Abdul Karim Khoram
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Abdul Karim Khoram ( ps, عبدالکریم خرم) (born 1963) is
Afghan 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 ...
President
Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
's Chief of Staff. As the presidential chief of staff, Khoram controls the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC) and therefore the Afghan government's message. Previously he acted as the Minister for Culture and Information also in the cabinet of Hamid Karzai.


Biography

Abdul Karim Khoram was born in
Kabul Province Kabul (Persian: ), situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. The capital of the province is Kabul city, which is also Afghanistan's capital and largest city. The population of the Kabul Province is ...
in 1963 to a
Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
family. He completed his primary and secondary education in
Kabul City Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
and was then admitted to the Polytechnical University of Kabul in 1982. However, he was imprisoned for three years by the communist regime because of his involvement in anti-communist activities. Therefore, he was not able to complete his higher education at the Polytechnical University of Kabul. In order to complete his higher education, Khoram left for
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1991, where he received a master's degree in International law and Diplomacy. While he was still in Paris, Khoram received a second master's degree in Export Law. Afterwards, he served as a professor and expert on Eastern Languages at several French Universities for some time.


Political and work life

Khoram was appointed as a "Minister of Culture, Information, Tourism and Youth Affairs" in May 2006. Khoram also controls the government's message and media relations heading the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC)."Karzai's team clash"
Al-Jazeera, March 2012
Khoram furthermore owns at least three private newspapers, a television channel and a radio station. Former co-workers of Khoram have accused him of following a "brand of conservative Pashtunism" acting "divisive internally" and having isolated Hamid Karzai's "non-Pashtun allies". ''Al-Jazeera'' writes: "The damage that Khoram has inflicted on President Karzai's image in one year—his enemies could not have done the same."


Controversy and criticism

Karim Khurram is regarded by many—even among his own circle—as a Pashtun nationalist. After becoming minister for culture and information, he removed the
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
sign on the ministry's building and replaced it with a
Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
one (Persian and Pashto are the two official languages of Afghanistan). On February 10, 2008, he suspended three journalists for five days and fined them five days' pay for using the Persian word for university ("daneshgah") instead of the Pashto word ("pohantoon") in their Persian articles. Khoram also scrapped initial plans to integrate the ''Afghan National Radio and Television'' into the public service run by an independent board. He put the state television and radio under his personal control instead."Afghan Media Face Threat of Controls"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', May 7, 2007.
This led to calls for impeachment.


References


External links

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2008/02/080210_v-hn-farsi-language-punishment.shtml *http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2006/08/060830_ram-culture-iv.shtml *http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2007/01/070101_v-dn-khorram-iv.shtml *http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2008/02/080212_s-summon-of-khorram.shtml {{DEFAULTSORT:Khoram, Karim Pashtun people Living people 1963 births Culture ministers of Afghanistan Information ministers of Afghanistan Tourism ministers of Afghanistan