Editing Ahmad Shah Massoud (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Massoud's Property.jpg|thumb|left|View of [[Panjshir Valley]] from Massoud's Tomb]]
Ahmad Shah Massoud was born in 1953 in the small village of [[Bazarak|Jangalak, Bazarak]] in the [[Panjshir Valley]] (now administered as part of the Panjshir Province), to a well-to-do family native to the [[Panjshir Valley]].<ref>According to his biographer Michael Barry, his exact date of birth was not recorded (M. Barry, ''Massoud: de l'islamisme à la liberté'', p. 56).</ref><ref name=":02">{{cite book |last=Gall |first=Sandy |title=Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud |date=2021 |publisher=Haus Publishing |isbn=978-1-913368-22-7 |location=London |pages=20–21, 22 |author-link=Sandy Gall}}</ref> Massoud's name at birth was 'Ahmad Shah' after [[Ahmad Shah Durrani|King Ahamad Shah Durrani]], founder of the modern, unified [[Afghanistan|state of Afghanistan]], later taking the name 'Massoud' as a ''[[Pseudonym|nom de guerre]]'' in 1974 when he joined the resistance movement against the forces of [[Mohammed Daoud Khan|Daoud Khan]].<ref name=":02" /><ref>Barry, Michael, ''Massoud: de l'islamisme à la liberté'', p. 57.</ref> Massoud's father, Dost Mohammad, was a [[colonel]] in the Royal Afghan Army; his mother, Bibi Khorshid has been described as a "modern-minded" woman who taught herself to read and write determined to educate her daughters no less than her sons.<ref name=":02" />

Moving along with his father's postings, the adolescent Massoud attended [[primary school]] in [[Afghanistan]]'s western [[Herat|city of Herat]] before his father was dispatched to [[Kabul]].<ref>M. Barry, ''Massoud'', p. 57.</ref><ref name=":02" /> There, Massoud was sent to the [[France|Franco]]-[[Afghanistan|Afghan]] [[Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan|Lycée Esteqlal]] ([[Literal translation|lit]]. Independence High School) where he attained his proficiency in [[French language|French]].<ref name="Grad2">{{cite book |last=Marcela Grad |title=Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader |publisher=Webster University Press |year=2009 |page=310}}{{ISBN|9780982161500}}</ref><ref name=":02" /> Massoud's experience at [[Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan|Lycée]] would be formative and, as he would later remark, was the happiest period of his life. At [[Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan|Lycée]] his classes were taught by French and Afghan tutors educated in [[France]] and the students donned Western [[jacket]]s, [[necktie]]s, [[trousers]], [[skirt]]s, [[Scarf|scarves]], and [[stocking]]s. Although his knowledge of the [[French language]] would earn him greater affinity among French [[journalist]]s and [[politician]]s, later [[Conservatism|conservative]] [[Islamism|Islamist]] opponents such as [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] and [[Taliban|the Taliban]] would derogatorily dub him "The Frenchmen" or "The [[Parisian (person)|Parisian]]" suggestive of his sympathies to [[Western culture]].<ref name=":02" />

While at the [[Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan|Lycée]], Massoud was described as an intellectually-gifted student, hard-working, religiously devout, and mature for his age with a particular interest in [[ethics]], [[politics]], [[Universal jurisdiction|universal justice]]. Friends and family recall an instance where Massoud, returning from school, came to the defense of a younger boy leaving the three [[Bullying|bullies]] knocked-out on the pavement. More formatively, Massoud followed closely reports of the [[Six-Day War|1967 Six-Day War]] and the defiant statements of [[Arabs|Arab]] leaders like [[President of Egypt|Egyptian President]] [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]. He later told researcher Peter DeNeufville that, at fourteen, the [[Six-Day War|war]] left him determined to be a [[soldier]] and gave him a new regard for [[Pan-Islamism]] after hearing the stories told by [[Jordanian Armed Forces|Jordanian]], [[Egyptian Armed Forces|Egyptian]], and [[Syrian Armed Forces|Syrian]] soldiers defending their homelands.<ref name=":02" /> Massoud refused repeated suggestions to apply for a scholarship to study in France expressing his desire to remain in Afghanistan and apply to [[National Military Academy of Afghanistan|the nation's military academy]] in [[Kabul]].<ref name=":02" />

By protest of his father and eldest brother, Massoud enrolled at [[Kabul Polytechnic University|Kabul Polytechnic Institute]], then [[Kabul University]]'s newest and most prestigious addition founded, financed, and operated by the [[Soviet Union]]. Massoud studied [[engineering]] and [[architecture]] but never attempted to learn [[Russian language|Russian]]. There he found interest in [[politics]], [[political Islam]], and [[anti-Communism]] which often put him and his pious peers at odds with [[Communism|communist]]-inspired students.<ref name=":02" /> According to Soviet intelligence reports on Massoud, in 1974–75, he was trained in guerilla warfare tactics in [[Lebanon]] and [[Egypt]] where he took part in combat operations and terrorist attacks with armed [[Palestinian political violence|Palestinian resistance]] groups such as the [[Palestine Liberation Organization|PLO]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Caldwell |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QifgYV59DK0C |title=Vortex of Conflict: U.S. Policy Toward Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq |date=2011-02-17 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-7749-0 |language=en}}</ref>