Asad Buda

Asad Buda is a writer and university professor from Kabul, Afghanistan. Being a member of the Hazara ethnic group, Buda has extensive written work focuses on Hazara history, cultural heritage, and religious issues. He also consults other artists on using art to express their feelings.

Asad Buda holds two MAs in Islamic Philosophy and Theoretical-Cultural Sociology from the University of Tehran. He also started a PhD in Sociology at the University of Tehran but was expelled in 2009 following criticism of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While some of Buda’s extensive scholarship was published in academic journals, magazines and on websites, three of his books remained unpublished and much of his academic work was confiscated. Due to his civil and political activities, criticism of the Afghan and Iranian governments and critique of Islam, Asad Buda suffered threats, attacks, and detention in the period from 1998 into the early 2010s. This led him to finding safe haven with ICORN and was the ICORN Resident in Karlstad, Sweden between 2015 and 2017.

Asad Buda has continued to be a proactive and influential figure in Afghanistan and beyond. In 2016, he helped organise the Enlightened Movement in the aftermath of the murder of 80 peaceful Hazaran protestors by ISIS in Kabul. While in exile, Buda has taken part in a number of  initiatives and projects, including the Clandestino Podcast, The Jüdische Kulturbund Project, Safe Havens- Freedom Talks, and Invisible Border. 

You can learn more about Asad Buda by following him on Twitter and Instagram.