Hadim, Kiamal-din

Born 1907 in Kama, Nangarhar Province. Afghan poet, publicist, and social figure. Writes in Pashto and Dari.

Hadim received a religious education at Muslim centers in Afghanistan and India. In his works, progressive ideas are expressed in old literary forms, and discussions of social problems are intertwined with discussions of religious and abstract philosophic themes. Hadim’s favorite genres are the lyrical-philosophic essay and the short story. His essays of this type are collected in New Life (1941), World of Dreams (1960), and Talent and Genius (1961); his short stories, in which he attacks obsolete customs, are collected in Hand of Fate (1945), Woman From the Viewpoint of the Afghans (1948), and The Observer (1967). Hadim has translated various works of Indian and Pakistani writers into Pashto and has written on the history of Afghan literature and the history of Afghan ethnology.