Zahir Howaida

Zahir Howaida also spelled as Zahir Huwaida (Dari: ظاهر هویدا); (February 28, 1945 – 5 March 2012) was an Afghan musician. He had been active since the 1960s and his popularity peaked with the hit songs "Kamar Bareek-e-Man" and "Shanidam Az Inja Safar Mikoni." Howaida was renowned for his deep, soulful voice. Almost all his songs were in the Persian language. Aside from singing he also worked as a radio news anchor, poet, and as an actor on Afghanistan's television. In his later years, he lived a secluded life in Germany and seldom performed until his death there.

On 5 March 2012, as he was suffering from illness, Howaida died at the age of 67 at his home in Hamburg. Well-known singers from the worldwide Afghan diaspora attended his funeral in Hamburg.

Arash Howaida was sometimes known by the mononym Arash has released a number of hits including "Laila" and "Alah Alah" (2007), "Dunya" (2008), "Wahh Wahh" (2011). He is also a successful songwriter and music producer.

Upon graduating high school, Zahir attended the Institute of Theatre and Arts of Kabul and joined the Kabul Armature Orchestra led by Fazel Ahmad Zekria Naynawaz along with his brother Kabir Howaida, Rahim Mehryar, Rahim Jahani and more. At this orchestra Zahir showed immense talent as a vocalist and earned a scholarship to learn operatic and eastern classical music at Tchaikovsky Institute in Moscow in 1966. After Moscow he spend time in Tehran in 1972. There, he performed the song "Kamar Bareek-e-Man" which became an instant hit in Iran, where for years many Iranian singers covered the song in concerts and on Iranian national television.

While in Mazar-e-Sharif, Zahir Howaida entered the first grade at the Sultan Ghiassuddin Elementary school in 1953. The same year Zahir's father died at the age of 33 leaving behind Zahira widowed mother, and a brother, Kabir who would later become a piano player. The family moved back to Kabul, where Zahir attended 2nd grade at the Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan elementary school.

Muhammad Zahir Howaida was born in 1945 in Waras, Bamyan province to an ethnic Hazara family. After his birth, his father moved the family to Kabul and thereafter transferred to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in the Balkh province of northern Afghanistan.