Abdul Jamil Hassan was born in 1986 in Zurmat District of Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktia province. During the civil war, his family moved to the capital, Kabul, and from there to Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar province. A year after Taliban took control of Jalalabad, they migrated to Pakistan’s Rawalpindi.

In 1997, after a family friend assured their safety and financial support, they left Pakistan for Afghanistan’s western Herat province where they spent 16 years. Jamil attended school, learned English and worked for over four years with Coalition Forces in Herat.

In 2013, following his admission to Kabul University’s Faculty of Law and Political Science, he lived, studied and worked in the Capital until he and his family escaped Afghanistan during the chaotic evacuation of August 2021.

Mr. Hassan has a degree in political science from Kabul University and was supposed to defend the thesis for his Master’s Degree in International Relations at a private university in Kabul, a few days after August 15, 2021 when Taliban toppled the West-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Before serving with Coalition Forces (2008- 2012), Jamil worked as an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher in Herat, and following his graduation from Kabul University in 2017, he served as a high-level trilingual interpreter/translator at the Headquarters of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission – Afghanistan (RSMA) until a month before the events of August 15, 2021.

Jamil and his family arrived in Northern California in November 2021, where they now live. After acquiring his CDL (Class A Driver’s License), he currently drives for Amazon, DoorDash and Uber Eats. He is now helping his wife learn how to drive.

Promises Betrayed is Mr. Hassan first book. He considers it the most important achievement of his entire life so far.