Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi

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Hashemi in Los Angeles on March 10, 2001 after giving a talk at the University of Southern California

Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is a former envoy of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. 'Sayed' is an honorific title that indicates lineage with the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Also known simply as Rahmatullah, he is currently enrolled in the Non-degree Students Program at Yale University. In July 2006 it was announced that his application to pursue a bachelor's degree had been rejected by Yale's Eli Whitney Program. Non-degree special students may earn up to 18 course credits at Yale without reapplying, and Hashemi has said that he wishes to return to Yale for another year.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Yale attendance controversy
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Rahmatullah was born in 1978 in Kohak, Afghanistan, to Pashtun parents. In 1982, his family moved to Pakistan. Rahmatullah grew up in a refugee camp in Pakistan and was educated in madrassas and the Pakistani school system[1]. His schooling was fragmented, but he did emerge proficient in English as well as Pashto, Persian, and Urdu [2]. In the fall of 2003, he took a high-school equivalency exam in Quetta, Pakistan and was awarded a degree.

In 1994, the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, and the 16-year old Rahmatullah joined them in Kandahar, Afghanistan as a computer operator and later, thanks to his language skills, as translator. He was appointed to the position of diplomat in the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan in 1998. In this capacity he travelled around the world as a spokesperson for the Afghan foreign Ministry.

In 1997, Rahmatullah was present when CNN's Peter Arnett interviewed Osama Bin Laden. Speaking of the interview at the University of Southern California, during March 2001, Rahmatullah said

"CNN was in Afghanistan interviewing Bin Laden, in 1998. You have to be careful in listening to this. I was there, and they asked Bin Laden as to what was his thinking about the killing of civilians in Iraq....CNN cut everything. Three-hours conversation was not there. The only thing they put, and it was not complete, the only clause that they said was that all American and British citizens must be killed."[3]

At 2001 press conference, Rahmutallah Hashimi presents evidence against aid workers accused of proseltyzing Christianity

In early 2001 he made a trip to the US. He met with US State Department officials, senators, and the media. At one point he encountered an anti-Taliban protester, a woman who tore off her burqa; he said to her "I'm really sorry for your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you." Footage of the incident was later incorporated into the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.^[2]

During this 2001 tour he denied knowing anything about Osama Bin Laden until after the August 20th, 1998 cruise missile attacks ordered by President Clinton

"In 1998, they just sent cruise missiles into Afghanistan and they announced that they were trying to kill Osama bin Laden. We didn’t know Osama bin Laden then. I didn’t know him; he was just a simple man. So we were all shocked. I was one of those men who was sitting at home at night. I was called for an immediate council meeting and we all were told the United States have attacked Afghanistan. With 75 cruise missiles and trying to kill one man."[4].

He would later claim that he was getting disillusioned with some Taliban policies by this point. Nevertheless, in an interview to the Yale daily news, he supported most Taliban policies especially on security, integrity of the nation, and their ban on opium cultivation.

On August 30, 2001 as an assistant to the Taliban foreign minister, Rehmatullah Hashmi reviewed charges of preaching christianity against foreign aid workers ^[3]. He spoke against the preaching of Christianity and demonstrated the evidence supporting Taliban charges of prosyletizing Christianity that had been gathered against the jailed American, European and Afghan aid workers.^[4] Afghan aid workers face the death penalty for conversion to christianity and foreign aid workers face a variable jail sentence depending on the severity of the proselytizing.^[5]

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Rahmatullah's family fled to Pakistan to escape the imminent US retaliation. He lived in Quetta, Pakistan, for most of the next three years, reading astronomy books, playing with his young children, and completing his unfinished high school education.

[edit] Yale attendance controversy

In 2004, an American friend, Mike Hoover — a CBS cameraman who had sponsored his 2001 trip — suggested applying to college in the US. In 2005, Rahmatullah was admitted to Yale as a nondegree student, where he is currently studying. On February 26, 2006, The New York Times Magazine published a profile of Rahmatullah, making his status as a Yale student widely known ^[6].

In 2006, conservative sentiment arose opposing Rahmatullah studying at Yale University and questioning outright his presence in the United States. On March 8, 2006, Yale alumnus Clinton Taylor launched a campaign intended to discourage alumni donations until Rahmatullah’s presence at the school is better explained by the administration. The initiative has been called “NailYale”, an allusion to the reported Taliban practice of pulling fingernails from women with painted nails.^[7] ^[8].

On March 23, 2006, writing in OpinionJournal.com, John Fund reported that Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) had sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, requesting an explanation regarding the circumstances surrounding Ramatullah's visa application and the subsequent visa extension ^[9].

As of April 2006, Yale has published the following comment on its website:

Yale has allowed Mr. Hashemi to take courses for college credit in a part-time program that does not award Yale degrees... We hope that his courses help him understand the broader context for the conflicts around the world... According to the State Department, Ramatullah Hashemi was issued U.S. visas in 2004 and 2005, first on a tourist visa and then in 2005 on a student visa. The mandatory procedures were followed, which, in his case, included vetting through an interagency security clearance process. He was cleared by all agencies^[10]."

A recent non-scientific poll conducted by the Yale Herald — a student-run weekly newspaper — which was answered by 2,000 undergrads, concluded that 50% of Yale supported Hashemi's acceptance and about 25% opposed it.

Critics such as 1999 Yale alumnus David Bookstaber, who contributes to the NailYale blog, acknowledge that "reactions run the spectrum" from outrage to support. Student leader Joshua Krug of Yale's Hillel, a Jewish group, defended him, saying "Applying to Yale in the first place and while here, participating in Yale’s ‘Jews and Muslims’ dialogue group, Hashemi seems to want to expand his mind. Hashemi, by learning here, has already changed his approach to the world." An unnamed professor pointed out that members of the new Afghan government are former Taliban and that prior to 1998 Hamid Karzai was associated with the Taliban. Zachariah Victor, doctoral candidate in music and member of Yale's Graduate and Professional Student Senate[5], blasted conservative critics as "outsiders" who attack universities because they do not have "reason, science or history on their side" in matters of policy (these are Victor's own views; the Graduate and Professional Student Senate has no public stance on the admission of Hashemi to Yale College) ^[11].

In July 2006, Rahmatullah was denied admission to a degree-granting program at Yale, but he can continue studying at the school.[6]