Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa
Mustafa M. Popal: From Afghanistan to American Diplomacy
Fled Kabul after the Soviet invasion and returned to the same airport to help run the 2021 evacuation.
- Fled
- Afghanistan
- Status
- Refugee
- Arrived in the U.S.
- 1987
- Service
- Foreign Service Officer since 2003; Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs, Cairo; Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State
- Region
- Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa
Mustafa Popal escaped Kabul with his mother and siblings in 1980, after the Soviet invasion. The family lived in the Middle East for nearly a decade before arriving in Virginia as refugees in May 1987.
He joined the Foreign Service in 2003. He served as a political officer in Kabul, as the Department's Dari-language spokesperson, as Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs in Cairo, as Deputy Executive Secretary, and as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State. In August 2021 he worked the evacuation from the same Kabul airport his own family had once fled through.
Read the history behind this story on the Afghanistan page, or browse all the diplomats.