Kabul Carnival. Julie Billaud
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what became known as the “Great Game.” The Great Game set in motion the confrontation of the British and Russian empires whose spheres of influence moved steadily closer to one another until they met in Afghanistan. It also involved Britain’s repeated attempts to impose puppet governments in Kabul. Afghanistan gradually fell under British control (1880) and was eventually used as a buffer state to prevent the expansion of Russia until the country obtained its independence in 1919. King Amanullah, whose political legitimacy was strengthened by his victory in the struggle for national liberation, engaged the country in a vast program of reforms aiming at modernizing the country.
Modern Monarchies, 1920–73
Described by historians as the “Atatürk of Afghanistan,” King Amanullah’s entourage was composed of liberal and nationalist intellectuals whose political views were influenced by modernization reforms conducted in neighboring countries such as Iran and Turkey. Amanullah’s modernization program was undeniably inspired by the liberal ideas of Mahmud Beg Tarzi, father of Queen Soraya, Amanullah’s wife. Educated in Syria and Turkey, son of the famous poet Gulham Mohammad Tarzi, Mahmud Beg Tarzi is one of the most influential intellectual and nationalist figures of his time. The Tarzi family was forced into exile by Amir Abdur Khaman Khan after Gulham Mohammad broke with the amir over his strictness and brutality toward his enemies (L. Dupree 1973, 437). The Tarzi family only returned to Afghanistan in 1903. In 1911, Mahmud Tarzi began publishing a modernist-nationalist newspaper, the Siraj-ul-akhbar-i Afghan (Lamp of the News of Afghanistan). His writings, influenced by modern interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence, advocated for modern education while denouncing Western imperialism (L. Dupree 1973, 440).
Exposed to the new gender policies implemented in other Middle Eastern countries where he had traveled during his years of exile, Tarzi became a strong supporter of women’s rights in his own country. He believed in women’s ability to participate in public life, claimed that fully “educated women were an asset for future generations and concluded that Islam did not deny them equal rights” and that women should be therefore entitled to become full citizens. One section of his newspaper, entitled “Celebrating Women of the World,” was dedicated to women’s issues and was edited by his wife, Asma Tarzi (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003a, 3–4). But in spite of his liberal approach toward the position of women in society, Tarzi believed in authoritarian modernism to maintain the monarchy and the creation of a centralized state responsible for the development of the country.
The Reign of Amanullah, 1919–29
As soon as independence was achieved, Amanullah recruited Tarzi, his influential father-in-law, as his minister of foreign affairs. Soraya Tarzi was King Amanullah Khan’s only wife. The decision of the king to present himself to the world in a monogamous relationship and in the company of the queen was intensively commented on by the international press. In an article of the Illustrated London News published March 17, 1928, which displayed a photo documentary of the royal couple’s European tour, the journalist commented:
Queen Suryia [Soraya], who arrived in England with King Amanullah on March 13, is the first Consort of an Oriental monarch to visit Europe with her husband. She is a daughter of the Afghan Foreign Minister, Tarzi Khan, and is the only wife of the King, who firmly upholds the ideal of monogamy. Already she has made an immense impression in Rome, Berlin, and Paris by her personal beauty and her adaptability to Western ways. “It is difficult to realise,” writes Sir Percival Philipps [sic], who accompanied the Afghan royal party from India to Europe, “that this charming lady has, according to our standards, been virtually a prisoner all her life. She lived in the strictest seclusion at Kabul…. The Queen is deeply interested in every aspect of life in Europe, particularly the position of women.” In Paris she was hailed as a queen of fashion, and had some fifty dresses made there. “She bids fair,” it has been said, “to rival Queen Elizabeth in the number of her gowns.”
The photo documentary and the journalist’s report are classic examples of “Orientalism” (Said 1979). As in other representations of the Middle East produced in the West, the photographers’ and reporters’ interest in the foreign “other” was shaped by a number of stereotypical certainties about the Orient: its inherent backwardess, its rootedness in tradition, its treatment of women. The narrative that emerges out of the documentary is marked by a fascination for the queen’s exotic beauty and a feeling of compassion for her status as “an Oriental woman living in seclusion in her country.” Between the lines, and in spite of her presence by the side of her husband in this important diplomatic mission, Soraya’s status remains rooted in the imaginary of the “harem.” She is presented as the domesticated and subjugated “other” as opposed to the liberated, independent, and enlightened Western self (L. Ahmed 1992). The standard for measuring women’s emancipation (and the standards of “civilization” more generally) are those set by Europe, not only in the ways Oriental subjects are to dress but also in the manners they are to adopt.
However, it remains undeniable that Soraya played a central role in redefining the position of women in Afghan society at a major moment of social change and nation building. As in Iran and Turkey, the issue of women was a central concern of the ruling class who predominantly adopted a secularist, rationalist, and universalist Western model of social transformation (Göle 1996, 29). By having his wife take part in all national events, Amanullah strove to present an image of Afghanistan in the path of “catching up” with Western civilization. Hence Soraya participated with him in hunting parties, riding on horseback, and attending some cabinet meetings. She appeared in the king’s lodge during military parades. It was with her support that King Amanullah was able to campaign against the veil and polygamy. “At a public function, Amanullah said that Islam does not require women to cover their bodies or wear any special kind of veil. At the conclusion of the speech, Queen Soraya tore off her veil in public and the wives of other officials present at the meeting followed [her] example” (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003a, 4).
Figure 3. King Amanullah and Queen Soraya during their stay in England. Photograph published in the Illustrated London News, March 24, 1928. Source: http://www.phototheca-afghanica.ch.
Figure 4. Afghan ladies in European dress. Photograph published in the Illustrated London News, November 3, 1928. Source: http://www.phototheca-afghanica.ch.
That the king put so much emphasis on banning the veil is not surprising: the modernizing elite hastening to show images of women throwing off their veil is a common leitmotif of Orientalist discourses. As Meyda Yegenoglu (1998) argues, the figure of the woman who cannot be seen yet who troublingly can hold the Westerner in her own unseen gaze operates as the ultimate trope of the Orient that the West desires to penetrate. The desire to unveil her reveals “the unique articulation of the sexual within cultural difference in Orientalist discourse” (Yegenoglu 1998, 47). As the caption of a photograph published in November 1928 in the Illustrated London News (Figure 4) demonstrates, the level of progress achieved in Afghanistan was primarily measured by women’s unveiled appearance, the veil symbolizing the traditional, subservient domestic roles of Muslim women. However, in practice, women did not literally embrace European norms but creatively interpreted them by combining Western hats with face veils.
This exhibition of modern feminine fashion largely inspired by Europe became part of national rituals aiming to symbolically bolster the idea of “modernization,” especially for the rest of the world. For instance, the queen’s visit to Turkey in 1929 made the headlines of Cumburiyet, an Istanbul daily paper sympathetic to the goals of the new republic’s modernizing regime in which photographs of her wearing a sleeveless summer dress with hair, face, and shoulders uncovered were displayed (Shissler 2004, 113). The circulation of images of upper-class women dressed in European clothes and their public visibility at official ceremonies represented a radical step in a society where most women had historically been segregated