✍️ By: Hamia Naderi
Asma Rasmiya Tarzi was born in Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the Middle East and a major center of Islamic civilization, during the Ottoman Empire.
Her father, Sheikh Mohammad Saleh, was the muezzin of the Umayyad Grand Mosque in Damascus—a historic mosque dating back to the Umayyad era and now a prominent landmark of the city.
In 1891, she married Mahmud Tarzi, an exiled Afghan politician and journalist, and through this union, her name became etched in the history of Afghanistan.
In 1902, after Mahmud Tarzi was pardoned by Habibullah Khan, then-king of Afghanistan, she accompanied her husband to Kabul.
She entered a deeply traditional and conservative society, even though she had grown up in the more open and progressive environment of the Ottoman Empire regarding women’s roles.
In 1913, her daughter Soraya Tarzi married Amanullah Khan, who ascended to the throne in 1919. Queen Soraya and King Amanullah made women’s education, freedom, and intellectual independence priorities of their reign.
To promote girls’ education, they founded Afghanistan’s first girls’ school, Masturat, in 1921. Asma Rasmiya was appointed principal and teacher, thus becoming the first Afghan woman to lead a girls’ school.
Initially, the school enrolled just 34 students, but soon the number grew to 200. In 1942, its name was changed from Masturat to Malalai, which it still bears today.
Queen Soraya and one of her sisters served as deputies to their mother at the school, which also employed teachers from Turkey, Germany, and India alongside Afghan educators.
During Amanullah Khan’s reign, press freedom and the development of media became crucial to his modernization efforts, with Mahmud Tarzi playing a key role.
In 1921, the king approved the launch of Afghanistan’s first women’s magazine, Irshad-al-Niswan, and Asma Rasmiya was appointed editor-in-chief—the first Afghan woman to hold such a position.
The weekly publication featured articles on women’s independence, freedom, and education, striving to raise awareness and empower women in various fields.
Although remembered as Afghanistan’s first female teacher and journalist, little is known about her life beyond her close association with her husband, Mahmud Tarzi, and her daughter, Queen Soraya.
