Wasef Bakhtari

Wasef Bakhtari (Persian: استاد واصف باختری‎‎) (born 1942 in Balkh, Afghanistan) is a renowned Persian poet, literary figure and intellectual.

Life and education

Even though his father was from Kabul, he spent most of his childhood in Mazari Sharif. He attended Bakhtar School for his primary and for most of his secondary education. After his family moved to Kabul He finished Habibia High School in 1965. Wasef Bakhtari holds a BA degree in Persian literature from Kabul University. He did his graduate studies in the U.S. and received a masters degree in education from Columbia University in 1976. In 1996 Bakhtari, then a professor of literature at Kabul University, and his wife Noriajan were forced to flee Afghanistan because of the intolerance of the Taliban. They sought refuge in Pakistan, but with a rise in Taliban influence there as well, returned to the United States with the help of World Relief and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which resettled them in New Port Richey, Florida.