan–German descent, commanding general of U.S. forces during the War on ISIS / Operation Inherent Resolve

Other

Wallace Fard Muhammad (c.1877–c.1934), founder of the Nation of Islam, mentor of Elijah Muhammad
Niloofar Rahmani (born 1992, Logar), former Afghan female pilot
Shaesta Waiz (born 1987), Afghan-born pilot and the first female certified civilian pilot, and the youngest woman to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft
Ahmad Khan Rahami (born 1988, Kandahar), terrorist
Najibullah Zazi (born 1985, Paktia), convicted Al-Qaeda member

References

^ "Afghan Actress Chosen as Judge for Indian Film Festival in Spain". TOLOnews. August 1, 2020. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
^ Barnes, Brooks (2010-09-21). "A Director's Many Battles to Make Her Movie". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
^ Weaver, Carolyn (July 9, 2003). "Friends of Slain Afghan-American Film Director Realize His Vision in FireDancer". VOA News. Archived from the original on 2008-11-18. Retrieved 2009-03-13. Jawed Wassel, the writer and director of FireDancer, fell in love with movies as a boy growing up in Kabul.