Articles by Abdul Samad Haidari

Abdul Samad Haidari is an Afghan-Hazara Independent Freelance Journalist and a current poet. He formerly wrote for the Daily Outlook Afghanistan Group of Newspapers and the Daily Afghanistan Express until he was forced to seek asylum elsewhere as a result of reprisals for his truth-telling journalism. Prior to escaping he also worked with Norwegian Refugee Council as an English Language Trainer and Child Sponsorship Communication Officer in ActionAid Afghanistan. Exiled to Indonesia since 2013 Haidari has been caught in the border wars that continue to hold thousands of refugee’s hostage, Haidari continues to use his writing as a tool of resistance against the long and ongoing genocide of his Hazara people and culture and the torturous treatment and slow deaths experienced by his fellow refugees caught in Indonesia. He writes stark truths and reflections in order to open space for re-membering and reconstructing the strengths, riches and beauty of his Hazaragi history, land, community, family and life. Haidari is the author of The Red Ribbon, a collection of poetry published in 2019 which was a top seller in Indonesia in 2020. He was featured at the Buda Writers Festival in 2019, delivered a TED talk in 2020 and his work has been published in Indonesian newspapers and online, in international journals and broadcast on radio in Australia. He is a lead member of Writing Through Fences and is currently finishing his second volume of poetry while searching for a country where he can work and live safely.