Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan military commander and politician. From 1979 to 1989, he played an important role in the Soviet-Afghan War, where he served as a powerful guerrilla commander. He was nicknamed Lion of Panjshir for his role in the war. Massoud was assassinated by Al-Qaeda in 2001. His death anniversary is observed as a national holiday in Afghanistan.
Niloofar Rahmani is the first woman in Afghanistan’s history who became fixed-wing Air Force aviator. She is Afghan Air Force’s first female pilot since 2001 fall of Taliban. Despite receiving death threats, Rahmani completed her training which included training on C-130s with the US Air Force. She received International Women of Courage Award and was granted asylum in the US.
Remembered as one of the most barbaric Taliban leaders, Mullah Dadullah was known as The Butcher. He is believed to have burned villages and killed even infants by chopping their heads off for not following his orders. He also supervised the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan.
Former Afghan National Army brigadier general Khatool Mohammadzai scripted history as Afghanistan’s first female paratrooper. A 35-time decorated soldier, she has also worked as a military instructor. She was also the first female general since the Soviets left Afghanistan. In the Taliban regime of the 1990s, she ran a secret girls’ school.
Former Afghan Air Force helicopter pilot Latifa Nabizada scripted history as one of the first 2 Afghan women pilots who could fly a Mi-17 helicopter. In 2013, she quite her flying career amid death threats from the Taliban and switched to a desk job at the Afghan defense ministry instead.
Former Afghan general and Afghan National Police commander Munir Mangal had also served as the country’s Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs for Security. In 2020, at age 70, he died of COVID-19, becoming one of Afghanistan’s most high-profile victims the virus.