Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai ( ; born 1963) is a senior member of the Afghan

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

and the country's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs since 7 September 2021. He was an officer in the

Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

after training at an army academy in India. He defected from the army and joined Islamic movements to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. He was a deputy cabinet minister in the first Taliban government. He has been a senior member of the Taliban's political office in Doha since it was set up in 2012, and was its head from 2015 to 2020. He speaks English,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī � ...

and has travelled widely to other countries as a Taliban political representative. On 7 September, Sher Abbas was appointed as the

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a Cabinet (government), cabinet Minister (government), minister in charge of a sovereign state, state's foreign policy and foreign ...

Biography and early life

Stanikzai was born in 1963 in the Abbas Qala area of the

Baraki Barak Barakī Barak (Dari/Pashto/Ormuri: برکی برک) is a town and the center of Baraki Barak District, Logar Province, Afghanistan. It was also the former capital of Logar Province. The town is in a mountainous area in the valley of the Logar Rive ...

district, in the

Logar Province Logar (Pashto/Dari: ; meaning Greater Mountain ( لوې غر)) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan located in the eastern section of the country. It is divided into 7 districts and contains hundreds of villages. Puli Alam is the capital of ...

of Afghanistan. He is the son of Pacha Khan and is an ethnic Pashtun of the

Stanikzai Stanikzai (Pashto: ستانکزئی) or Stanizai (Pashto: ستانیزئ) is a subtribe of the Pashtun Ghilji tribe. It is found in Afghanistan mainly in the Kabul, Jalalabad and Logar provinces. Most tribe members speak Pashto Pashto (, ...

subtribe. He studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

in Afghanistan, gaining a master's degree. He can speak English, Urdu, Pashto, and Dari. He trained as a soldier at the

Army Cadet College The Army Cadet College (ACC) is an defence service training institution which trains defence service personnel for the Indian Army. The Army Cadet College Wing trains defence service personnel of Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBOR) from the regu ...

of the Indian Army at

Nowgaon Nowgong is a city of Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. The town had a population of 11,507 in 1952. Vindhya Pradesh was merged into Madhya Pradesh on 1 November 1956. Nowgaon was declared capital of Madhya Pradesh, but after six months Bho ...

in India for three years from 1979 to 1982 under an Indo-Afghan cooperation programme. He was also an officer cadet for a year and a half with the Keren Company of the Bhagat Battalion at the

Indian Military Academy The Indian Military Academy (IMA) is one of the oldest military academies in India, and trains officers for the Indian Army. Located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, it was established in 1932 following a recommendation by a military committee set up ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

, one of 45 foreign cadets in the Keren Company. The Indian Military Academy trained cadets from a number of other countries in Asia and Africa. His fellow cadets nicknamed him "Sheru". After graduating he was a lieutenant in the

. He defected from the army to fight against the Soviets in the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet ...

, first with

Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi ( ps, محمد نبي محمدي; 1920–2002) was an Afghan politician and mujahideen leader who was the founder and leader of the Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami ( Islamic Revolution Movement) political party and paramilit ...

Islamic and National Revolution Movement of Afghanistan The Islamic Revolution Movement (Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami, prs, حرکت انقلاب اسلامی افغانستان) is a traditionalist Islamist political party. It was once one of the biggest Afghan mujahideen factions fighting against Sov ...

, then with

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

's Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan, as commander of its south-western front. He had a role with Sayyaf in liaison with Pakistani military intelligence. He was more urbane than most Afghan mujahideen, and when in

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...

, Pakistan, in the 1980s he often dined at restaurants with his wife. Other mujahideen gossiped about this; in return Stanikzai criticised them for old-fashioned ideas about keeping women secluded in their homes.

Taliban rule (1996–2001)

Stanikzai joined the

in the 1990s. After they took power in 1996 he served as deputy minister of foreign affairs under foreign affairs minister

Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil Abdul Ghaffar (born 1971) is a politician in Afghanistan. He was the last Foreign Minister in the Taliban government of the first Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 2001. Prior to this, he served as spokesman and secretary ...

. Though he was reportedly not trusted by Muttawakil, he often interviewed foreign media, as he speaks English well. He traveled to Washington, D.C. as acting foreign minister in 1996 to ask the Clinton administration to extend diplomatic recognition to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. In 1998 he reportedly drew the ire of Taliban leader Mohammed Omar, possibly related to issues of abuse of power and a loose attitude to alcohol, and was removed from his position and placed under house arrest. However, his connections with the Pakistani military intelligence agency, which had influence over the Taliban leadership, worked in his favour and a few months later he was appointed as deputy minister of health, albeit a less important position than in foreign affairs. Stanikzai denied misconduct and put his change of role down to routine ministerial changes.

Taliban political representative, 2001–2021

Stanikzai arrived in Qatar with

Tayyab Agha Sayyid Muhammad Tayyab Agha ( ps, سید محمد طیب آغا, ''Sayyid Muḥammad Ṭayyab Āghā''; born 1976) is a prominent figure in the Afghan Taliban. He was the head of the political wing of the Taliban from 2009 to 2015 and was a clos ...

and others in January 2012 to facilitate the opening of the Taliban's political office in that country. On 6 August 2015 he was appointed acting head of the political office, replacing Agha, who had resigned. After his appointment, Stanikzai pledged his allegiance to

Akhtar Mansour Akhtar Mohammad Mansour (1960s21 May 2016) was the second supreme leader of the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan. Succeeding the founding leader, Mullah Omar, he was the supreme leader from July 2015 to May ...

, saying "I and other members of the Political Office of the Islamic Emirate declare allegiance to the honorable Mullah Akhtar Mansoor." He was confirmed in his position as head of the political office in November 2015. From July 18–22, 2016, he traveled to China for talks with Chinese officials. In February 2017, Stanikzai was denied entry to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. From August 7 to 10 2018, Stanikzal led a delegation of Taliban officials to

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

. The delegation met with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister

Abdulaziz Kamilov Abdulaziz Khafizovich Kamilov ( uz, Abdulaziz Xafizovich Kamilov; russian: Абдулазиз Хафизович Камилов, Abdulaziz Khafizovich Kamilov; born November 16, 1947) is an Uzbek politician who was Uzbekistan's Minister of Forei ...

and Uzbekistan's special representative to Afghanistan Ismatilla Irgashev. From August 12–15, he traveled to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

for talks with officials, meeting Indonesian First Vice President Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia Foreign Minister

Retno Marsudi Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi (born 27 November 1962) is an Indonesian diplomat who has been serving as the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Joko Widodo since 2014. She is the first female minister appointed to the post. She was ...

and

Hamid Awaluddin Hamid Awaluddin () was the ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Russian Federation and Belarus between 2008 and 2011. Biography Awaluddin was born in Pare-Pare, Sulawesi Selatan on 5 October 1960. His tenure in office as Indonesian am ...

, Indonesia's special representative for Afghanistan. He became the deputy head of the office in September 2020, replaced by

Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai ( ), also known as Abdul Hakim Haqqani ( ) and Abdul Hakim Sharie ( ; also spelt Sharai or Sharia), is an Afghan Islamic scholar, writer and the current Chief Justice of Afghanistan, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the ...

Taliban rule (2021–present)

Stanikzai addressed Afghanistan on national television and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

on August 30, 2021, where he spoke of the Taliban's desire for friendly relations with the United States, NATO, and India, further stating that he would not allow Pakistan to use Afghan territory in its cold conflict with India. Stanikzai also spoke of the country's Sikhs and Hindus, stating that they can live peacefully and hoping that those who left will return. During a televised speech in September 2022, Stanikzai urged the government to reopen schools for girls, saying that there is no religious justification to prevent female education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanikzai, Sher Mohammad Abbas Taliban leaders 1963 births Living people Afghan diplomats Afghan expatriates in India Afghan expatriates in Qatar Indian Military Academy alumni Pashtun people People from Logar Province Taliban government ministers of Afghanistan