a house divided, 1933–73Lilian Starr, Matron
of the Church
Missionary Society’s
hospital in Peshawar,
dressed in Afridi
costume shortly after
her dramatic rescue
of Molly Ellis in 1923.
Five years earlier, her
husband, Dr Harold
Vernon Starr, had been
stabbed to death by
an Afridi. Up until the
1950s, missionaries
were not allowed to
work in Afghanistan,
though many Afghans
crossed the frontier
to receive medical
attention in mission
hospitals in the
Northwest Frontier
and Baluchistan.
After Christian
organizations began
operating inside
Afghanistan, the
security organs kept
a close watch on their
activities.
sign a written undertaking not to engage in proselytizing, but the organ-
ization’s Director, Colonel Alan Norrish, a former British Indian army
officer, informed them that many iam members would refuse to do so on
principle. 58 Shafiq, too, refused to back down and the expulsions went
ahead. For President Richard Nixon, whose Republican Party relied heavily
on the Evangelical and Fundamentalist vote, the incident could not have
come at a worse time for he was fighting for his political life as a result of
the Watergate scandal.
Having created a storm of controversy with powerful Western nations,
Shafiq then proceeded to antagonize the ussr by denying a Soviet request
to open a Cultural Centre in Kabul, turning down a proposal to construct
more bridges across the Amu Darya and an offer to extend the Soviet
railhead at Hairatan to Mazar-i Sharif. In late May 1973 Nikolai Podgorny,