Sami Yousafzai ( Pashto: سمی یوسفزی) is an Afghan Journalist and War Reporter in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Background

Abdul Sami Yousafzai was born in Afghanistan in 1972 to a

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai (, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ), or Yusufzai Afghans historically, are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. They are natively based in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( Malakand, Dir, Swat, Shangl ...

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

family, as a boy he along with his family became refugees of the Soviet-Afghan War after 1979 and they had to leave their hometown. He grew up alongside millions more Afghan Refugee Children in the city of

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

, Pakistan.CBS News (Aug 2022)
Why it's hard to have hope for Afghanistan
' by Sami Yousafzai

Career

In 1993 he studied journalism at Dawa'a al-Jihad University set up at an Afghan Refugee camp by Afghan Mujahideen Fighter

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf ( ; ; born 1946) is an exiled Afghan politician and former Afghan mujahideen, mujahideen commander. He took part in the war against the Marxist–Leninist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government in the 198 ...

. He initially started as a sports journalist but switched to begin a career in war reporting in 1997. He covered militancy politics for

Newsweek Magazine ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev ...

and the Daily Beast News Publication as well as a producer for CBS News since 2005. Throughout his career he has met with Taliban Officials in Afghanistan as well as the

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 ...

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...

in 2013. He also met with the Taliban delegation in 2019 at

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

including Salam Hanafi, who would become Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan.

Journalist Attack

In 2008, a Taliban Commander invited him and a Japanese Journalist friend of his, ''Motoki Yodsukura'' for an interview in the outskirts of

, where instead a gunman opened fired on him with two shots. He sustained one shot in the hand and the other by his chest, skimming past his heart and was lodged in his left arm.Global Terrorism Database (GTD)
200811140008 - Incident North-West Frontier Province
'

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yousafzai, Abdul Sami 1972 births Afghan journalists Afghan war correspondents Afghan refugees Living people