Elias Nizamuddin :
Part 1:
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In Afghanistan, women were granted the right to vote as early as 1919 - just one year after Germany. The problem, however, was that the reforms of Amanullah Khan were implemented too quickly and thus met with resistance from the conservative population.
Afghanistan experienced its finest era under King Zahir Shah, who modernized and opened the country step by step, without seeking to abolish its Islamic identity. As a result, women in urban areas (including my paternal family at the time) were already able to pursue higher education and live without forced veiling - and yet Afghanistan remained Islamic. It was only after Daoud Khan seized power
(bloodlessly) in 1973, followed by the communists in 1978 who took control by force and attempted to impose reforms in the most brutal manner, violently persecuting practicing Muslims and establishing a secret intelligence service modeled on the Stalinist regime that the country plunged irreversibly into chaos.
The issue was and remains that Afghanistan has always had two extreme polarizations in its society: the conservatives and often religious extremism on one side, and people who want too much modernization too quickly on the other.
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Furthermore, a crucial role has been played by the interference of foreign states such as the US, Pakistan, the USSR, and Saudi Arabia, which solely wanted to defend their own interests in the country, completely disregarding the local population.
Interviews with former US officials also reveal that US intelligence agencies were involved in further fueling the protests in Afghanistan in 1978/79 in order to
"lure" the USSR into the country and hand them their "own Vietnam."
2026-10-29 19:07:13