Sayed Mansur Naderi

Who is Sayed Mansur Naderi?

Sayed Mansur Naderi is the spiritual leader of a Tajik-Ismaili Shi'a Muslim community centred in Baghlan Province of Afghanistan. Unlike other Ismaili communities in Afghanistan and worldwide, the Baghlan Ismailis do not defer to the nominal leader of Ismailis worldwide, the Agha Khan, leading Naderi to be described as a "renegade local Ismaili leader". This community, not accepted by the Sunni mainstream nor by the more powerful Twelver Shi'a Hazaras, has been historically discriminated against.

Naderi served the Afghan monarchy, later the communist government and served as vice president during Majahiden government and in the 1980s, was expelled from his region by the Taliban, and returned to Baghlan following the fall of the Taliban. He was elected to the Wolesi Jirga in 2005, and was the founder of the Ismaili-based National Solidarity Party of Afghanistan. His son Sayed Jafar Naderi also achieved note as a leader in Baghlan, becoming a warlord and later governor of Baghlan. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.