M. Ashraf Haidari, the political counselor, acting defense attaché, and spokesman for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C., will visit Elon University today to meet with students in the mid afternoon before delivering an evening talk to the general public.
All students, faculty and staff are invited to a 3:30 p.m. Q&A in Whitley Auditorium. Haidari will give a talk at 7 p.m. in Whitley for the general public.
Haidari currently works in diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and the United States government. His personal story is not unique among citizens of Afghanistan, having lived through the hardships of both the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and Taliban rule in the 1990s.
His family was internally displaced in the 1990s until taking refuge abroad. Haidari dreamed of helping his home country and was given the opportunity to do that in 2001 both in an official capacity and through his own independent endeavors and currently serves as a diplomat of the government of Afghanistan.
Haidari will be speaking to the Elon community about his experiences growing up in Afghanistan as well as American intervention in the country and quality of life for the people of Afghanistan.