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Kabul – Funeral Ceremony of the ‘Father of Nation’

I have the rare opportunity to attend the state funeral ceremony of Muhammad Zahir Shah, the former and the last king of Afghanistan, who died at the age of 92. The king reigned from 1933 to 1973, before being overthrown by his own cousin Muhammad Daoud who started the history of Afghanistan as a republic. The forty years of his monarchy leadership was always remembered as the peaceful era in Afghanistan history, which had been almost always carved by blood. His father, the king Nadir Shah, was assassinated by a student, which then brought the young Zahir, 19 years old at that time, to the throne. Assassinations and bloody coups are not new things in Afghanistan. Nadir came to power also due to a bloody civil war rouse by the controversial modernity programs promoted by the former king, Amanullah Khan. In 1929, there were three different kings sat on the throne consequently. People were sacrificed in struggle to power. It is blood which dominated history of Afghanistan. During the reign of Zahir Shah, who saw the assassination of his father in front of his eyes, the country was relatively ‘quiet’. Young Zahir ascended to the throne, but in his first [...]

July 24, 2007 // 0 Comments

Kabul – Long Holiday

King Zahir Shah on an old Afghanistan postage stamp. “Iran has banned national flag from flying at half-mast during mourning period, because the flag contains holy symbols of ALLAH, holy sentence of ‘la illaha ha ilallah (there is no God but ALLAH), and ‘Allahoakbar (Allah is great),” said an article on an Indonesian Internet newspaper today. I was interested by this topic, and asked my colleague whether Afghanistan has the same policy. My friend didn’t understand my question. “What is half mast?” he asked “It is the culture to fly the national flag at half portion of the pole, to show mourning,” I answered. “Why mourning?” he still didn’t get my question. “Well… for example, there is someone very, very important in the country, dies. Then all people in the country mourning. Then it’s the culture to put the flag at half of the pole.” “Why doing that?” he asked me more than what I was asking. “I don’t know. That’s the culture everywhere.” “I don’t know too.” I didn’t get the answer. But on the very same day, I got the answer. This noon, a colleague came to our office, saying excitedly, “Baba-i-millat has just passed away!” ‘Baba-i-millat’? I [...]

July 23, 2007 // 0 Comments