Mohammad Zia Forogh, the founder and director of Diara e Khial, graduated from the Arts faculty of Kabul University in 2009 with a concentration in painting and calligraphy. During the last two years of his studies, Zia started his art center, where he could showcase his artwork to others. In 2011, Zia entered Afghanistan’s professional art market. He produced over 100 artworks a year, showcased and sold them. In 2012, Zia established an art workshop called Diara, which after two years, he renamed Diara e Khial. Since 2014, Zia has been professionally running Diara e Khial, focusing on producing the best and highest quality artwork. The brand operates in three sections: teaching art, selling artwork, and selling art supplies such as paints, brushes, and frames. He has also established another workshop that primarily focuses on conceptual art. Multiple teams produce many types of art across the Diara e Khial workshops. The calligraphy team, consisting of instructors and students, focuses on calligraphic artworks and mandalas. The painting team produces paintings using watercolor and oil. That team also completes custom orders that can be anything from historical themes, scenery, and portrait paintings to visual and conceptual arts. The inspiration behind Zia and his team’s work is their observation of daily life and people. Zia enjoys taking everyday subjects and capturing what is unique about them. He also enjoys finding interesting phenomena in books and poetry, occasionally producing art from those concepts. Zia’s vision for Diara e Khial is to provide, at minimum, accurate guidance to the younger generation of artists in Kabul who want to pursue the art sector as a hobby or even a career. Zia believes that the current art direction in Afghanistan has gotten away from a vision of capturing the truth and beauty in life and worries about how few people are creating good artwork. He wants to revive artwork in Afghanistan by teaching a new generation, promoting various styles and techniques of painting, and showcasing the beautiful subjects and concepts he has to offer the world. By partnering with ASEEL, Zia believes that as his artworks are displayed, they will showcase the true artistic talents of Afghans to the world.