President of the Afghanistan Deaf Union:
Sami-ur-Rahman (20241119)
Instructors from the Afghanistan Deaf Union:
Jamil-ur-Rahman Nadim and Sami-ullah Maftoon (20241119)

Afghanistan National Association of the Deaf

P.O. Box 5596
Kabul
Afghanistan

SMS: +93 79 469947
E-Mail: anad_af(at)hotmail.com

Background:
5,000 deaf individuals in the country, with 350 official representatives and one Union in each province for coordination. The capital city, Kabul, has a School of the Deaf, established in 2003, and directed by Abdul Ghaffar. Abdul is both deaf and blind. According to Abdul, there are over 600 boys and girls in this school, with classes from kindergarten to 12th grade. Of the 44 teachers in the school, 22 teachers are Deaf. Some graduated from this school and are now teaching others. The goal of the school is to teach reading, writing, and other skills to help the children support themselves and their families. Most parents cannot communicate with their children. The Deaf School allows students to learn together and not feel isolated. The school also conducts workshops to help parents better understand their children. Life can be difficult in a poor country such as Afghanistan, especially for Deaf people. Many Afghans wrongly think the Deaf are mentally handicapped. Boys are often forced to work on farms or in factories, and girls are considered “unmarriageable.”

Afghan Sign Language is the deaf sign language of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, possibly with some presence in Kabul. It has been encouraged in the country's only school for the deaf, and derives from the Deaf-community sign language of Jalalabad, but it's not known what connection it may have, if any, with the sign languages of other cities with established deaf populations, which are principally Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, and Kandahar. American Sign Language was used in the Jalalabad school for a few years, and so may have had some influence on Afghan Sign.