He is a well known Taekwon-Do athlete with numerous national and international achievements. He started practicing Taekwon-Do under his father, Master Hed Mohammad Shirzai, the president of Taekwon-Do in Afghanistan. He currently holds a 6th degree black belt in Taekwon-Do, International Instructor, International Umpire and his most notable accomplishment consists of being inducted into the Hall of Fame for Taekwon-Do, multiple medals from competitions overseas, the head coach for Afghanistan’s Junior Taekwon-Do National team and most importantly, a sports activist for the youth in Afghanistan. In the early 90’s, the civil war inside the country caused Afghanistan to go into further chaos resulting in displacement of millions of Afghans. Shirzai and his family fled the country and took refuge in Karachi, Pakistan in hopes of a better future. He finished his primary and secondary education in Pakistan and later moved back to Afghanistan in 2004. In 2009, he graduated magna cm laude from high school in Kabul and was selected to attend Balkh University’s Economics department. During his tenure at the university, in a very unprecedented move, he established the school’s first Taekwon-Do club where his classmates, university students and teachers could get free sports training, which was heavily appreciated by the administration at the university. While at the university, Shirzai also travelled to other northern provinces in Afghanistan advocating for sports and its benefits to the youth. He was able to convince hundreds of young Afghans to indulge in sports as a means to reconstruct Afghanistan. “Sound mind in a sound body,” he says. “In order to change the country, you have to change yourself first.” He describes his activist beliefs as, “given the very ugly and atrocious past of the Afghan people battling with mental health issues due to the long war, it is my duty to advocate better physical activities and its benefits to people.” Due to his relentless energy and untiring efforts, the youth in Mazar-e-Sharif, Baghlan, Faryab, Jawzjan, Kunduz, and Samangan were able to start practicing Taekwon-Do for the very first time and get proper technical support from the Afghanistan National Taekwon-Do Association, headquartered in Kabul. Shirzai also recruited girls to build up Afghanistan’s first ever women’s Taekwon-Do national team. The sad truth of gender segregation has long been bothering him and the fact that women could not take part in sports bothered him even more. So in 2011, he started coaching the very first Taekwon-Do female practitioners. His students went on to participate in a national tournament securing 30 medals for their team. At the moment, Shirzai is working with the Ministry of Information and Culture under a signed agreement to promote arts, culture, and most importantly, sports to the youth of Afghanistan. Recently he was honored by the Afghan National Olympic Committee and General Directorate of Sports and Education of Afghanistan for his tireless efforts to promote sports in a war-torn country. Shirzai believes that there is much to be done and he will spend every ounce of his energy to influence his fellow citizens who will change Afghanistan and direct it towards a better future.
