The Afghan identity card or Afghan Tazkira () is a

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

document that is issued upon request to every Afghan citizen or national, whether such individual resides inside or outside of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. It serves as proof of

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...

and

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

but more importantly Afghan nationality. The document is issued by the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), which has offices in all

provinces of Afghanistan Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces (, '' wilåyat''). The provinces of Afghanistan are the primary administrative divisions. Each province encompasses a number of districts or usually over 1,000 villages. Provincial governors played a c ...

. The Afghan Tazkira, which is older than 100 years, has been modernized in recent years. The

electronic identification An electronic identification ("eID") is a digital solution for proof of identity of citizens or organizations. They can be used to view to access benefits or services provided by government authorities, banks or other companies, for mobile payment ...

(e-ID) card campaign was officially launched in

Kabul 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 ...

in May of 2018 when then-

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

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

and First Lady Rula Ghani received their cards. Distribution of the e-ID cards or e-Tazkiras later began in other parts of Afghanistan. The e-Tazkira complies with international standards for identity documents. As of November 2022, over 8 million Afghan nationals have obtained their e-Tazkiras. This includes the Afghans that are temporarily residing in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and in 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 t ...

(UAE).

Procedure

In order to obtain an Afghan e-Tazkira, an application must be submitted inside the office of Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior Affairs or electronically using the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The processing fee is 300 Afghanis (Afs) inside Afghanistan, but €10

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s in Europe and $10 in America. The e-Tazkia cards are issued by the NSIA. Evidence that the applicant is in fact a national and citizen of Afghanistan is required. This can be proven by providing older Afghan paper identification. If the applicant does not have such a document, then he or she must bring family members, relatives or witnesses willing to testify. Applicants below 18 years old must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians before the application can be processed.

Characteristics

The Afghan e-Tazkira is a polycarbonate card and rectangular in shape, about 86 × 54 millimeters in size. On one side is a gold-plated contact chip, and on the right-hand side is the small photograph of the bearer, personal information is available in English on the same side. On the top of the card on both sides, the name Afghanistan is written in three languages,

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 langua ...

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 English. On the back side is personal information about the bearer in two languages Pashto and Dari. It can be used as a smart card. In May 2022, the

Afghan government The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

announced plans to issue e-Tazkira cards with a new design bearing the

emblem of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan The National Emblem of Afghanistan has appeared in some form on the flag of Afghanistan since 1901. Historical emblems File:Emblem of Afghanistan (1901-1919).svg, Emirate of Afghanistan (1901–1919) File:Emblem of Afghanistan (1919-1926).sv ...

Printed data

The descriptions of the fields are printed in Pashto, Dari and English. * Given name * Surname * Personal Id. No. * Holder's signature * Place of birth * Date of birth * Authority * Date of issue * Date of expiry A machine readable zone is printed on the bottom of the back-side of the card.

References

External links

National Statistic and Information Authority (NSIA)
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911010444/https://nsia.gov.af/home , date=2021-09-11
Sample of the new Afghan computerized identity card
*https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1135641/download *http://www.asan.gov.af/Eng/AsaanDetails.aspx?ID=16197 Government of Afghanistan

Procedure

Characteristics

Printed data

See also

References

External links