Reading Latifa’s book My Forbidden Face, and following the comments from my last post, and today, a post from my friend Abdul, Sharbat Gula - the Afghan Girl made me realise how sketchy my knowledge of Afghanistan and its history really is. So, as it's a really miserable wintry day here, I sat down and put this very summarised chronology together. It is sourced mostly from Latifa’s book and from various posts in Wikipedia.

1747  Although this is the year that the Afghan state was officially created, the land has an ancient history and various timelines of different civilizations, a fascinating history in itself. Excavation of prehistoric sites shows that people were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the area were among the earliest people to farm in the world.

Now, in 1738, one Nadir Shah and his army, which included four thousand Pashtuns of the Abdali clan, conquered the region of Kandahar. In the same year he also occupied Ghazni, Kabul and Lahore.

Note: Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, other ethnic groupings include the Hazras, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Turkimans.

But then on June 19, 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated. It is stated that this assassination was possibly planned by his nephew Ali Qoli. Anyhow in the same year, one of Nadir's military commanders and his personal bodyguard, Ahmad Shah Abdali, a Pashtun from the Abdali clan, called for a loya jiirga (grand assembly) following Nadir's death. The Afghans gathered at Kandahar and chose Ahmad Shah as their King. Since then, he is often regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan.

After the inauguration, he changed his title or clans' name to Durrani, which derives from the Persian word ‘Durr‘, meaning pearl.

By 1751 Ahmad Shah Durrani and his Afghan army had conquered the entire present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Khorasan and Kohistan provinces of Iran, along with Delhi in India.

However, during the nineteenth century, following the Anglo-Afghan wars (fought between 1839–42, 1878–80, and lastly in 1919) and the ascension of the Barakzai dynasty Afghanistan saw much of its territory and autonomy ceded to Great Britain. During the period of British intervention in Afghanistan, ethnic Pashtun territories were divided by the Durand Line, (The Durand Line is the term for the 2,640 kilometre (1,610 mile) border between Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan). This led to strained relations between Afghanistan and British India – and later the newer state of Pakistan – over what came to be known as the Pashtunistan debate.

The third Anglo-Afghan war of 1919 was precipitated by the assassination of the then ruler Habibullah Khan. His son and successor Amanullah declared Afghanistan’s full independence and attacked British India's northern frontier. Although little was gained militarily, the stalemate was resolved with the Rawalpindi Agreement of 1919. Afghanistan had re-established its self determination in foreign affairs.

In May 1921, Afghanistan and the Russian Soviet Republic signed a Treaty of Friendship. The Soviets provided aid in the form of cash, technology, and military equipment. British influence in Afghanistan now waned, but relations between Afghanistan and the Russians remained equivocal, with many Afghanis desiring to regain control of Merv and Panjdeh. The Soviets, for their part, desired to extract more from the friendship treaty than Amanullah was willing to give.

Amanullah's program of reform was, however, insufficient to strengthen the army quickly enough — in 1928 he abdicated under pressure. After this Mohammed Nadir Shah reigned from 1929 to 1933. Both the Soviets and the British played the circumstances to their advantage: the Soviets getting aid in dealing with Uzbek rebellion in 1930 and 1931, while the British aided Afghanistan in creating a 40,000 man professional army.

1933- ‘73 Reign of  King Mohammed Zaher Shah which saw the longest period of stability in  modern Afghanistan.

With the advent of World War Two came the temporary alignment of British and Soviet interests. In 1940, both these governments were seen to pressure Afghanistan for the removal of a large German non-diplomatic contingent, which was felt by both governments to be engaged in espionage.

1959  Wearing of the veil became optional.

1964  Women were given the right to vote.

1965  The First Parliamentary elections take place.

1973  The monarchy is overthrown in a bloodless coup by Mohammed Daoud (Zaher Shah’s brother in law) who institutes the First Republic of Afghanistan of which he becomes the first president.

April 1978 Another coup, this time by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), overthrew Daoud’s regime and put into place the second republic. Noor Mohammed Taraki is the president and Hafizullah Amin the prime minister. The country was renamed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Once in power, the PDPA moved to permit freedom of religion and carried out an ambitious land reform, waiving farmers' debts countrywide. They also made a number of statements on women’s rights and introduced women to political life. A prominent example was Anahita Ratebzad, who was a major Marxist leader and a member of the Revolutionary Council. Ratebzad wrote in the New Kabul times editorial (May 28th, 1978): “Privileges, which women by right must have, are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of the country .... Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention.”

The majority of people in the cities including Kabul either welcomed or were ambivalent to these policies. However, the secular nature of the government made it unpopular with religiously conservative Afghans in the villages and the countryside, who favoured traditionalist 'Islamic' restrictions on women's rights and in daily life.

1979  The U.S. saw the situation as a prime opportunity to weaken the Soviet Union. As part of a cold war strategy, in 1979 the US government at the time lead by President Jimmy Carter with began to covertly fund and train anti-government Mujahidin forces through the Pakistani secret service known as inter-services intelligence (ISI), with the intention of provoking Soviet intervention. The Mujahidin belonged to various different factions, but all shared, to varying degrees, a similarly conservative 'Islamic' ideology.

Note: Mujahidin/ Mujahideen: fighters for the faith; members of the Afghani Islamic Resistance during the Soviet Occupation (1979-‘89)  

In March of 1979 Hafizullah Amin took over as Prime Minister in Afghanistan, while retaining his position of Field Marshall and also becoming vice-president of the Supreme Defence Council. Taraki remained President and in control of the Army until the 14th of September, when Amin overthrew Taraki, who either died then or was killed.

In order to bolster the Parcham faction, the Soviet Union citing that 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighbourliness that had been signed between the two countries back then, intervened on December the 24th 1979. Over 100,000 Soviet troops took part in the invasion backed by another 100,000 plus and by members of the Parcham faction. Hafizullah Amin was killed and replaced by Babrak Karmal who remained as president until 1986.

The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan resulted in the killings of at least 600,000 to 2 million Afghan civilians. Over five million Afghans fled their country to Pakistan, Iran and other parts of the world.

1986 - ‘92 Presidency of Dr Najibullah.

April 1988 Signature of the Geneva Accord under the aegis of the United Nations, by the Kabul Government, The Soviet Union, Pakistan and the United States, which put a timetable on the retreat of the Soviet Army.

February 1989 saw the ending of the evacuation of Soviet troops.The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan was seen as an ideological victory in the US, which had backed the Mujahidin through three US presidential administrations in order to counter Soviet influence in the vicinity of the oil-rich Persian Gulf. However, following the removal of the Soviet forces, the US and its allies lost interest in Afghanistan and did little to help rebuild the war-ravaged country or influence events there. On the other hand, the USSR continued to support President Najibullah, (former head of the Afghan secret service, KHAD) until 1992 when the new Russian government refused to sell oil products to the Najibullah regime.

March 1992  The troops of Commander Massoud take over the northern provinces.

April 1992 Massoud’s Mujahidin take over Kabul. The Islamic State of Afghanistan is proclaimed. Sebghatullah Modjaddedi becomes president for two months and is then replaced by Burhanuddin Rabbani in June. Civil War begins again between the forces of Commander Massoud and extremist Islamic fighters supported by Pakistan. These ‘Taliban’ win their first victory in the south when they take over Kandahar in 1994.

Note: Taliban (singular Talib). Religious students. In the case of Afghanistan in the 1990’s, militants trained in Pakistani Koranic schools. These schools or madrases are part of the Deobandi school of thought. This orthodox strain of Islam, which preaches purification from all foreign influence, is an extremely narrow reading of the Koranic message. It was founded at the end of the nineteenth century in Deoband in the North of India and upheld by the British who wanted a religious power that could provide a counter-force to Hinduism (source Latifa)   

1994 Rise of the Taliban with Pakistani and Saudi (incl. Bin Laden) support. The most serious fighting during this period occurred in 1994, when over 10,000 people were killed in Kabul alone. It was at this time that the Taliban developed as a politico-religious force, eventually seizing Kabul in 1996.

1997 -‘98 The Taliban advance into the north. Several times they take and lose Mazar-e-Sharif. Their victory is effective in August 1998. By the end of 2000 the Taliban had captured 95% of the country. Commander Massoud withdraws to the valley of Panshir and became the sole active opponent of the Taliban Regime.
 
During the Taliban's seven-year rule, much of the population experienced restrictions on their freedom and violations of their human rights. Men were required to grow beards. Women were banned from their jobs, girls were forbidden to attend schools or universities. All the women could do was stay at home. Many women died from treatable diseases because they were not allowed to be touched by male doctors. People believed to be communists were systematically eradicated and thieves were punished by amputating one of their hands or their feet.

9 September 2001 Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud is the victim of an assassination attempt, but it is not until the 13th of September that his death is officially announced.

11th September 2001 Islamic forces allegedly with Afghan and Al-Qaeda backing, attack the USA. Following this horrific event, the US launched a military campaign to destroy the Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan. The US military also threatened to overthrow the Taliban government for refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden and several Al-Qaeda members and making common cause with the former Afghan Mujahidin including the Northern Alliance to achieve its ends.



 

There have been many people who have done great things in our world and they are not always remembered or even known. This powerful post by one of my contacts is one of these and well worth taking time to read.

Whatever, it is certainly not about promoting Peace and Unity.

Yesterday I was puzzled by the sudden advent on some peoples' blogs by a cartoon that had been printed and discussed to death a year or two ago; I refer of course, to the cartooned head of a man whose turban is drawn to resemble a bomb. I gather from reading some people's blogs that yet again some ignorant insensitive oaf who purports to be human has reprinted these cartoons again and so once again the image is being reproduced on blogs as a representation of "free speech" - one person going as far as to reproduce the image six or eight times. I have removed myself from a group that person owns.

The message seems to be, "lighten up Muslims, we find it funny so you should", an attitude reminiscent of nasty cartoons or pornography from the past that degraded women; remember when women objected and they too were told "lighten up ya tight ass bitches, are ya frigid or something". It seems that some people know no boundaries, that they think they can exploit and walk all over and trample through other peoples' spaces and that this is even their right to do so, and have you noticed how they always seem to pick on the most vulnerable while using the language of the moral right, "Hey ya'all, we got free speech, ya know"!

Wake up fools. Free speech was always about being able to criticise governments without the risk of being executed, free speech was about being able to discuss ideas, free speech is intended to enable progress. It was never intended as a right to put down or to grind other human beings faces into the dirt with your great clumping heels. Moreover the concept of "free speech" is a concept expected to be tempered with using responsibility, an opportunity to weigh your words and think first before you speak, to think about whether what you might have to say would be unreasonably hurtful to another or whether your verbal diarrhea may in fact inflame an already bad situation.

To print and then reprint those cartoons is not "free speech", it is in fact "hate speech" and yet more bigotry trying to disguise itself as free speech.

We are still at the beginning of a new century. All of us in this world face enormous problems together and now more than ever we need to learn not to manufacture issues to further divide ourselves but rather to learn how we can work together. And we need to do it sooner rather than later.