Mahfooz

After the fall the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover, Mahfooz received an email from the US Government informing him that he needed to head to one of the gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA). After several failed attempts and watching all of the other men, women, and children who had received the same email be turned away, beaten or shot at, Mahfooz left HKIA and went back to his home. The attempts that the U.S. government made for SIVs, like Mahfooz, had failed, and he was stuck in the Taliban stronghold of Kabul.

After several days, Mahfooz was contacted by Task Force Argo, who immediately moved him to a safe location. After weeks of waiting, Mahfooz, his wife, and his two beautiful daughter were evacuated from Afghanistan.

Mahfooz is more than just an Afghan that worked with the US Government. He never stood idly by, waiting to see what others would do for his country. Mahfooz was a leader amongst his peers.

Mahfooz worked for several years building an accountable governance system for Afghanistan through engaging of Governors, District Governors, Parliament Members, Provincial Council Members and many other entities via the USAID program called ISLA (Initiative to Strengthen Local Administrations).

Eventually, Mahfooz moved to the USAID program called 'Promote', where he was part of a team that promoted women across Afghanistan in economic, political, social, government, and educational sectors. Mahfooz and his team were directly responsible for introducing female deputies for ministries, female members of Parliament, and many more civic associations, universities, and schools. Mahfooz traveled around 9 provinces of Northern Afghanistan working as a regional job placement manager and was directly involved in women empowerment and public engagement, as well as national awareness campaigns for women participation in society. Not only was he active within USAID programs, Mahfooz was the CEO and founder of AHope Institute, an NGO that ran from 2015-2020, that helped women and youth (boys and girls) in leadership positions.

More recently, Mahfooz has been working with a group of people responsible for managing Afghanistan’s water in order to avoid water flow to Iran and other countries.

Mahfooz is a scholar, an activist, a man who loves his country, and his family. The Arian family will no doubt make an impact on the world.