Afghans Seek a Return to Their 'Decade of Democracy' - 0 views
-
While U.S. troops and NATO allies prepare for their withdrawal, many older Afghans are invoking a brief shining moment—call it their “Camelot” moment—when Afghanistan almost became a modern democracy on its own, without any help or interference from the United States or other major powers.
-
then-King Mohammed Zahir Shah launched a democratic project, drawing up a radical new constitution that granted his people freedom of thought, expression, and assembly while limiting the powers of his royal family.
-
The “decade of democracy” ended in 1973 when Mohammed Daoud Khan, the king’s cousin, staged a peaceful coup and became the new republic’s first president.
- ...3 more annotations...
-
Shah’s democratic experiment ended abruptly, but the policies of his cousin and the PDPA’s bloody coup ultimately destroyed it, and Afghanistan once again became a plaything for superpowers—in particular, the Soviet Union. In December 1979, the Red Army entered Afghanistan to end the PDPA’s internal disputes once and for all.
-
At the same time, the country’s leadership—in particular, the king himself—walked freely among his subjects, often alone and without a security detail—something unimaginable now when even minor dignitaries and their children can’t venture out without their pick-up convoys and Kalashnikovs.
-
He resolved through diplomatic means disputes over water rights with Iran, widened the scope of political participation with different members of society while also pushing forth an increasingly religious ethos in his government. It was during his time in office that the adhan, the Muslim call for prayer, usually blared out of the country’s thousands of mosques, was aired for the first time on the national radio.