Soraya Tarzi

Suraiya Shahzada Tarzi was born on 24 November 1899, in Damascus, Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire. She was the daughter of the Afghan political figure Sardar Mahmud Beg Tarzi, and granddaughter of Sardar Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi.^{[citation needed]} She studied in Syria, learning Western and modern values,^[3] which would influence her future actions and beliefs. Her mother was the Syrian feminist Asma Rasmya Khanum, second wife of her father, and daughter of Sheikh Muhammad Saleh al-Fattal Effendi, of Aleppo, Muezzin of the Umayyad Mosque.^[4][5]

Upon her family's return to Afghanistan, Soraya Tarzi would meet and marry then prince Amanullah.^[3]

After the Tarzis returned to Afghanistan, they were received at Court as wished by the Amir Habibullah Khan. This is where Soraya Tarzi met Habibullah's son Prince Amanullah. They struck an affinity. The prince, who was a sympathiser of Mahmud Tarzi's liberal ideas, married Soraya Tarzi on 30 August 1913 at Qawm-i-Bagh Palace in Kabul.^[3][2] Soraya Tarzi became the future King Amanullah's only wife, which broke centuries of tradition: Amanullah was to dissolve the royal harem when he succeeded to the throne and free the enslaved women of the harem.^[6] It was when she married into the royal family that she grew to be one of the region's most important figures.^[1]

When the prince became Amir in 1919 and subsequently King in 1926, the Queen had an important role in the evolution of the country. Queen Soraya was the first Muslim consort who appeared in public together with her husband, something which was unheard of at the time.^[1] She participated with him in the hunting parties,^[7] riding on horseback, and in some Cabinet meetings.

 

 

The emancipation of women was a part of Amanullah's reform policy, and the women of the royal family, particularly his wife and sisters, acted as the role models of this change. Many women from Amanullah's family publicly participated in organizations and went on to become government officials later in life.^[2]

In 1921 she founded and contributed to ^[8] the first magazine for women, Ishadul Naswan (Guidance for Women)^[2] which was edited by her mother,^[8] as well as the first women's organisation, Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan,^[9] which promoted women's welfare and had an office to which women could report mistreatment by their husbands, brothers, and fathers.^[6] She founded a theatre in Paghman which, although segregated for women, still gave women an opportunity to find their own social scene and break the harem seclusion.^[6]

King Amanullah Khan said, "I am your King, but the Minister of Education is my wife — your Queen".^[1] Queen Soraya encouraged women to get education and opened the first primary school for girls in Kabul, the Masturat School (later the Ismat Malalai School),^[10][11] in 1921, as well as the first hospital for women, the Masturat Hospital, in 1924.^[8] In 1926 on the anniversary of independence from the British, Soraya gave a public speech:^[12]

It (Independence) belongs to all of us and that is why we celebrate it. Do you think, however, that our nation from the outset needs only men to serve it? Women should also take their part as women did in the early years of our nation and Islam. From their examples we must learn that we must all contribute toward the development of our nation and that this cannot be done without being equipped with knowledge. So we should all attempt to acquire as much knowledge as possible, in order that we may render our services to society in the manner of the women of early Islam.

She sent 15 young women to Turkey for higher education in 1928.^[2][12] These fifteen were all graduates of the Masturat middle school she had founded, mainly daughters of the royal family and government officials.^[6]

The Swedish memoir writer Rora Asim Khan, who lived in Afghanistan with her Afghan husband in 1926–1927, describe in her memoirs how she was invited to the Queen at Paghman and Darullaman to describe Western life style and fashion to the Queen and the king's mother; she noted that the Queen had many questions, since she was soon due to visit Europe.^[13]

In 1927–1928, Soraya and her husband visited Europe.^[2][14] In 1928, the King and Queen received honorary degrees from Oxford University, being seen as both promoters of enlightened Western values, and ruling an important buffer state, between the British Indian empire, and Soviet ambitions.^[15] The Queen spoke to a large group of students and leaders.

The unveiling of women was a controversial part of the reform policy. Women of the royal family already wore Western fashion before the accession of Amanullah, but they did so only within the enclosed royal palace complex and always covered themselves in a veil when leaving the royal area. On August 29, 1928, Amanullah held a Loya Jirgah,^[16] a Grand Assembly of Tribal Elders, to endorse his development programs, and to which the 1,100 delegates were required to wear European clothes provided for them by the state. Amanullah argued for women's rights to education and equality and removed her veil during a speech she gave at the meeting.^[16] In Kabul, this policy was also endorsed by reserving certain streets for men and women dressed in modern Western clothing. Conservatives objected to the unveiling of women, but did not say so openly at the meeting, instead beginning to mobilize public opinion after their return from the meeting.^[6]

The British did not have a good relationship with Soraya's family as a whole, for the chief representative of Afghanistan that they had to deal with was her father, Mahmud Tarzi.^[2][7]

 

In 1929, the King abdicated in order to prevent a civil war and went into exile.^[3] Queen Soraya lived in exile in Rome, Italy, with her family, having been invited by Italy.^[3] She died on 20 April 1968 in Rome.^[3][7]

The funeral was escorted by the Italian military team to the Rome airport, before being taken to Afghanistan where a solemn state funeral was held. She is buried in Bagh-e Amir Shaheed,^[17] the family mausoleum in a large marble plaza, covered by a dome roof held up by blue columns in the heart of Jalalabad, next to her husband the King, who had died eight years earlier.^[3]

Her youngest daughter, Princess India of Afghanistan, visited Afghanistan in the 2000s, setting up various charity projects.^[3][18] Princess India was also an honorary cultural ambassador of Afghanistan to Europe.^[18] In September 2011, Princess India of Afghanistan was honored by the Afghan-American Women Association for her work in women's rights.^[19]

National honour

• Grand Collar of the Order of the Supreme Sun.

Foreign honours

• Time Magazine's woman of the Year, 1927.^[20]
• Decoration of al-Kemal in brilliants (Kingdom of Egypt, 26 December 1927).
• Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom, 13 March 1928).

^[12][21][22]

 

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• Old pictures of the Queen Soraya of Afghanistan