Matin Bek (born in 1987 in

Hazar Sumuch District Hazar Sumuch District is a district of Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The district was split-off from Taluqan District. Most people in the district work in agriculture. In late 2018, Hazar Sumuch was considered to be government influenced as oppo ...

Takhar Province Takhar (Dari/Pashto: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeast of the country next to Tajikistan. It is surrounded by Badakhshan in the east, Panjshir in the south, and Baghlan and Kunduz in the west. The ...

), also known as Abdul Matin Beyk, was the Chief of Staff to

President of Afghanistan The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was constitutionally the head of state and head of government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Armed Forces. Eligibility and selection process A ...

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan former politician and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was 2021 Taliban offensive, overthrown by the Ta ...

Early life and education

He was born in Takhar province in 1987. He has a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university ...

. He was one of 29 children his father had with his 4 wives.

Political career

Bek has worked as an adviser to the Ministry of Interior Affairs and to the deputy head of

National Directorate of Security The National Directorate of Security (NDS; ; ) was the national intelligence agency, intelligence and security agency, security service of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul, and it had field offices and ...

for provinces. In 2017 Bek was appointed chairman of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG). In this role he focused on developing a merit based model of appointing governors rather than the patronage based network and also worked on women's rights. He was a member of the negotiating committee between the

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan Afghan Interim Administration, interim (2001–2002) and Transitional Islamic State of Afghanist ...

and the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

. He was a strong supporter of ousted president

following the Fall of Kabul in 2021. Bek later said he wished he had not supported Ghani, saying, "I had lost my father, members of my family, and I dreamt a united and developed country and was struggling for my dream Afghanistan... Today I realized that I was deceived and betrayed."

Media

He was interviewed for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

documentary ''Afghanistan: Getting Out''.

Personal life

His wife is

Adela Raz Adela Raz (born 1986) is an Afghan politician who was the last ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United States from July 2021 to February 2022. She was also the first woman to serve as Permanent Representative of Afghanis ...

. She was the Afghan Ambassador of Afghanistan to the United States from 26 July 2021 to 18 February 2022. They starred in a

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

podcast together. Bek's father, Abdul Motalib Bek, was a

Tajik Tajik, Tajikistan or Tajikistani may refer to. Someone or something related to Tajikistan: Tajik * Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan * Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan * Tajik alphabet, Alphabet u ...

tribal leader, member of parliament, and anti-Soviet

Mujahid ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

of the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

, who was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber on 25 December 2011.

References

External links

* {{Twitter, MatinBek Living people 1987 births Delhi University alumni Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni 21st-century Afghan politicians