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Abdul Matin Sarfraz

Abdul Matin Sarfraz

Journalist | Toronto | English
About Abdul Matin Sarfraz

Abdul Matin Sarfraz was born and raised in Afghanistan. He has personally witnessed his country’s political conflict and had the opportunity to study the inner workings of conflicts as a social phenomenon.

Though he has been directly affected by his country’s decades of conflict, he has not given up. He has continuously struggled to get a higher education in hopes that someday he, his children and all Afghans, will have a better future.

Abdul Matin received a BA in law from the University of Takhar, Afghanistan, and a master’s in journalism from the University of Hong Kong HKU through a scholarship.

Since 2004, he worked as a reporter with national and international media covering the insurgency, human rights, and governance in Afghanistan. In 2004, he co-founded the first weekly independent newspaper (Sada-e-Watan) in Kunduz province after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

He has worked with international media outlets such as the New York Times, Reuters, Der Spiegel, German Press Agency DPA, Vice.com and local ones such as Pajhwok

News Agency and Radio Sada-e-Azadi Shamal.

He also co-founded and worked as editor-in-chief for Rasany Independent Daily Newspaper in Kunduz Afghanistan.

From March 2023 to March 2024, Matin was a Journalism Fellow at Canada's National Observer through the Afghan Journalists-in-Residence Program in partnership with Journalists for Human Rights with funding from the Meta Journalism Project.

190 Articles

Toronto considers maximum temperature for apartments

As climate change fuels hotter summers and more extreme heat events, Toronto is taking steps to protect tenants in apartments without air conditioning. The city’s planning and housing committee approved a staff report on Thursday, recommending adoption of the city’s first maximum heat bylaw, aimed at reducing health risks.

Ontario teens invent robot to help protect coastlines

When Stefan Teodorescu’s aunt returned from a trip to the Pacific islands, one memory stuck with her: she described for Teodorescu the labour-intensive process of volunteers manually planting mangrove seeds to combat coastal erosion. The repetitive nature of the task, combined with the role mangroves play in climate adaptation, inspired Teodorescu to find a way to automate the process.

Toronto’s cycling future in jeopardy under Ford’s new rules

Toronto city administrators say they will forge ahead and build more bike lanes, but only in places where they won’t impact vehicular traffic. However, new provincial rules, requiring cities to seek approval before building more lanes in places where they would affect traffic, means expanding the cycling network won’t be easy. This is especially true in the city’s central core, where cyclists face the most danger.

How Toronto could become a solar electricity powerhouse

More than half of Toronto’s electricity needs could be met with solar power generated from rooftops and parking lots, according to a new report by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. The report by the clean energy advocacy group estimates the city could produce up to 12 terawatt-hours (TWh) of clean energy annually if its solar capacity is fully realized.

Cash for drink containers could help solve Ontario landfill overflow: MPP

Ontario is still dumping billions of bottles and cans while other provinces profit from a deposit-return recycling system. The province’s mounting waste problems has prompted Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon to introduce a private member’s bill calling for a deposit-return system for non-alcoholic beverage containers, aiming to reduce waste and pollution in one of the last provinces without such a program.