✍️ By: Hamia Naderi
During the reign of King Amanullah Khan (1919–1929), Afghan women and girls experienced an unprecedented wave of progress: they attended school for the first time, women’s hospitals and publications were established, and — for the first time — girls were sent abroad to pursue higher education.
In 1921, Afghanistan and Turkey signed their first cultural agreement, and in 1923 or 1928 (sources vary), a group of Afghan students, including several young women, was sent to study in Turkey.
According to Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, the first group of Afghan girls left for Turkey in 1928. One of them, according to Adina Niazi — founder of the Afghan Women’s Organization in Toronto — was her mother, who recalled feeling “incredibly fortunate to be among the first Afghan women to study abroad.”
Their exact number and names remain unknown, but a black-and-white photo from October 1928 shows 13 students before departure, with a caption in Persian: “On Sunday, 9 Mizan 1307, at 9:30 AM, they departed.”
That same year, Amanullah Khan visited Turkey, signing a friendship treaty with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, further strengthening ties.
But just a year later, in 1929, Habibullah Kalakani overthrew Amanullah Khan, abolished the constitution, shuttered schools, enforced mandatory veiling, and recalled the girls from Turkey before they could finish their studies. The calendar reverted from solar to lunar, and Kalakani declared himself “Commander of the Faithful.”
Nearly a century later, history repeats itself. Today, under the Taliban, girls’ schools are closed, higher education for women is banned, forced dress codes have returned, and Afghan girls are barred from traveling abroad without a male guardian. Even the calendar has shifted back to lunar, and the Taliban’s leader claims the same title: “Commander of the Faithful.”
This dark cycle shows how fragile progress for Afghan women has been — and how determined they remain in the face of repression.
