Mir Hussain Mahdavi
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Mir Hussain Mahdavi was a crusading Afghan newspaper editor, whose democratic views prompted Islamic leaders in Kabul to put a bounty on his head. Mir, his wife, and his two young daughters arrived in Canada in October 2003, after being granted emergency refugee status. After the Afghan Supreme Court decided to try him for defaming Islam and impose a death penalty, Mir had been in hiding in Islamabad, Pakistan for several weeks until the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees fast-tracked his case.
Mir, editor of the Kabul weekly Aftab (The Sun), and his assistant, Ali Reza Sistany, were arrested in June 2003 and charged with violating an Afghan press law prohibiting the publication of material considered defamatory to Islam. They were also charged under Sharia law for offending Islam. Aftab, which was started in March 2002, was considered the most progressive newspaper in Afghanistan, employing an independent, objective approach to news reporting and blunt editorial opinions. Mir plans to start publishing Aftab again on the Internet, which Afghans will be able to access. Mir was a writer-in-residence at George Brown College in 2005 and began writing for the Hamilton Spectator in 2007.