Consequences of conflict in Afghanistan continues....

King Nadir Shah (1929-33) was however more careful and tried to uphold Pashtun values. He did not provide any special rights of women under his constitution. However, he mentioned that all Afghan citizens are equal and accorded the right to primary education and the right to
freedom of expression and equal treatment in legal matters to all citizens. Again it was during the regime of Md. Daoud as Prime Minister (1953-63) and President that the issue of unveiling in public resurfaced. The government employed some girls as receptionists and hostesses for Ariana Afghan Airlines and some as workers for the Kabul China (pottery) Factory. Female singers were auditioned by Radio Afghanistan, a delegation of Afghan woman attended a conference of Asian women in Ceylon in 1957 and the Afghan government sent a women delegate to the United Nations in 1958. These measures could not arouse a public rebellion because Sardar Daoud’s secret police arrested and jailed most of the ringleaders opposed to these ideas.

Zahir Shah’s (1933-1973) main achievement was his liberal constitution of 1964 that provided a fully representative bicameral parliament and the Afghans elected their representatives to both houses in 1965. A distinctive feature of the elections was the election of four women, two from Kabul, one from Herat and one from Kandahar.

Women were enfranchised by the constitution and they voted in the large
urban centers.

Even during the Communist regime (1978-1992), a considerable number of Afghan women continued to enjoy the benefits of the liberal era, inaugurated in 1959. Most of the rural women, however, in the face of war lost their husbands, children and homes. The high intensity conflict against Soviet intervention had greatly affected the countryside as the opposition to the Soviets came from the rural centers and the Soviet army exclusively targeted the rural areas.

To be continued....