Afghan Biographies

Agha, Habibullah Maulvi Sheikh Hadith


Name Agha, Habibullah Maulvi Sheikh Hadith
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1954
Function/Grade Minister of Education acting
History and Biodata

1. Former Minister of Education:
Rasool Amin (20011222-200206)
Yunus Qanooni (200206-20040831)
Ahmad Moshahed (20040831-200412)
Noor Moh. Qarqeen (20041223 -20060302)
Hanif Atmar (200603),
Dr. Farooq Wardak (20081022-20140930) confirmed for second term by Wolesi Jirga (20100103),
Dr. Farooq Wardak acting Minister (20141001)
acting Minister of Education MoE Muhammad Asef Nang (20141209)
Dr. Asadullah Hanif Balkhi (20150418, 20160522, 20161113 impeached and acting)
Mohammad Shah Ibrahim Shinwari, nominated (20171123)
Dr. Mirwais Balkhi, acting (20180319, 20190107)
Sheikh Mawlawi Munir Nurullah (20210911)
Maulvi Habibullah Agha (20220920) acting
 

Deputy Minister of Education:
Deputy Minister for Administration and Finance: Sulaiman Kakar Muhammad Suleman Kakar (20100222),
u/i Function: Mohammad Sidiq Patman (2006, 20110326)
Deputy Minister of Islamic studies affairs: Dr. Shafiq Samim (20111018)
Deputy Minister of Education for Technical Evaluation: Sarwar Azizi, (20100809), Muhammad Asif Nang (20101228)
Asadullah Mohaqiq (20141013, 20170101)
Ministry of education’s deputy, Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Shinwari (20171111)
Deputy Minister of Education Abdul Hakim Hemat (20220329)

 

Ministry of Education Spokesperson:
Abdul Ghafoor Zafarani (20110324)
Kabir Haqmal (20150607)
Mrs. Noria Nazhat (20181214)
Aziz Ahmad Rayan (20220322)
 

Director of the Infrastructure Services Department;
Mohammad Reza Radyar (20110325)

Director of Secondary Education:
Dastgir Moneer Dastagir Monir Dastagee Munir (20110325)

Deputy Minister of Education: 
Mawlawi Sakhaullah (20211005)
Maulvi Saeed Ahmad Shahidkhel (20211122)


Director of foreign relations at the education ministry:
Daud Haqqani (20210911)

2. Previous Function:
judge during the first regime of the Taliban between 1996 and 2001
Head of the Kandahar Provincial Council (20220920)
Minister of Education acting (20220921)

3. Biodata:
Maulvi Sheikh Hadith Habibullah Agha Sahib was born 1954 in Kandahar Province
in the village of Vach Bakhto in the Shawali Kot district in the northeastern part of Kandahar province. He is from Sayed tribe and completed his primary Islamic education in his village and then went to Pakistan for further Islamic education. He was Mullah Omar’s special adviser and a spiritual leader in the first government of the Taliban in the 1990s. He is very close to Akhundzada. Agha, the new education minister, was a judge during the first regime of the Taliban between 1996 and 2001.

 

The Taliban supreme leader has installed the loyalist cleric Agha as Afghanistan's education minister, with the hardline Islamists doubling down on their ban on secondary education for girls. Habibullah Agha, a member of reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada's inner circle, was named the new education minister in a reshuffle announced by the government spokesman on Tuesday, Sept 20, 2022.

 

Many conservative Afghan clerics within the Taliban are sceptical of modern education. "The appointment of Habibullah Agha Sahib indicates the Taliban are elevating loyalists who reject the reopening of girls' schools," said Nishank Motwani, an Afghan specialist and fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School.
 

Within weeks of seizing power last year, the Taliban began imposing severe restrictions on women to comply with their austere vision of Islam - effectively squeezing them out of public life. Apart from closing high schools for girls, the Taliban have barred women from many government jobs and also ordered them to cover up in public, preferably with an all-encompassing burqa.
 

Habibullah Agha, the Taliban-appointed Acting Minister of Education in Afghanistan, recently voiced concerns about the diminishing standard of education in the country's religious schools.

 

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of approximately 120 students from the 12th and 14th grades of Darul-Ulom Imam Abu Hanifa, Agha highlighted the surge in the number of religious schools in Afghanistan while acknowledging the improved accessibility and facilities provided to students in this realm.

However, Agha expressed apprehensions about the declining educational quality despite the increased accessibility. He remarked, "In my view, the quality of education is deteriorating day by day, despite education being more accessible now. There was a time when students couldn't even find a book."(20231204)


 

Last Modified 2023-12-04
Established 2022-09-21