Soraya Tarzi: The Queen of Afghanistan who hated the hijab

Everyone knows when Islam came, but the question of when the burqa came for women in Islam is wrapped in many myths. Today, be it Afghanistan or Iran, Pakistan, India or Bangladesh, the mullahs of mosques give great emphasis on burqa hijab. But if the soil of history is trampled with a piece of wood instead of a shovel, then the emphasis of the burqa in the Indian subcontinent came more in the last 50 years. Whoever saw, imprisoned 50 percent of the women of the Muslim population of one billion of these countries in black shrouds.

You must have seen the picture of Afghanistan in the 70’s when most of the women there lived in skirts. Even in Iran, the 70s was such that independent women used to roam around the beach in bikinis. Shoot salwar or sari used to be the dress of Muslim women in India. Muslim women still wear saris in many places in Bengal, Bihar and Bangladesh. Even in Pakistan, educated women used to wear saris till the sixties and seventies. Even Benazir Bhutto came to Shimla agreement wearing her father’s saree.

But today in India and Pakistan, mullahs send these women curses, then in Afghanistan women without burqa are lashed out. Because the mullahs have put all the weight of Islam on Muslim women, that we will do ayasi, you carry Islam.

But talking about Afghanistan, there was no such time in this Afghanistan, at that time the mother of Princess India living in Rome was ruled by her mother’s name was Queen Soraya Taraji, a queen who was born in exile and died in exile. She spent 10 years as Queen of Afghanistan and Soraya Tarzi gave the women of her country a fascinating glimpse of a free future that is being remembered more fully today a century later.

Actually there was a Sardar Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi, he had once fled from Afghanistan to Syria. At that time Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire. Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi had a son named Sardar Mahmud Baig Tarzi, in this Tarzi family a girl was born on 24 November 1899. The name was named Soraya Tarzi. The girl may have been born in the house of a Muslim but broke the shackles of Islam after a short time.

But there was a tightness inside the girl and that was her country, Afghanistan, where she wanted to go. Well, his wish was fulfilled. In October 1901, when Habibullah Khan became the king of Afghanistan, he first started the work of bringing the exiled people back to Afghanistan. Sardar Mahmud Baig Tarzi also returned to his homeland with his daughter Soraya Tarzi. At that time Soraya was about eleven and twelve years old. According to Habibullah Khan’s wishes, the Tarji family was welcomed into the court. The reception was going on that suddenly Soraya met a boy, the boy’s name was Amanullah, later it was found out that Amanullah is none other than Prince Amanullah, son of King Habibullah Khan.

Time progressed a bit, the relationship between the two families became stronger and in the year 1913, 24-year-old Soraya was married to Prince Amanullah Khan at the Qawm-e-Bagh Palace in Kabul. Soraya had a statement that Muslim women should not do purdah and men should not marry more than once. When Amanullah Khan took over the power of Afghanistan in 1919 after 6 years of marriage, the ideas of wife Soraya Tarzi caught the attention of the people. These ideas were new to a country that had been living in a tribal and conservative culture for centuries. She used to participate with the king in all national events, that is, the Muslim wife of history who not only appeared in public with her husband but also went on horseback, to participate in the cabinet meetings of the country.

As soon as she became queen, Soraya Tarji publicly campaigned against the burqa, freeing the women of the country from the burqa hijab. After this, a campaign was launched against more than one marriage. Now no mullah could have more than one wife. Apart from this, from Kabul to the entire rural belt of Afghanistan, not only encouraged the education of girls but also opened schools for them. Now a wonderful speech of King Amanullah happened In this speech, the king said from the stage that in Islam there is no need for women to cover their bodies or wear any special type of hijab, burqa or veil. From today onwards women are also free like men and it was amazing on this platform that at the conclusion of the speech, Rani Soraya tore her hijab in public. Seeing this, all the Afghan girls present there also took off their hijab. That is, the queen and Afghan women broke the centuries-old tradition forced upon her and she became one of the most important figures of Afghan and Islam one.

The year was 1926 and on the seventh anniversary of independence from the British, Soraya gave a public speech to the Afghan society. His speech was that this freedom belongs to all of us and that is why we celebrate it. But do you think that our nation needs only men to serve it from the very beginning? Women should also take their part, we all should contribute in the development of our nation and this cannot be done without women being equipped with knowledge. After this, Afghan girls started sending the queen abroad to study. During this time, Queen Soraya visited Europe in which she was without a burqa with European men and in some pictures she was wearing a sleeveless dress.

That is, Afghan women imprisoned by mullahs and religion had become free, but there was a sharp criticism in many sections of Afghanistan for sending ‘virgin girls abroad’. On one side there were the reforms of the king and queen and on the other side the mullahs. Just the mullahs started provoking the Afghan society. A civil war broke out in the country by standing strong against the king. By the year 1929, the king resigned to stop the civil war and came to India for refuge. Where his youngest daughter was born in Bombay. For this reason, he named his daughter India Princess India. Who now lives in Italy.

Now the king and queen came to India from Afghanistan and there was power of Mohammad Nadir Shah of radical Islamic thinking, who was the ruler of Afghanistan from 1929 to 1933. Nadir Shah closed the schools opened for girls as soon as he arrived and re-implemented the burqa. But the father’s policy did not go down well with the son and Mohammad Zahir Shah, the son of Nadir Shah and the long-time ruler of Afghanistan, who was the king of Afghanistan from 1933-1973, gradually revived the policies of Rani Soraya and Amanullah’s tenure. implemented. That is, until 1973, Afghanistan was not a victim of complete mulling, but after that the war between the Soviet Union and the Taliban started and Afghan women were imprisoned in burqa. Following this, once in Pakistan, Ziahul Haq also brought Pakistani women from sari to burqa.

That is, it is clear that Islam came to the Indian subcontinent centuries ago, but the dogma came within the last 30 forty years, in which men got a cap, beard, elder brother’s kurta and younger brother got pajamas, along with women got slavery of black shroud. This is the reason that even today, the independent women of Afghanistan consider Soraya as their ideal, a queen who broke the shackles of Islamic society. Now once again the world is looking at Afghanistan, especially everyone is watching what will happen to women in Afghanistan now under Taliban rule.

BY- Rajeev Choudhary