Afghanistan: An Overview

by
Iraj Bashiri
copyright 2002

General information
Location and Terrain

Afghanistan is a mountainous country centered primarily around the Hindu

Kush range of mountains. Nearly three quarters of the country is covered by
mountains that range in height anywhere between 3,000 to 4,000 feet.
Afghanistan is bound to the north by the three republics of Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan; to the east by Tajikistan and China; to the south by
Pakistan; and to the west by Iran. The inhabitants of the kingdom live in the
river valleys created by the Kabul, Harirud, Andarab, and Hirmand rivers. The
economy of Afghanistan is based on wet and dry farming as well as on herding.
 Afghanistan Overview

Topography and Climate

The weather in Afghanistan is varied depending on climatic zones. Generally,

the winters are cold to mild (32 to 45 F.) and the summers (75 to 90 F.) are hot
with no precipitation. No doubt Afghan topography and climate greatly impact
transportation and social mobility and hampers the country's progress towards
independence and nationhood.

Ethnic Mix

In 1893, when the Duran line was drawn and modern Afghanistan was created,
the region of present-day Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was populated by
two main ethnic groups: Indo-European and Turkish. Some pockets of Arab
nomads, Hindus, and Jews also lived in the region mostly close to the Panj
River valley.

The Indo-European population was a continuation of the dominant Indo-Iranian

branch in the north and west centered in the cities of Bukhara and Tehran,
respectively. The Hindu Kush mountain divided this Indo-Iranian population
into four ethnic zones: Pushtuns to the south and southeast; Tajiks to the
northeast of the Hindu Kush range; Parsiwans to the west; and Baluch to the
southwest

The Pushtuns, who later (1950's) made an unsuccessful attempt at creating a

Pushtunistan, numbered about 13,000,000. They populated what is present-day
southern Afghanistan and the Tribal Agencies and Northwest Frontier Province
of Pakistan. The Tajiks, over 10,000,000, populated what are the present-day
republics of Tajikistan, southern Uzbekistan, and northeastern Afghanistan.
The Parsiwan, about 600,000, populated the western region of present-day
Afghanistan. And the Baluch, numbering 100,000 populated southwestern
Afghanistan.

The Turkic population lived in the north. Ethnically, they were Uzbeks,
Kyrgyzes, and Turkmens who had entered Central Asia some as early as the
11th century, others during the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition, there was a
relatively large population of Hazarahs who lived in the central highlands of
present-day Afghanistan. The Hazarahs and Aimaq are usually regarded as
remnants of the Mongol hordes that invaded Central Asia in the 13th century.

The Afghanistan that emerged from the Russian/British agreement of 1893

consists of partial populations from among the groups mentioned above,
especially after the expansion of the Uzbek group at the expense of the Tajik.

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Afghanistan's present-day ethnic mix includes some 8 million Pushtuns; 5.6

million Tajiks; 1.5 million Hazarahs; 1.5 million Uzbeks; 60,000 Parsiwans;
125,000 Turkmens; and 200,000 Baluchis. Several thousand Kyrgyzes, Arabs,
and other ethnic groups also make Afghanistan their home.

Languages

Afghanistan accommodates a diverse number of linguistic groups. Most of

them are small as far as the number of speakers is concerned. The predominant
language family in Afghanistan is Indo-European. The other major language
family is the Ural-Altaic. There are also speakers of Hindi and Arabic among
the urban population.

The Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages of Afghanistan include: Pashtu, Dari, and

Baluchi. Pashtu is spoken by some 8 million speakers in the south and east;
Dari is spoken by 5,600,000 speakers comprising the Tajiks; Hazaragi is
spoken by 1.5 million in central Afghanistan by the Parsiwans, Hazaras, Aimaq,
as well as by the urban Qizilbash populating the cities of Herat, Qandahar, and
Ghazna; and Baluchi which is spoken by 200,000 nomad Afghans in the
northwest. Some Baluch nomadize between Sistan and Herat.

Although Indo-Iranian at base, these languages are not mutually understandable.

So when, in the 1960's Pashtu became the official language, orders originating
with one Tajiki-speaking Afghan, say in Kabul, for another Tajik-speaking
Afghan in Qandahar, had to be first translated into Pashtu and then re-translated
into Dari before the transmission was complete.

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The Ural-Altaic languages

The Ural-Altaic languages are spoken in the north and northeast. They are
Uzbeki spoken by about 1.5 million sedentary agriculturalists; Turkmeni
spoken by 500,000 semi-nomadic inhabitants in the northwest; and Kyrgyzi
spoken by 500 speakers of the Afghan Pamirs.

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Other Languages

The outline presented above, however, is a simplistic look at the linguistic

situation in Afghanistan. Badakhshan is divided between Afghanistan and
Tajikistan. So are the following languages spoken across the Amu Dariya:
Wakhi (14,000), Darwazi (10,000), Ormuri (50), Parachi (600), Sangalach-
Ishkashemi (2,000), Shughni (20,000), and Munji (2,500).

Religion

The official religion of Afghanistan is Islam. The majority (84%) of Afghans

are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafite School. The Pushtun majority as well as
most Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Turkmens are Sunni. The Shi'ite of Afghanistan live
in the central highlands known as the Hazarajat as well as in the northwest
around Herat known as the Parsiwan. There are also large Isma'ili communities
in the Badakhshan and Nuristan regions. The Shi'ite population is estimated to
comprise some 14% of the total population. There are also some 20,000 Hindus
living in Afghanistan. These and adherents of Marxist and other ideologies
form about 1% of the population.

Tribalism and Regionalism.

Afghanistan is primarily a country of nomads. There are two major tribal

confederations in the south. Both Pushtun: the Durrani and the Ghilzai. Both
confederations seek to rule the Loya Jirgah or the Afghan Assembly. In the past
the Durranis have provided leadership. Increasingly, however, the Ghilzai are
asserting themselves, as are the over 100 lesser tribal chiefs.

Similarly, the country is divided among regional warlords. These regions

include Herat, Mazar-i Sharif, the Panjsher Valley, Kabul, Hazarajat, and
Qandahar.

Social Structure
As mentioned above, Afghanistan is primarily a rural kingdom with about 80%
of the population engaged in agriculture. The other 20% are nomads still
traveling long distances to their yaylaqs (summer quarters) in the highlands and
returning to their qishlaqs (winter quarters) in the lowlands. The agriculturalists
are divided into landed gentry and farmers. Individuals who own between 50
and 500 acres of land are called the landed gentry. Members of this group are

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also involved in commerce. Some members hold relatively high governmental

positions. The farmers fall into four distinct classes. The well-off farmers own
anywhere between 20 and 50 acres of land while moderately rich farmers might
own between 8 and 30 acres. Petty landowners possess between 3 and 8 acres
and might, if necessary, rent from the above groups. The landless peasants who
work for all the above groups populate the bottom layer. Nearly 85% of Afghan
farmers fit into this last category.

The Bourgeois Class

Industry in Afghanistan is barely above the level of a cottage industry. It has

not developed to the level where feudal lords feel obliged to share their land
with the industrialists. There are, however, many workers who work in
factories and in commerce. A large body within this group serves as the liaison
between major foreign merchants, wholesalers, and retailers.

The Labor Class

Before the advent of the Soviets, a labor force of over 60,000 was engaged in
the industrial centers. This was a rapidly growing class just beginning to form
organizations, parties, and movements. The Soviets capitalized on this new
development in Afghan society and, as we shall see, engaged the Afghan youth
in industry and politics. The latter proved to be the most damaging legacy of
this enterprise for the Afghan society.

The Religious Class

This was a most influential class in pre-Soviet Afghanistan. Even though only
about 100,000 in number, this class administered all religious rituals as well as
supervised education, the judiciary and, in some cases, health care. The clergy
lived among the people. They were able to manipulate peoples' mindset quite
easily. When the struggle between the Afghan masses and the Soviets begins,
as we shall see, the clergy will have a prominent role to play. Traditionally, too,
they have played a major role in distancing Afghanistan from modernization
and westernization.

Intellectuals

Afghan intellectuals, like elsewhere in the Islamic world, came from among all
social classes. They worked in newly established civil administration offices
dealing with social and economic affairs of the kingdom. With the growth of
education, the number of intellectuals increased, enabling them to demand an

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ever-increasing role in the social and political affairs of the country. Once these
demands were not met, they turned their attention to new sources of power and
prestige.

Social Order
Although industry and capital had been introduced into Afghanistan by the
early 1960's, the country was still predominantly feudalistic. The smallest unit
in the social order was the family but the lifestyle of the families differed
drastically. This difference played a major role in the eventual modernization
and industrialization of the country and is a major factor in the country's ability
to become independent and to form a nation.

The Afghan family unit fits into either a settled lifestyle or a nomadic lifestyle.
The settled families form villages which are administered by maliks. Larger
villages become townships and eventually cities are formed. This is the
segment of society that understands modernization and, to a degree, abides by
its rules. Divided into a center and several provinces, this population can easily
be ruled by a king or a president.

The nomadic families form lineages, clans, and tribes. The family is
administered by the head of the extended family under the supervision of a
person assigned by the lineage head. Similarly, chieftains appointed by the
heads of clans administer the lineages. The heads of families, lineages, and
clans all form an assembly that is administered by the chief of the tribe.

As can be seen, two totally different systems of government operate side by

side. Each has to be cognizant of the needs of the other and take those needs
into consideration. Deviation from this rule brings two major segments of the
society into conflict. The tribal chief is as powerful as the feudal lord. In order
to regulate the affairs of the tribes and the settled populations, ancient Afghan
rule appoints a number of rish safids (elders) as arbiters of the needs and rights
of both populations.

Breakdown of this system gives undue power to clan heads and regional
warlords who would easily carve a portion of the country as their territory and,
with the help of their allies among the other social classes in the region,
especially the military and the clergy, become independent rulers of those
regions. Often they contend for the highest position be it the position of a grand
khan or that of a president.

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The most difficult part of this coexistence is in the area of legislation and
enforcement of laws. In both societies the Shari'a or Islamic law takes
precedence over civil law. This shows that the clergy have the enviable ability
to swing the fortunes of the country depending on the social and political
dynamics of the time. The Shari'a court and the Islamic police are usually the
enforcers of the laws. In matter of sexes men are given power over women.
Women receive half the amount of inheritance received by a male and the
testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man. In marriage and
divorce cases, the man makes all decisions.

Pushtunwali is practices by the tribes as yet not affected by Islam. The rules of
Pushtunwali are strict. Louis Dupress summarizes the rules as follows:

To avenge blood.
To fight to the death for a person who has taken refuge with me
no matter what his lineage. [Example: If a man, rich or poor, kills
a man of another lineage, he can force anyone outside the slain
man's lineage to help him simply by killing a sheep in front of that
individual's hut or tent.]
To defend to the last any property entrusted to me.
To be hospitable and provide for the safety of the person and
property of guests.
to refrain from killing a woman, a Hindu, a minstrel, or a boy not
yet circumcised.
To pardon an offense on the intercession of a woman of the
offender's lineage, a Sayyid or a mullah. [An exception is made in
the case of murder: only blood or blood-money can erase this
crime.]
To punish all adulterers with death.
To refrain from killing a man who has entered a mosque or the
shrine of a holy man so long as he remains within its precincts;
also to spare a man in battle who begs for quarter. (Dupree,
Afghanistan, pp. 126-127)

Early History

Afghanistan is an ancient land. Its early history, like the early history of the
republics of Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea, is virtually the same as
the history of ancient Iran. Iranian cosmology and mythology, in other words,
are also the cosmology and mythology of the Afghan people. So is the history

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of the Achaemenians, the Alexander interlude, and the pre-Islamic history of

Iran. It is with the advent of the Arabs, and later on of the Turks, that Afghan
history, and for that matter Central Asian history, take decidedly different
directions. This brief look at early Afghan history, therefore, presupposes the
shared history of Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan.

In AD 962, Alptekin, a major slave general of the Samanids of Bukhara

rebelled against his masters and established the Ghaznavid dynasty in the city
of Ghazna in the eastern parts of present-day Afghanistan. After the fall of the
Ghaznavids, until the 13th century when the Mongols devastated the region, the
Ghurid dynasty ruled Afghanistan. Marco Polo who, in 1271, passed through
the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan reported that even though half a
century had elapsed since the onset of the Mongol invasion the region had not
begun to recover. Another traveler, Ibn Batutah, visited the cities of Herat and
Kabul on his way to China and India in 1333. He echoes, as it were, the
assertions of Marco Polo, testifying to the irreparable destruction of what had
been a most glorious civilization by the standards of the time.

A significant event in the past history of Afghanistan is the rise of Muhammad

Shaybani Khan (1451-1510), the conqueror of Transoxiana. Shaybani Khan,
claiming descent from Genghiz Khan, forced the descendants of Tamerlane out
of Central Asia. The future Mughals sought their fortunes first in Afghanistan
and, eventually, in India where they established the Mughal dynasty. In AD
1500, Shaybani Khan established the Uzbek nation that constitutes the core of
the present-day Republic of Uzbekistan.

Between 1526 to 1747 the territory of present-day Afghanistan was divided

among the three major powers of the region. The Safavids of Iran ruled the
western province of Herat, centered on the present-day town of Herat; the
Mughals of India controlled Kabul and some regions that now are part of
Pakistan; and the Uzbek rulers to the north controlled the area between Balkh
and Badakhshan along the Panj River.

Iran, took control of Afghanistan in 1622 and remained in control until 1707
when Mir Wais, a Ghilzai chieftain, gained the independence of Qandahar.
Soon after, in 1723, Mir Wais' son, Mahmud, invaded Iran, put the Safavid
Sultan Hussein to death and forced the Safavids to move their seat of power
from the center of the plateau (Isfahan) to the northern provinces of
Mazandaran and Gilan. At this time a major part of the Iranian plateau was
under the political hegemony of the Afghans.

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In 1730, Nader Quli, a Safavid commander from the Turkish Afshar tribe,
defeated Mahmud's successor, Mir Ashraf, and pushed the Afghan invaders out
of Iranian territory. Soon after, as Nader Shah, he went on to annex
Afghanistan, Central Asia, and northern India to the Iranian crown. Nader
Shah's rule, however, was ephemeral. He was murdered in 1747. His death
became a major turning point in the histories of both Iran and Afghanistan.

Upon Nader Shah's death, his Abdali commander, Ahmad Durrani, returned
from Iran to Qandahar. There, with the help of an Afghan Loya Jirgah
(assembly), he promoted himself to king and established the kingdom of
Afghanistan. For the next 26 years Ahmad Shah Durrani ruled Afghanistan
from Qandahar. In 1773, Teymur Shah moved the capital to Kabul.

Amir Dust Muhammad

The next significant phase in the historical

development of Afghanistan is the struggle of
the Afghans against British India. In the course
of three wars, the Afghans defended the
territorial integrity of their kingdom against
British might. The first Afghan War lasted from
1839 to 1842. In the course of this war, Britain
temporarily dispossessed Afghanistan of
Qandahar, Ghazna and Kabul and deported
Afghanistan's ruler, Amir Dust Muhammad, to
India. British plans for a total domination of
Afghanistan through the installation of a puppet
Amir Dust
Muhammad Afghan ruler, however, did not come into
fruition. To the contrary, the British lost almost
all their troops in Afghanistan before they could
extract themselves from the kingdom. Soon after
the British left, the exiled Dust Muhammad
returned as king and ruled for another 21 years.

Dust Muhammad was the type of charismatic

ruler with whom most Afghans could easily
identify. He unified the disparate Afghan tribes
by employing his own brand of tribal
statesmanship. Rather than through imposing a
highly centralized government, he employed the
assistance of Afghan tribal chiefs and regional

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warlords who, gradually, implemented his

reforms for him.

Amir Sher Ali

Amir Sher Ali, Dust Muhammad's son,

continued his father's efforts. Using the political
knowledge of Sayyid Jamal al-Din Asadabadi
(usually referred to as al-Afghani), he organized
a large, modern army, established state-
controlled civil and military schools, created a
consultative assembly, expanded the
bureaucracy, reformed the tax system, and
respected the tribal, as well as the individual
rights of the chiefs within the state. Thanks to
Asadabadi, under Amir Sher Ali, Afghanistan
Amir Sher Ali discard some of the vestiges of its ethnic and
tribal past and came a step closer to the
formation of a nation.

Amir Sher Ali's reforms were disrupted by the Second

British invasion of Afghanistan in 1878. And once
again, the British were unsuccessful in bringing
Afghanistan under their control. In 1880 they were
forced to remove their troops from Afghanistan.

Al-Afghani

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"The Great Game"

What fueled British desire to annex Afghanistan to India was an intense rivalry
that had existed for quite a while between the Russian Empire to the north of
Afghanistan and the British Raj to the southeast. Behaving like two giant chess
players (hence the term "The Great Game"), Russian and British politicians in
their St. Petersburg and London offices respectively, moved their troops, and
with them their respective power, ever closer to each other. The British,
beginning in Madras in southern India, toppled the many kingdoms obstructing
their progress towards Afghanistan. Similarly, the Russians subjugated the
tribal and settled populations of Central Asia on their way south hastened to
meet the British before they captured Afghanistan. Needless to say,
Afghanistan became the prize for the victor to take.

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In this war of nerves, the Russians relied on diplomacy and political intrigue,
while the British added military might to the mix. Both strategies proved to be
relatively unsuccessful. Then a novel idea was introduced. The two super
powers of the time decided to make Afghanistan a buffer state to keep their
mighty empires apart. In the bargain, it should be added, the British gained
control over Afghanistan's foreign relations. An asset that, in 1893, helped
them draw the Durand Line between Afghanistan and British India. They also
helped Afghanistan's king, Abdur Rahman, centralize the government and
consolidate his rule. The following achievements of king Abdur Rahman mark
what can be termed the factors contributing to the gradual emergence of
modern Afghanistan.

To begin with, Abdur Rahman decided to settle

the affairs of the 15 tribes (340,000 members)
of the Shi'ite Hazarah who occupied the
Hazarajat. Between AD 1229 and 1447,
thirteen of the tribes had recognized
governmental authority but not the 44,000
strong Uruzgan tribe. In fact, once Abdur
Rahman Khan set out to reform the affairs of
the kingdom, including the affairs of the tribes,
the Uruzgan tribe rose in revolt. Frustrating the
Khan's attempt at segregating the elders of the
tribe and taking census for tax purposes, they
created untoward confusion and anarchy in the
land. In retaliation, the Khan fielded 100,000
troops and tribal levies against the Uruzgan.
He also incited his Sunni followers to wage a
Jihad against the Shi'ite Hazarahs. Even more
Amir Abdur Rahman than that, he took the Hazarahs' pastures and
flocks and divided them among the Durrani
and Ghilzai tribal confederations. As a result,
by 1893, most of the Hazarah were enslaved.
The rest went into exile in Iran.

Free from the problems of the Hazarajat, in 1895, Abdur Rahman Khan
attacked the independent Kafiristan (land of infidels) region. So far this region
had been inaccessible to all Amirs and rulers. The 60,000 inhabitants of the
region fought with bows, arrows, spears, and rifles. But, eventually, the region
was reduced to central (Afghan) rule and its inhabitants were Islamized in 1901.

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This, however, was the military and political wing of Abdur Rahman's reforms.
The waves of modernization and westernization coming east from Egypt (early
1800's), Ottoman Turkey (middle 1800's), and Iran (late 1900's) were reaching
Central Asia and Afghanistan as well. These reforms were tasking on the Amir
of Afghanistan in particular because, to begin with, Afghanistan did not have a
judicial system. A woman's life was worth 12 Kabuli rupees (half a day's
wages) and a man's life was worth 300 Kabuli rupees. Marriages were not
registered and women could not sue for divorce. Additionally, the customary
law (levirate) tied women not only to their husbands but also to the family of
the husband. Additionally, the laws of inheritance favored sons, the eldest the
most, depriving women of all their economic rights.

Child marriages were prevalent to the point that

often infants were betrothed. Rules of veiling or
purda (wearing the paranja) were strictly enforced,
blocking the way to the education of girls above the
age of twelve. Even cutting a girl's hair was
forbidden as the hair was cut only when a girl
shamed. Polygamy was practiced alongside the
rules of the Shari'a, i.e., every man could have four
legal wives and as many concubines as he desired.

In his 1882 social agenda for change, Abdur

Rahman introduced a series of mild reforms. He
ordered that all marriages should be registered and
he outlawed child marriages. According to the new
ruling, no young woman could be forced to marry
against her will. More importantly, widows did no
longer have to marry their husband's next of kin as
the law of levirate had prescribed. In fact, they
could file for divorce for such causes as cruelty and
lack of proper support. And the law of inheritance
was changed so that the eldest son inherited the
same amount as the others. In other words, women
were given the right to inherit.

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Amir Habibullah Khan

Amir Abdurrahman Khan's oldest son, Amir Habibullah Khan (ruled 1901-
1919), ascended the throne in 1903, at the age of 32, without opposition.
Somewhat stout and short, Habibullah Khan looked quite like his father, more
genial and tolerant, however. He was also better educated than his father,
especially in knowledge of languages. He was a sensual man with over 100
offspring.

Although short and stocky, Amanullah was an

excellent horseman. He was also a good shot and,
like his father, very fond of hunting. At court, he
received a very good education and was well
informed about world affairs, especially about the
role Britain in Afghanistan's foreign affairs.

Amanullah married twice. After his first wife died,

he married the daughter of Mahmud Beg Tarzi. As
Queen Soraya, Tarzi's daughter proved to be
worthy of her name. She exerted a great deal of
influence not only on the Amir but also on all those
who worked for him as well as on the work that
was carried out for king and country. The fact that
King Amanullah she was educated, quite beautiful, and of noble birth
helped her move Afghan society ever closer to
catching up with Iran and Turkey of the time.

Unlike his father, Amanullah Khan was open minded and pro-reform. In fact he
headed the committee in the palace that sought the institution of a constitutional
monarchy in Afghanistan. Predictably the clergy were not happy with his
actions as either prince, amir, or king. They simply thought that the king's
upstart son was placing their faith in jeopardy and the resources of the country
in the hands of foreign competitors.

Upon ascending the throne of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan promised his

subjects to revenge the death of their king, gain the independence of
Afghanistan from the British, and abolish corvee work that exploited the labor
of most non-Pushtun Afghans.

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Amanullah's rule can be divided into three phases: consolidation of power and
achievement of Afghanistan's independence; introduction of reforms, first in
1921 and later on in 1928, after returning from his world tour; and an era of
unrest resulting in his abdication in 1929.

Amanullah Khan's first step was to consolidate his rule and prepare the way for
his reforms in a way that they could not be undermined by the British Raj.
Hence, rather than setting his reforms in motion, he took on the British Raj. He
made it clear to the British Viceroy in India that Afghanistan intended to use
the post-world War I atmosphere to its advantage and seek complete
independence from Britain. Once the British countered that they would
welcome any new commercial enterprises that satisfied the needs of
Afghanistan, Amanullah responded by attacking the British posts to the east of
Afghanistan and by freeing the Afghan areas that were supervised by British
forces. In time the British, realizing the futility of getting involved in a Third
Afghan war, gave in. Thus, in 1919, the British gave up their control over
Afghanistan's foreign policy and accepted Afghan independence, a major
triumph for the new king.

The next step was to find allies that would fill the vacuum created by the
departure of the British. The newly-formed Union of the Soviet Socialist
Republics emerged as a major ally of the future Afghanistan nation, a role that
Russia continues to play to this day as far as the development of Afghanistan's
natural resources and Afghan cultural and military needs are concerned.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin's foreign policy with regard to the East redefined Afghan
attitude towards Britain. The Soviet policy affirmed the right of all Muslims of
Russia and the East. It specified that all Muslims will become masters of their
own fate.

While Amir Habibullah had refused to meet with Soviet envoys on two
occasions in 1918; in March 1919, Amir Amanullah welcomed the Soviet
Union to become the first state to recognize the independence of Afghanistan.
Other nations followed and, slowly but surely, an independent Afghanistan
found its place among the nations of the world.

The second phase of Amir Amanullah's rule was given to reforms. These
reforms were more outreaching than those by either Abdur Rahman Khan or
Amir Sher Ali. They included reform of the government that entailed adoption
of a new constitution in 1923. Under that constitution then both the
independence of Afghanistan and the supremacy of the power of the Amir were
solidified. Additionally, a State Council, an Assembly of Tribal Chiefs and

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Clergy (Loya Jirgah ), and a Council of State Officials (durbari ali) were
instituted to sort out matters of state and report to the king.

There were also certain economic changes. Payment of taxes in kind was no
longer acceptable. All tax debts had to be paid in cash. Live stock taxes were
unified and private ownership of land was legalized. Some nomads to the north
were settled, and religious endowment in land (waqf) was abolished. Modern
agriculture and industry were promoted.

The cornerstone of Amanullah's social reforms was the elevation of the status
of women whom he regarded as partners, companions, and friends of Afghan
society. "Women," he said repeatedly in his speeches, "are the builders of
homes, founders of families, and holders of the inviolable honor bond for the
nation. To them we must entrust the responsibility for the education and the
upbringing of the daughters of Afghanistan. They should, in no way be treated
as second-class Muslims." And, of course, this reform could not be carried out
without implementing a full-fledged overhaul of the educational system of the
country.

In this regard, elementary education became obligatory. In addition to the

Habibia School, a number of other schools taught by French, German and
Afghan teachers were opened. Similar schools were opened in Herat, Qandahar,
Mazar-i Sharif, and Qataqan. These schools offered a variety of courses on
medicine, agriculture, architecture, home economics, and music, even though
the clergy discouraged the study of the latter subject. Altogether, in 1927, there
were 322 high schools with 51,000 elementary level students and there were
3,000 high school students registered. During the 1927 academic year, 133
textbooks were published . In addition, a large number of students were sent to
Germany, France, Italy, and Turkey to further their studies. The group included
a number of girls who went to the Muslim nation of Turkey to further their
education.

King Amanullah began his reform of family relations with the introduction of
what came to be known as the Family Act of 1921. In the same year, under the
patronage of Queen Soraya, his wife, he opened a public school for girls.
Between 1921 and 1928, over 800 girls attended this school in Kabul. During
the same time, Afghan women were sent abroad--mostly to Turkey, France, and
Switzerland--to further their education. Five more such schools were projected
to meet the needs of Kabul.

Amanullah's other reforms included regulation of marriages and engagements

and abolition of child marriages and intermarriages among kin (levirate).

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Furthermore, restrictions were placed on wedding expenses, including dowries.

Women were given the right to appeal to courts for their rights against their
husbands. In this same atmosphere, the first women's magazine was published
under the supervision of the Queen. It was called Irshad-i Niswan (The
Guidance of Women).

King Amanullah's reforms were more far-reaching than either Abdurrahman

Khan's mild reforms or King Habibullah's cosmetic reforms. When fully
implemented, Amanullah's reforms would have included a total emancipation
of women, including unveiling and voting rights; land and water reform; and
introduction of European life-style, especially clothing, for both sexes. All of
this within the context of an independent Afghanistan.

Amanullah's programs of reform began in 1921 and moved ahead in spite of

staunch opposition. In fact, to indicate his devotion to the cause of
modernization and to show the level of interest that he thought the wider world
had shown towards his reforms, in 1927, accompanied with his wife, he went
on a tour of Europe. On all occasions, his wife appeared in European dress and
without a burqa. In addition to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan's main supporter,
the tour took the royal couple to Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium,
Poland, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey. In each country the king gave a speech and
made several purchases. From Italy, France, and Germany, he bought a large
amount of arms and ammunition and signed treaties for training Afghan
officers to use the weapons in case of need. In Iran and Turkey, he signed
protocols of friendship and good will and in Moscow, he signed treaties of
economic and cultural cooperation.

In spite of the situation that his reforms had created in Afghan society and in
spite of the visible divisions that had appeared since his departure for his world
tour, King Amanullah was more steadfast now in his determination to make his
reforms work than ever before. In fact, in 1928, he further curtailed the
authority of the tribal chiefs and diminished the influence of the clergy. He
created secular courts of justice and insisted that all mullahs must be recertified
before they are allowed to attend to the affairs of their followers. He attempted
to modernize family and marital relations.

Even though these were troublesome changes by themselves. Yet, King

Amanullah was not satisfied. He introduced a series of reforms that, due to
their sensitive nature, he had kept for the very end. These included mixed
education for boys and girls; sending students, especially girls without
chaperons, abroad; a ban on polygamy; and the total abolition of the burqa. But
perhaps the most dramatic event happened in 1928 when 100 Afghan women in

18
 Afghanistan Overview

Kabul took off their burgas and when a group of women were taken for an
airplane ride over Kabul.

Predictably, King Amanullah's reforms damaged the position of the clergy,

undermined the authority of tribal chiefs, and reduced the purchase power of
the conservative segment of the population. At the same time, these reforms
failed in bringing change to the difficult situation in which the Afghan peasants
found themselves. Peasants remained tied to the land and were increasingly at
the mercy of the landlord and the tax collector. Many found themselves selling
portions of their land each year just to pay their taxes.

Opposition to Amir Amanullah's reforms emerged early on from the region of

Khost. Only two years into the reforms (1923), the mullahs of Khost called the
reforms against the Qur'an and the Shari'a law and labeled the Amir "an enemy
of Allah." The following year, the tribal chiefs joined them, especially the chief
of the Mangal tribe. Together they demanded full authority over their wives
and daughters and the closure of all schools, especially those for girls. They
also demanded that the mullahs should not be held to any particular level of
education as the new code had prescribed.

Unlike his contemporaries, Reza Shah of Iran and Ata Turk of Turkey, King
Amanullah was facing a major ideological challenge at a time when his own
government was divided on the subject of reforms, their extent and direction. In
1929, these oppositions surfaced in the person of a brigand from the north, a
former Tajik officer from Kala Khan, northeast of Kabul. Interestingly enough,
this brigand who championed the cause of the Afghans and Islam did not have
a proper name. He was casually referred to as the Bacha Saqaw (the water-
carrier kid). The mullahs and the tribal chiefs that had the pulse of the south in
their hands supported the northern brigand. Britain, too, lent its support by
fomenting uprisings in the regions adjacent to its northwest frontier.

Attacked from all sides, on January 9, 1929, King Amanullah issued an order
and cancelled a number of his major reforms, especially those dealing with
social affairs, family practices, military conscription, and clerical education and
certification. He even proposed the formation of a parliament the membership
of which would include the prominent members of the clergy and some of the
tribal chiefs, intellectuals, landlords, and government officials. But none of that
gained him any support.

On January 14, 1929, King Amanullah abdicated and left Kabul for Qandahar.
As king of Afghanistan he installed his elder brother, Inayatullah Khan.

19
 Afghanistan Overview

On January 19, 1929, Bacha Saqaw stormed the capital of Kabul, forced
Inayatullah Khan to move to Qandahar and installed himself king.

King Habibullah (Bacha Saqaw) (Jan. 1929 - Oct. 1929)

Upon ascending the throne, Bacha Saqaw assumed the title of Habibullah
(friend of God--not to be confused with Amir Habibullah whose rule preceded
King Amanullah's rule). Illiterate, uninformed about internal and external
affairs of the state, and advised by equally benighted and self-serving clergy
and tribal chiefs, Habibullah established a fundamentalist government the like
of which history would not have witnessed were it not for the rule of the
similarly misguided Taliban at the close of the 20th century. Habibullah's main
concern was to satisfy the demands of his constituency, i.e., his northern
supporters, the clergy, the tribal chiefs, and the rank and file of the army. What
were these demands and could the new king meet them?

The clergy demanded that the new-method

schools be closed. Furthermore, they required
that education in general should be placed in their
hands as it had traditionally been the case. They
also demanded that the secular courts be
disbanded and that judicial matters be referred to
the shari'a courts. They also asked for the repeal
of the Family Act of 1921 that allowed men only
one wife and gave women the right to sue for
divorce for cause.

The tribal chiefs asked for the abolition of

conscription for military services and for
canceling all debt arrears. In addition, they
wanted Bacha Saqaw to honor his promise that
taxes would be cut and that the salary of the rank
and file in the army would be increased. They
also demanded payment for their effort in
defeating King Amanullah and for bringing
Habibullah to power.

As for Habibullah himself, he intended to

become wealthy and to help his northern Bacha Saqaw
supporters become rich. How could all of this be
accomplished while King Amanullah's trip

20
 Afghanistan Overview

around the world and his purchases of arms had

already emptied the treasury?

Some of the demands were easier to meet than some of the others. For instance,
certain demands of the clergy and the tribal chiefs could be met right away.
These included the closing of all new-method schools; placing both the
education and the judiciary under cleric control; repeal of the family act of
1921; abolition of compulsory military service; forcing all foreign nationals,
consultants, and teachers to leave Afghanistan; and abolition of cleric
proficiency testing. Implementation of these demands meant retrogression for
Afghanistan as a nation, but that was not a concern of any of the individuals
involved.

Some other demands, especially those centered

on economic factors, however, could not be as
easily met without taking drastic measures
against the wealthy, the noble, and the
powerful. These demands included
cancellation of all debt arrears, payment due
the tribal chiefs for their participation in wars
against Amanullah and installation of King
Habibullah on the throne. To satisfy these
latter needs as well as their own, King
Habibullah and his cohorts had no option but
to force the merchants, land owners, and
bureaucrats who had supported King
Amanullah to give up their best buildings in
King Habibullah Kabul and their best farms and pasturelands
(Bacha Saqaw)
throughout Afghanistan. In fact, they were
required to give up their most beautiful girls
and boys for the pleasure of the tribal chiefs
and officials of the new king.

As expected, before long the merchants, peasants, and landlords who had
helped Habibullah seize the government became his ardent enemies. After all
Amanullah had treated them as a king does while Habibullah (Bacha Saqaw)
had treated them like the bandit he was.

Due to various factors, Habibullah 's rule did not penetrate beyond Kabul. He
brought some of the southern and northern tribes within the fold but major parts
of the country inhabited by the Pushtuns and Hazarahs remained outside his

21
 Afghanistan Overview

control. Furthermore, the Amir was oblivious to foreign affairs, an aspect of his
policy for the neglect of which he paid dearly.

In 1929, with the help of the British, Nadir Khan (ruled 1929-1933) returned
from exile in Germany and prepared the ground for Bacha Saqaw's ouster.
Bacha Saqaw tried to buy the famous general off by offering him such lucrative
positions in his government as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but Nadir Khan
did accept the offer. In fact, he did not even respond to the request. Instead, he
rallied the southern tribes and, within a short time, dethroned the brigand king.

Nadir Shah

Upon ascending the throne, partly because he never liked the reforms of King
Amanullah and partly because he was mindful of the reaction of various
segments of society, Nadir Shah proceeded with caution. There was no
question that the mullahs and the tribal chiefs would continue to safeguard the
advantages that they had regained during the rule of their puppet Amir.
Similarly, he was sure that the enemies of Amanullah were more aligned with
him than, for instance, with the national minorities. A balance, therefore, was
necessary in the implementation of reforms that would satisfy both the
followers of Amanullah and Habibullah. On one side of this balance would be
most tribal chiefs and a considerable number of the clergy as well as many
landlords and merchants. On the other end would be the supporters of
Amanullah who were not satisfied with the middle-of -the-way reforms of
Nadir Shah which included reinstitution of the customary and religious laws
regarding the social position of women; mandatory heavy veiling; and strict
purda and seclusion whereby girls were prevented from acquiring an education.
Additionally, Nadir Shah recalled Afghan female students from abroad,
reinstituted the laws of polygamy, and outlawed consumption of alcohol. More
difficult issues such as land and water reform, which King Amanullah had
reserved as the last items on his list of reforms, were not even broached.
European lifestyle, and women's suffrage also were reexamined, some less
provocative items were retained.

22
 Afghanistan Overview

After the events of 1928 and 1929, Afghan

economy was in a shambles. Rural economy
was devastated by neglect if not by ravages of
inter-ethnic, inter-tribal, and religious conflicts.
Neither was there an end to these conflicts
most of which were severely suppressed, some
of them with the help of the British who
controlled the Pushtuns in their territory and by
not allowing them to participate in the conflicts
across the border. The Soviets, as had been the
case over the years, continued to assist the
Afghans by allowing Afghan traders use their
communication and transportation systems as
Nadir Shah
well as by sharing their market.

Within Afghanistan itself, Nadir Shah allowed the tribal chiefs and the
prominent among the clergy a free had. They could confiscate the property of
the supporters of King Habibullah as a compensation for the efforts that they
had expended during the turbulent year when he sought to overthrow the rule of
Bacha Saqaw.

In foreign policy, Nadir Shah advocated a policy of neutrality while staying on

the good side of both Britain and the Soviet Union. In the case of the Soviet
Union, he confirmed the treaties that had been signed in 1921 and 1923. He
also established good relations with Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
Establishment of relations with France and Germany did not go well and
overtures for attracting United States capital to Kabul were not effective.

In the field of education, Nadir Shah expanded the efforts of previous Afghan
rulers by adding a school of medicine. This school in time became the nucleus
of the later University of Kabul. He also promoted the use of media by
allowing the publication of newspapers and journals by importing books on
subjects not available in the seminaries and theological schools administered by
the clergy.

Nadir Shah's rule, however, was ephemeral. He was assassinated in 1933,

possibly by those who were angry with his slow pace of reforms. His premature
death left the resolution of the problems arising from the dislocation of people,
their property and the restoration of rights denied as a result of the mistakes of
Bacha Saqaw up in the air. It was now up to his nineteen-year-old son,
Muhammad Zahir, to chart a new way for the modernization of Afghanistan.

23
 Afghanistan Overview

Zahir Shah

Zahir Shah, the only surviving son of Nadir

Shah, was born on October 15, 1914. He was
educated in France and upon the death of his
father (November 8, 1933), at age 19, he
became the King of Afghanistan. During the
first 13 years of his rule, Muhammad Zahir
was no more than a puppet of his uncle
Hashim Khan who, as Prime Minister was, was
the actual ruler of the kingdom. In fact, even
Zahir Shah
though under his father Muhammad Zahir had
held high positions in the education and the
military divisions, Afghans like Shah
Muhammad Ghazi, his other uncle, continued
to consider him a junior.
Under Hashim Khan's supervision,
Afghanistan was much better off than it had
been before. The infrastructure that had been
shattered under Bacha Saqaw was mostly
restored and people were better educated and,
altogether, better off. Some at court, as well as
some among the public, were political
conscious enough to form groups and question
the status quo. At court, for instance, in 1950,
Sardar Muhammad Daoud Khan, the king's
cousin, formed a National Club. Intellectuals
and students alike were attracted to Daoud
Hashim Khan
Khan's circle. Similarly, more conservative
religious groups were coming into existence,
often opposing the intellectuals and the court at
large. In 1952, for instance, when none of the
members of the opposition won a seat in the
parliamentary elections, Kabul became the
scene of unprecedented demonstrations.
Babrak Karmal, son of the one-time Governor
of Paktia province, led one such
demonstration. Within a short time the
opposition was suppressed. Babrak Karmal
was imprisoned and prominent members of the

24
 Afghanistan Overview

opposition were either exiled or assigned

foreign service posts.
In 1953, Zahir Shah asked Muhammad Daoud
Khan, his cousin, to form a cabinet. Son of
Sardar Muhammad Aziz, Daoud Khan had
served as commander of the Eastern province
(1934) and Qandahar (1935), as commander of
Central Forces (1939-47), and as Minister of
Defense (1946). He was now moving from the
office of the Minister of the Interior to the
office of the Prime Minister. As Prime
Minister, Zahir Shah thought Daoud Khan
could help in the modernization of the country,
Daoud Khan
especially by devising a balanced assistance
project that could attract both Soviet and
American enterprises. This kind of cooperation
on the part of the superpowers, Zahir Shah
thought, would turn the Afghan economy
around.

Daoud Khan initiated a five-year (1956-61) plan as a result of which women

were permitted to abandon the veil (1959). At the same time, he controlled the
publishing houses and the media, leaving no room for freedom of expression.
Literature was limited to poetry, professional manuals, and history texts. A few
small libraries with limited resources operated in the capital and several movie
theaters operated in the major cities. The end of Daoud Khan's first five-year
plan is a benchmark in Afghan social progress as indicated by the relative
progress achieved in education and healthcare.

Between 1933 and 1961, the Afghan education system had developed solid
institutions of advanced learning capable of training students not only to
become teachers but also to become professionals in various fields. The
following statistics indicate the level and the diversity of Afghan education at
the time:

25
 Afghanistan Overview

10 universities
22 colleges
31 professional schools
52 high schools
533 elementary schools
788 rural schools
26 Islamic schools

Altogether there were

1,436 schools
students (ratio of girls to boys:
235,000
1/7)
5,983 teachers
14,719 graduates
229 university graduates
907 professional school graduates
1,743 high school graduates

26
 Afghanistan Overview

Additionally, 1,000 Afghan teachers were studying abroad and, overall, 2% of

the population was literate. Similarly, the following statistics indicate the status
of the country's healthcare system at the time:

59 hospitals
5 maternity wards
5 sanitariums for TB
19 laboratories
18 X-ray facilities
157 pharmacies
2,111 beds
250 doctors
69 assistant doctors

The patient-doctor ratio in comparison to neighboring countries was as follows:

Country Afghan Pakistan Iran India Turkey

Ratio 50,000 14,000 8,000 5,000 4,000

This ratio may not look impressive elsewhere in the world, but either to the
Afghanistan of Bacha Saqaw (1929) or to the Afghanistan of the Taliban
(2001), it is a substantial step forward.

Daoud's ability to turn things around for Afghanistan owed a great deal to the
contributions of the Soviet Union (see below). The payoff for these
contributions came when Daoud was forced to support demand for
independence by the Pushtun tribes. The issue had political as well as economic
ramifications for Afghanistan. Politically, it put Afghanistan on the wrong side
of Pakistan which could not support a move that would cost it half its land and
population. (Northern Afghanistan, it should be added, as a spill over of Tajiks,
Uzbeks, and Turkmen, could easily be absorbed by the Soviet Union. The
leftover Hazara could join their Iranian neighbor.) Needless to say,
implementation of this destructive plan would have also spelled out the end of
Zahir Shah's kingship. Economically, too, the plan spelled disaster for

27
 Afghanistan Overview

Afghanistan. Once Pakistan closed its borders, landlocked Afghanistan had no

recourse but to beg the Soviets for assistance. In other words, under Daoud's
premiership, Afghanistan was becoming politically and economically a
protectorate of the Soviet Union.

By 1963, Zahir Shah had to make a tough decision. Clearly Daoud Khan and
his Soviet allies had helped Afghanistan reach a degree of prosperity. But at the
same time, they had robbed Afghanistan's royal house of its wealth and power
and, more importantly, had divided the country into pro-Soviet and anti-
Soviet/Muslim camps. In 1963, in order to attend to the affairs of the nation
freely, Zahir Shah demanded and received the resignation of Daoud Khan as
Prime Minister.

Following the example of Iran that in 1906 had elected a parliament and
formed a constitutional monarchy, Zahir Shah introduced a new constitution in
1964. According to this constitution, members of the royal house, like Daoud
Khan, were excluded from certain governmental posts. It also provided for free
elections to a bicameral parliament, formation of political parties, and a free
press.

Hindsight indicated that both the parliament and the constitution and its
provisions were introduced to the country prematurely. While the spirit of the
constitution could not be implemented, its provisions were perverted by
different groups and employed for the promotion of their own interests. Rather
than Zahir Shah, the benefactors were the latent Islamic groups now seeking
coalition and strength and the Soviet Union that had expended a great deal of
manpower and funds bring Afghanistan up as a showcase of socialism in the
East. It is to these two forces and their roots in the kingdom that we now turn.

Roots of Soviet-Afghan Conflict

Recall that in 1930 Nadir Shah confirmed support for the treaties that had been
signed between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union in 1921 and 1923 and that he
promoted good relations between the two nations. The same kind of cordial
relations flourished after the Second World War and, eventually, distinguished
Afghanistan as the first non-Communist Third-World nation to receive Soviet
aid. In fact, each aid package was accompanied with cultural fringes of its own.
These included such contributions as the 1957 Radio Moscow's broadcasts in
Pushtu, the official language of Afghanistan at the time, and the opening of an
Afghan/Russian Friendship House in 1959.

28
 Afghanistan Overview

Soviet contacts with the Afghan leadership during the fifties and the sixties
were primarily of a political nature. They consisted of high level visits by the
prominent heads of each state. In the case of the Afghans these were longer
stays of two or three weeks while in the case of the Soviets, they were of much
shorter duration. The objectives of the visits, on the part of the Soviets, were to
locate Afghan needs, to assess strategic points and to propose to both the Soviet
and Afghan governments ways in which they could cooperate in overcoming
foreseeable problems. On the part of the Afghans these were mostly
educational trips whereby they became familiar with Soviet technology and
with ways that such technology could be utilized in Afghanistan.

As a result of each trip, specially designed aid packages were shipped to

Afghanistan. In the early stages, these packages included kits for building a
combined flour mill-bakery-granary or a motor repair works or an asphalt
factory. Later on equipment and trained personnel were sent for the building of
major roads such as the famous Salang highway through the Hindu Kush.
Although only 100 miles in length, this highway cuts a four-day Kabul-Mazar-i
Sharif journey into about a day. A similar highway joins Kushka, in southern
Uzbekistan to Qandahar in southern Afghanistan.

Improvement in the irrigation systems included not only canals and dams, but
also mechanized farming, building of fertilizer plants and adoption of Soviet
techniques to Afghan traditions of river valley farming. The most beneficial
strategically located Soviet development projects in Afghanistan, however,
included a gas pipeline spanning the Amu Dariya, a number of hydro-electric
power stations and several airports, including an international airport at the
capital city of Kabul. Smaller regional airports were constructed at Aq Chah,
Mazar-i Sharif, Herat, Farah, Qandahar, Khost, and Bamiyan.

The objective of the Soviet Union in its cordial relation with Afghanistan was
two-fold. One was Afghanistan's continuance of her neutral stance vis-a-vis the
United States and the People's Republic of China, a stance that forced those
powers to use Pakistan and Nepal respectively for listening posts; the other was
maintenance of trade relations with the Afghan people. This latter was of
special importance to Afghanistan, particularly during the periods of hostility
with Pakistan on the question of Pushtunistan.

Under Daoud Khan, Soviet contribution became even more substantial. They
assisted in creating a modern Afghan army, along with Soviet equipment and
technical training. In fact, in the 1960's the Soviet Union contributed to the
building of Afghanistan's infrastructure in a big way. During this time a number
of large industrial enterprises were completed. These included the 680

29
 Afghanistan Overview

kilometer long Kushka (in present-day Uzbekistan), Herat-Qandahar highway,

the 750 kilometer Kabul-Sherkhan highway, the Naghlu hydroelectric station,
the Jalalabad irrigation system, and the Kabul polytechnic, just to name a few.
Thus, under Daoud, Soviet influence that had been developing since the
independence of Afghanistan and the establishment of Soviet power, was on
the rise.

During the post-Daoud era, the Soviets added, mostly clandestinely, to their
activities in forming communist cells and recruiting intellectuals, students from
the technical schools, and commanders as well as the rank and file of the army.

On January 1, 1965, a nucleus of thirty youth, led by Noor Muhammad Taraki,

formed the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). In 1969, Babrak
Karmal, Hafizullah Amin, and two other PDPA members entered the lower
house of the Afghan parliament.

While the PDPA was growing in strength, the Afghan government continued its
efforts at keeping a neutral stance vis-ˆ-vis the west and the Communist world.
Maintaining neutrality, however, became difficult when the PDPA split along
the Khalq (southern, tribal Pushtuns) and the Parcham (northern, urban Dari
speakers). Undaunted by the split, the Soviets worked with each faction
separately, assigning them different tasks. The Khalqis, for instance could
reach the lower echelon of Afghan military while the Parchamis reached the
highest. The same was true for the penetration of the civil sector. On the
surface, it was Karmal's Parcham that drew the most attention. But when it
came to actual business, it was Taraki's Khalqis who received concrete support.

On July 17, 1973, when Zahir Shah was vacationing in Europe, his cousin
Daoud Khan staged a coup and, with the assistance of the PDPA overthrew him.
Daoud Khan then abolished the monarchy and declared himself the President of
the Republic of Afghanistan.

The roots of Afghan dissatisfaction with western influence on their culture

preceded the involvement of Russians and later Soviets in Afghan affairs. We
have already briefly outlined the three conflicts, two of them major bloody
conflicts, between the Afghans and the British, alluded to activities of Sayyid
Jamal al-Din Asadabadi (al-Afghani), and the formation of a mujahidin core
under Amir Habibullah. The aim of this core was to overthrow British rule in
India and create a United Muslim India and Afghanistan. But, it only succeeded
in gaining Afghanistan's independence from Britain in 1919.

30
 Afghanistan Overview

When the Russians, as part of the "Great Game" moved into Muslim territories
in Central Asia, the Muslims of the region rose against the Russians in defense
of their land, property, and traditions. Known as the Basmachi uprising, the
conflict began in 1916 in Khujand (in present-day northern Tajikistan) and
spread throughout Central Asia. When the Amir of Bukhara was dethroned by
the Soviets and fled to Afghanistan, Afghans, too, became involved in Muslim
opposition to the Soviets' institution of a socialist way of life in the region.
Soviet recognition of the independence of Afghanistan impressed some of the
population in the urban centers, but it never affected the deep resentment that
the Afghans bore against westerners.

As long as the Soviets were involved in building roads, airports, and irrigation
canals, the Afghan Muslims tolerated their presence. During Daoud Khan's rule,
however, when communist cells were being formed and when the sacred tenets
of Islam--the divinity of Allah, the prophethood of Muhammad, and the
authority of the Qur'an--were questioned, tolerance gave way to a lack of
cooperation. Once Daoud and the Soviets ignored the cold shoulder and went
about emancipation and education of women, the conflict took a violent turn.
Neither was this the only conflict that plagued Afghanistan. The Parcham and
Khalq factions of the PDPA battled for supremacy with the Khalq faction
gaining the most ground.

While the conflict between the Afghan Communists and the Muslims remains
unresolved, in 1978, the Khalq and Parcham factions of the PDPA unite and
bring their full force on the government and the person of President Daoud. In a
bloody coup, Daoud and the members of his family are assassinated (April 27,
1978) and Noor Muhammad Taraki becomes the President. Hafizullah Amin
and Babrak Karmal become his deputies.

The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

As is the case with these kind of violent

changes of government, the takeover is
followed by mass arrests, and torture. There are
also many changes the most prominent of
which was the change of the flag of
Afghanistan. Taraki's first diplomatic step was
to sign a treaty of friendship with the Soviet
Union. Then he went about the task of
implementing reforms not only in Kabul and
Noor Muhammad Taraki
the other urban centers but in the countryside
as well.

31
 Afghanistan Overview

Noor Muhammad Taraki was born into a Ghilzai (Pushtun) family of nomads
on July 15, 1917 in the province of Ghazni. He received his early education in
Ghazni followed by further education in Bombay and Kabul. For a while, he
worked in a Pushtun Trading Company in Qandahar and at the Company's
offices in Bombay. Using his English as a means of elevating his status, he
entered journalism. By 1953, he had landed the job of Afghan press attachŽ in
Washington. Before he became a politician, he was the Director of his own
business, the "Nor Translation Bureau."

As mentioned above, on January 1, 1965, he founded the PDPA. He was the

editor of Khalq. When the party split in 1967, he remained with the Khalq
faction. The centerpiece of the Soviet-inspired reforms in the new Democratic
republic of Afghanistan as it emerged from the Saur revolution was land reform.
Led by the "teacher and great guide," Taraki, the reforms went well as long as
the Afghans were not knowledgeable of the full impact of the reform. Once the
Afghanis realized that not only the inviolability of ownership of land but also
the inviolability of their ownership of their wives were at stake, they took
action, of the same type that they had taken against King Amanullah's ungodly
reforms in 1929. In June of 1978, the Mujahidin movement, dormant since the
time of Amir Habibullah, was revived.

While the Khalq continued to purge the ranks of its opposition on the grounds
of policy differences, a crack appeared within the Khalq faction itself over
tactical and leadership issues. The Soviets and Hafizullah Amin had repeatedly
warned Taraki about his harsh treatment of the Muslim masses. He had not
been responsive; rather, he had added to his maltreatment of the clergy and the
tribal chiefs. The issue eventually came to a head when the Khalq faction split
into the "Red Khalq" faction, supporting Taraki's policies and the "Black
Khalq" faction, following Hafizullah Amin. Then, on October 9, 1979,
Hafizullah Amin's "Black Khalq" faction secretly executed Taraki and purged
the faction of "Red Khalq" members.

32
 Afghanistan Overview

Between September 16, 1979 and December

27, 1979, Hafizullah Amin served as the
President of Afghanistan. Amin was born into
a Pushtun (Ghilzai) family of Paghman, near
Kabul, in 1929. He received his early
education in Afghanistan and advanced
education in the United States. Later on, he
became a teacher and, for a time, served as a
school principal. He became a Marxist in 1964
and represented Paghman in the 13th session of
the parliament in 1969. Between 1973, the year
Zahir Shah was ousted, and the 1978 Saur
Revolution, Amin campaigned intensively to
strength the Khalq faction at the expense of the
members of the Parcham faction. During his
short presidency, he continued to strengthen
his own faction within the Khalq at the
Hafizullah Amin expense of the ex-Taraki "Red Khalq." In this
connection, he also tried to put some space
between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union by
approaching the United States and Pakistan for
assistance. The change of policy was swift
enough for Amin to be marked as a CIA agent.

During Amin's short tenure as president, the entire geopolitical situation of the
region changed. Islamic fundamentalists in revolutionary Iran were bound to
strike out either in the direction of Iraq or of Afghanistan. If the latter, they
were likely to join up with the Mujahidin of Afghanistan and move on the
Muslim-populated Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union. Since the
Afghan government was powerless in dealing with internal Muslim revolt, it
was not likely to be able to withstand additional Islamic insurgence from the
outside. The Soviet Union, therefore, made a preventative move. It moved its
forces stationed in the southern republics into Afghanistan. Then, in order to
have full control of the region without interference from Afghanistan's new
friends, the United States and Pakistan, Hafizullah Amin and his followers
were executed (December 27, 1979).

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 Afghanistan Overview

The Communist Takeover and Its

Aftermath

If there had been any pretence of independence

for the Afghan people during the presidency of
Taraki and Amin, it was taken away with the
installment of Soviet puppet Babrak Karmal
(December 27, 1979). The change of the name
of the republic into the Democratic Republic of
Afghanistan (DRA), was itself disturbing.
Karmal was born into a military family of
Kabul in 1929. After the Saur Revolution,
when the Parcham ranks were purged, he was
appointed Afghanistan's ambassador to
Czechoslovakia (April 1978). Soon after that,
Babrak Karmal accused of anti-Khalqi activities, he was
stripped of his party membership, which meant
also all his positions in the Afghan government
of the time. He moved to Moscow, from
where, after having been rehabilitated, her was
brought to Kabul and installed as President,
Party secretary, and Head of the Revolutionary
Council.

As president, Karmal denounced the excesses of Amin, reorganized Afghan

society along the lines of the Muslim republics--even though the Afghans
lacked the half-century of dealing with the soviet system--and pretended that all
was going well. Neither the Afghan upper classes, which found themselves
forced to serve the system, nor the Muslim masses of Afghanistan were
impressed. Although phrases such as "national unity," and "respect for Islam"
were used to remold the outward appearance of the republic, the content of
Soviet reform had remained the same. These included the curtailment of the
power of the clergy, undermining of the authority of the tribal chiefs,
destruction of the Afghan family unit, and the imposition of socialist values,
economic exploitation, and political enslavement. In other words, Karmal's
super-cosmetic efforts at masking socialist intentions backfired and the country
became irretrievably divided along Communist and Muslim lines. The larger
picture for the Soviet Union was even more disturbing as not only Iran, through

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 Afghanistan Overview

Afghanistan, was a threat to its republics but, gradually, Islam was appearing as
a threat to its own very existence.

Leonid Brezhnev continued the hope that the Afghan situation that, by the way,
was of his own making, would be resolved successfully. By the time of his
death, the situation in Afghanistan was worse than it had ever been before.
Mikhail Gorbachev, who took control in 1985 could not entertain a similar
hope. Rather, he realized the difficult straight that the Soviet Union was already
in and the abyss that the Union was approaching economically, ideologically,
and, in terms of support for an unending war. On May 15, 1988, therefore, he
announced the Soviet Union's intention to remove its forces from Afghanistan.
This was also a clarion call to Babrak Karmal that his tenure as President of the
Republic was coming to an end. It was now pretty much academic whether the
Afghans would or would not comply with Soviet dicta. It was whether the
Muslim Mujahidin would allow Soviet forces to withdraw without annihilating
them enroute as their forefathers had done to the British at the end of the
Second Afghan War.

In order to create the appropriate link with the

Mujahidin, in May 1986, the ineffective,
actually despised, Babrak Karmal was replaced
by Dr. Najibullah Ahmadzai. Najibullah was
born into a Pushtun merchant family of Kabul
in 1947. He received his early education at the
Habibia school and his advanced education at
the College of Medicine of Kabul University
from where he graduated in 1975. He joined
the Parcham faction of the PDPA in 1965 and,
subsequently, was arrested and incarcerated a
number of times. Between July and October,
1978, he served as the Afghan ambassador to
Tehran. Due to continuous purge of Parchamis
in Kabul, he remained abroad until the
formation of the Democratic Republic of
Afghanistan under Babrak Karmal. During
Mohammad Najibullah
Karmal's tenure, Najibullah served as the
general president of the Afghan secret police
(KHAD). As his career indicates, he was the
best choice as a secretary general of PDPA
who can at once serve as a liaison between
Moscow and the Afghan Mujahidin.

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 Afghanistan Overview

Soviet departure from Afghanistan in 1989 created a power vacuum in the

region with grave consequences for the Soviet Union and the world. In this
vacuum, Najibullah had to rule a country divided along ethnic, linguistic,
regional, tribal, and ideological lines. As a first step, he purged the Central
Committee of pro-Karmal members; then, in order to keep the government
from stagnating, he reorganized the government in 1989 and again in 1990.
When his Defense Minister, Shahnawaz Tanai tried to stage a coup against him,
he survived the Khalqi attempt. Furthermore, realizing that he did not have the
type of support that his predecessors had enjoyed, he annulled the more
controversial reforms.

Dissatisfied with his refusal to step down and allow the Mujahidin to install a
truly Islamic government in Afghanistan, his rule was one of constant strife.

Additionally, Najibullah who had been asked by the Soviets to take control and
to defend Afghanistan using the leftover Soviet armaments never received any
more assistance. The situation was not any different for the Mujahidin who had
similarly hoped to receive assistance from the American Central Intelligence
Agency, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Both groups were disappointed; they were
left pretty much on their own. The United States made sure that there would be
no more resurgence of Communist rule in Afghanistan. As for Pakistan, it
achieved the control of the Pushtun population stemming the tide of Pushtun
solidarity (cf., the 1950's Pushtunistan problem). And Saudi Arabia established
its brand of Wahhabism with the assurance that it could penetrate Central Asia
and beyond.

For defeating Najibullah's Sovietized army, the Mujahidin capitalized on the

good will and the Islamic zeal of the Afghan masses. They promised that they
would, after Najibullah is defeated, to usher in an era of tranquility under the
green banner of Islam. Calling themselves protectors of the Shari'a and
restorers of Afghan rights, they attracted large numbers of young Afghani
warriors to their training camps. Surplus American armaments allowed them
sufficient time for practice and for regrouping against the increasingly weak
forces abandoned by the Soviets under Najibullah.

Additionally, since their cause was recognized as a just cause by the Muslim
world, warriors from all Muslim lands poured into Afghanistan to participate in
a Jihad against the infidels. These young Muslims fanned out into the remote
parts of Afghanistan and refugee camps of Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Iran
preaching the Wahhabi gospel and recruiting anti-Soviet and anti-Western
soldiers. As the war with Najibullah dragged on, the Mujahidin became more
organized. Their perspective on the war, too, was affected. With the entrance of

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 Afghanistan Overview

warriors like Usama bin Laden and institution of training camps, the focus
began to change. Defeating Najibullah became a minor affair compared to the
daunting task of defeating the West. Gradually it turned out that not only
Najibullah but the Mujahidin as well must leave the scene. The latter had to be
eliminated after it eliminates Najibullah.

In 1992, the Mujahidin defeated Najibullah entered Kabul and set up an interim
coalition government. Najibullah took refuge in the United Nations Mission.
The affairs of Afghanistan fell into the hands of Burhaniddin Rabbani and
Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, rivals who, as early as 1976, had sought the leadership
of the Afghan people. Due to their subversive activities they both had been
living in exile in Pakistan. Hikmatyar, it should be mentioned, had tried
unsuccessfully to topple the government of Daoud Khan as early as 1976.

In Mujahidin Afghanistan Rabbani was elected president by his party called the
Islamic Society of Afghanistan. Hikmatyar, the Head of the Islamic Party of
Afghanistan became Prime Minister. The two leaders differed on many issues.
Within a short time Hikmatyar rose against Rabbani, using the might of the
southern Pushtun tribes against the Tajik President. Day in and day out he
bombarded Kabul devastating all that Afghans from the days of Dust
Muhammad and Nadir Shah had accumulated in terms of Afghan civilization
and culture .

At the same time, the Mujahidin were implementing a program of de-

Sovietization of their own that pitted brother against brother and father against
son.

As part of this process, the Mujahidin systematically removed women from

education, the labor force, and all social functions. They went even beyond that
and entered private homes raping young women and looting property. Needless
to say that the harsh treatment doled out by the Mujahidin forced more and
more Afghans into Pakistan and more children into Pakistani refugee camps
where, increasingly, the Wahhabi thought was becoming the dominant
philosophy.

Under the Mujahidin Kabul became a virtual ghost town. People did not know
where to turn. Neither were the other towns of the country faring any better.
Herat, Mazar-i Sharif, and Qandahar were in the hands of regional warlords,
some God-fearing and moderate, others cruel and violent. All were seeking
prestige, wealth, and satisfaction for themselves and their immediate families.

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 Afghanistan Overview

By 1994, the United States, no longer worried about a resurgence of

Communism in Afghanistan, gradually left the scene. Saudi Arabia, however,
having created the niche it needed for the expansion of Wahhabi thought in the
region, continued to funnel funds in, delivered by young Saudis like Osama bin
Laden and general camp instructors. Left alone, Pakistan became worried.
What could happen to Pakistan's stability, Pakistani authorities wondered, if
Afghan Mujahidin decided to expand their brand of Islamic fanaticism into
their domain? The situation had the potential of destabilizing not only Pakistan,
but also the already shaky republics of Central Asia. Something needed to be
done to curb the power of the Mujahidin.

Islamabad gave the Afghan question due thought. It was decided to send in the
Taliban to displace the Mujahidin and to establish a moderate Islamic rulership
in Afghanistan. The blue print for the future Afghan government had
supposedly been taught in the refugee camps. At the time, the Taliban seemed
to be among the best students of theology that the camps could offer. They
were supposed to win the situation for both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the two
main nations that supported them until shortly after September 11, 2001.

The Rise and Fall of the Taliban

The Taliban, a rag-tag band from the Pushtun stronghold of Qandahar rose
against the Mujahidin and, in 1994, captured the strategic city of Herat. For the
next two years the Mujahidin and the Taliban fought each other for the control
of the rest of Afghanistan, devastating the infrastructure of the country as well.

Eventually, in September 1996, the Taliban won the battle against the
Mujahidin, entered Kabul and, as the first order of business, hanged both
Najibullah and his brother in the Kabul public square. The defeated Mujahidin,
led by Commander Ahmad Shah Mas'ud, moved to the Panjshir Valley in the
Tajik-speaking northeast. Over time, the northern warlords formed an alliance
against the predominantly Pushtun south. The coalition thus formed came to be
known as the United Front or the Northern Alliance.

See also:
Central Asia: An Overview Tajikistan: An Overview
Azerbaijan: An Overview Turkmenistan: An Overview
Iran: A Concise Overview Uzbekstan: An Overview
Kazakhstan: An Overview
Kyrgyzstan: An Overview

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