Tariq Habibyar is an Afghan New Zealander born in Herat city in 1983. He has a PhD in education from the University of Canterbury, a Master’s in civics and citizenship education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a BA in English literature from Herat University.
Tariq has worked with non-profit sector in Afghanistan including the UN, USAID, and international humanitarian aid NGOs for several years. He also worked in academia and with the Afghan business and governmental sectors for several years. While doing his PhD at Canterbury in 2015, Tariq led a successful campaign that enabled his team in Afghanistan to build classrooms for school children in a poverty stricken village in Herat. The project put a roof over their heads and hundreds of children continue to enjoy learning inside actual classrooms.