Minister's Biography

Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He completed Ph. D. in literature from Tehran University and was appointed as Associate Professor in Kabul University. Thereafter, he was placed in charge of the Bureau of Culture and Art in the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism of Afghanistan.

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He was a member of the drafting Committee of the Constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan at the time of president Daud Khan and was a member in the Grand National Assembly (Loya Jirga) in 1976. Following the communist Coupd’etat in April 1978, Dr. Raheen was put under house arrest. He managed to immigrate to Pakistan after the Soviet invasion and joined moderate Unity of Afghanistan resistance. He was appointed as a member of the High Council and as Chairman of the Committee of Culture and Publicity of the Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Resistance. He was also selected as the Head of Radio Free Kabul by the resistance parties and served as an advisor with the rank of Minister to the President of the Afghan Interim Government. He has published many articles and several books on Culture, Literature, History and Islamic Sufism.

During resistance years he founded and published resistance magazines and papers, in Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Arabic and English. In 1988, Dr. Raheen along with a number of his fellow Afghan intellects, established the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan (NIMA) in Peshawar, Pakistan. NIMA was dedicated to the cause of promotion of Democracy in Afghanistan. In 1991, because of the disagreement with Jihad Leaders, he abandoned Afghan resistance, and left for USA.

With the assistance of his fellow Afghan intellectuals, in the United States, Dr. Raheen formed the Association for Peace and Democracy for Afghanistan (APDA), in 1996.
APDA was the premier Afghan Political organization in the west.

In the Bonn meeting , he was selected as Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of Interim Administration of Afghanistan and he continued to work in that post till 2006. In September 2003, the Kabul citizens elected him as Chairman of Kabul City Council. In May 2004, as per the proposal of the President of Afghanistan, he was honored with a medal for serving the freedom of speech and promoting cultural revival, from the Father of the Nation, His Majesty Zahir Shah.

In the year 2005, received French State Medal, Commander d’ litter.

In 2006, he was appointed Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to India.

In September 2007, he was conferred the title of “Founder of Free Press in New Afghanistan”, by the Washington DC Metropolitan and Afghan Literary Community and Culturists, in appreciation of valuable and enduring services.

In May 2008, he was presented a Silver Plate by the Governing Council of South Asia Foundation in appreciation of his valuable contribution towards the revival of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage, empowerment of women, promotion of human rights and regional cooperation in South Asia, at Srinagar University, Jammu and Kashmir, India, in the presence of more than 600 intellectuals, scholars, professors and academics of South Asian countries.
 In the new government he became minister of Information and Culture for the second term.