afghanistan
Dissent quickly turned to outright revolt. When ’Aman Allah Khan
tried to persuade Qazi ‘Abd al-Rahman, Kabul’s most senior religious
judge, to issue a fatwa legitimizing his reforms, the qazi, who was a murid
of the Hazrat of Shor Bazaar, refused. When the king threatened him with
execution, ‘Abd al-Rahman, Gul Aga and other dissident ‘ulama’ from
Kohistan and Tagab fled to Khost and tried to persuade the Ahmadzais
to rebel. Instead they were betrayed and arrested. Qazi ‘Abd al-Rahman
and three of his male relatives were publicly executed for treason in late
October 1928. 52
’Aman Allah Khan refused to back down despite the rising tide
of protest. At the end of October the king held a darbar of his closest
sup porters and over four consecutive days he outlined even more rad -
ical reforms. Thursday was to be the official holiday rather than Friday,
the Islamic Sabbath; everyone living in, or visiting, Kabul had to wear
European clothes, and polygamy was abolished. There was to be compul-
sory co-education for all children, foreign-run schools were to be opened
in every province and Afghan girls would be sent to study in Europe. ’Aman
Allah Khan then launched a virulent attack on the religious establishment,
blaming them for all the country’s ills. At the conclusion of his peroration,
he reiterated his opposition to parda, whereupon Queen Soraya and the
other women present tore off their veils to rapturous applause. The king’s
speech and the Queen’s ill-timed piece of theatre were the last straw.
The rebellions in Nangahar and the Koh DamanA few weeks later the Shinwaris of Nangahar rebelled, citing a variety
of reasons including taxation, conscription, the enforcement of Western
dress, the venality of government officials and the Queen’s conduct. A
number of religious figures then issued fatwas in support of the revolt and
denounced the king and his administration as kafir. The air force was sent
to bomb rebel Shinwari villages, whereupon the Shinwaris, Mohmands
and Khogiyanis joined the uprising too. By the end of November Jalalabad
and most of southeastern Afghanistan was in rebel hands. Ghulam Siddiq
Charkhi was sent to negotiate with the rebels, but instead they presented
him with a series of demands that included the abrogation of all recent
legal, fiscal and social reforms, the abolition of conscription and the restor-
ation of the ‘ulama’s dominant role in the judiciary. The manifesto also
demanded that the king divorce Queen Soraya, send her and the Tarzi
family into exile and expel all Turkish advisers and foreign diplomats, with
the exception of the British. 53 In response ’Aman Allah Khan secured his