Soviets Withdrawal: Void After Victory
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 14:18 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Ten years later, they withdrew defeated. But what resulted was not the peace that everyone had hoped for.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan Today
Theme:
Geography & Destiny
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1989
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>Dupree, Nancy. <i>80-655-4</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang"><i>H-00214-30</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Kingruedi. "Evstafiev-afghan-apc-passes-russian." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evstafiev-afghan-apc-passes-russian.jpg.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang"><i>Q-00481-27</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Q2-01283-33</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Q2-01290-06</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-06216</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Stone Upon My Soul (Russian Propaganda Film Showing Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan)</i>. Salvaged and cleaned up by Gregory Whitmore. Williams Afghan Media Project, previously unpublished. </div>
<hr />
<div class="hang">Producer: Alexis Menten</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Ten years later, in 1989, they withdrew defeated. How did it come to this?</p>
<p>After the Soviet invasion, there was prolonged fighting throughout the 1980s. The Soviet-Afghan War was really a kind of stalemate—neither side could defeat the other.</p>
<p>Eventually, a variety of factors ended the stalemate. One important one was the decision of the American government to provide stinger shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles that neutralized the one big advantage that the Soviets had, which was their helicopters. And when they were neutralized, the Mujahiedeen began to take control of the countryside and really to push the Soviets into their bases and into the cities.</p>
<p>Ultimately another advantage that the Mujahideen had was that they were going to stay longer than the Soviets were. And this coincided with a period where the Soviet Union was suffering severe economic consequences of their own internal problems, the war was unpopular and ultimately within a year after their departure from Afghanistan the Soviet Union began to break apart.</p>
<p>The end result though was not the peace and prosperity that all had longed for. The freedom may have been won but it was won at a cost and what was left behind when the Soviets withdrew were a group of political parties, all of whom wanted power for themselves.</p>
<p>Translated lyrics of Russian song: </p>
<p class="rteindent1"><strong><span><em>In Afghanistan<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>in the black Tulip<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>with vodka in our glasses<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>we float silently over the earth<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>mournful bird, flies over the border<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>toward the Russian dawn</em></span></strong></p>
<p class="rteindent1"><strong><span><em>Carrying her boys home<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>soldiers return, to their beloved motherland<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>to lie in the earth<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>on a leave without end<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>torn to pieces<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>never to embrace<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>over the oasis of Jalabad.</em></span></strong></p>
<p class="rteindent1"><strong><span><em>Our tulip tilted on one wing<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>we cursed our job<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>again the boy has led his men to death<br />
</em></span></strong><strong><span><em>in Shindad, </em></span></strong><strong><span><em>Kandahar, and Begram.</em></span></strong></p>
<p class="rteindent1"> </p>
Perseverance of a People
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 14:12 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>During the Soviet War, millions of refugees began to flee Afghanistan. They went to Pakistan and Iran where they lived in massive settlements along the borders. During Taliban rule, their numbers increased. Millions remain displaced today.</p>
Theme:
Geography & Destiny
Identity & Perception
Traces & Narratives
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1985
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p><i>1139-22A</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang">"Dastgah-e Mahur: Tasnif "Mahd-e Honor"" In <i>Music of Iran I</i>. King Record, 1989, CD.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>82-3180</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>85-34</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>88-484</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00230-16</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00230-29</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00230-35</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00231-31</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00233-16</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">ISAF. "100109-F-3231D-132." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4275299735/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang">ISAF. "100109-F-3231D-230." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4275297941/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, and U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R. Nelson. "081031-N-6651N-118." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3040036131/in/set-72157609526139956/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, and U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R. Nelson. "081031-N-6651N-138." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3040877890/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, and U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R. Nelson. "081031-N-6651N-153." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3040880454/in/set-72157609526139956/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez, and U.S. Air Force. "091103-F-9171L-074." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4085601238/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Kanalstein, Eric. "Http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/4176333167/." Digital image. United Nations Photo's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/4176333167/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en.</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang"><i>L-00345-01</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Morrison, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry, U.S. Department of Defense, and ISAF. "08.12.2009.GATES.KARZAI.1." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4170969805/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Nelson, Navy Mass Communications Specialist Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R., and ISAF. "081031-N-6651N-183." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3040047679/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Nelson, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R. "081031-N-6651N-176." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3040046369/in/set-72157609526139956/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Nelson, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R., and ISAF. "081031-N-6651N-078." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3040028919/in/photostream/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Nelson, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R., and ISAF. "090418-N-6651N-001." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 5, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3454878183/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>News Broadcast</i>. Peshawar: Williams Afghan Media Project.</div>
<div class="hang">Purschwitz, Lance Cpl. James, and Navy Visual News Service. "091029-M-2581P-478." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4081580955/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>"Save Me From My Friends!"</i> In <i>Afghanistan Old Photos</i>. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.afghanistan-photos.com/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-04717</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-04719</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">USAID. "Afghan Refugees Returning from Pakistan in 2004." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghan_refugees_returning_from_Pakistan_in_2004.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>V2-01440-05</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<hr />
<div class="hang">Producer: Kate Harding</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>During the Soviet War, millions of refugees began fleeing Afghanistan. They went to Pakistan and Iran, where they lived in massive settlements along the borders. During Taliban rule, their numbers increased.</p>
<p>When the Americans came, the refugees began returning to Afghanistan, along with a new generation of foreign-born offspring. Since 2002, an estimated 5 million people have returned to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>But still many of these returnees remain homeless and displaced in their own country. The influx of people has put new pressure on a system that is already stretched to its capacity. Millions remain displaced and are in desperate need of food, clean drinking water, and shelter.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, when the flow of displacement was just beginning, anthropologist David Edwards worked among Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan.</p>
<p>What was remarkable to me was just how adaptable Afghans were, that whole families picked up and took their essential belongings, which they could fit on a few horses or donkeys or camels, cross the border, and within a matter of a few weeks were—first, often they were given tents by the UNHCR—the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.</p>
<p>Within a matter of a few weeks they were building walls around those tents, and houses with rooms, and after a while the tents were gone. The tents provided emergency shelter briefly, but for the most part they knew how to make their own houses out of mud, out of wood. And they were able to get food and other supplies and water. Imagine that in America. What would happen if 3 ½ million people were thrown on their own devices—they had to suddenly survive.</p>
<p>I think one of the misconceptions about Afghans that’s developed over the last few years is the idea that they are treacherous or deceitful, that they change sides, that you—one of the phrases you hear is you can’t buy an Afghan, you can only rent one.</p>
<p>All of those ideas, I think, misconceive the nature of Afghan culture and also of Afghan history. They are a small nation and they have been manipulated by great powers for generations.</p>
<p>The only way that they have been able to survive intact is by maintaining a flexibility and adaptiveness.</p>
<p>I think that if you look at the structure of the tribe, for example, it’s really all about adaptation. The tribe can expand when opportunities allow it to expand, and it can shrink and contract when opportunities disappear.</p>
<p>Afghans have shown an incredible adaptability over time, and environmental—the problems of when there are great droughts, when foreign conquerors overrun the country, the tribes somehow survive.</p>
<p>They’ve survived being refugees in Pakistan for 20 years; they’ve survived so many different kinds of problems that other forms of social organization would not have survived. So I think you have to understand the one important element about the Afghan survival and their ability to deal with the awful situation that they’ve found themselves in so often, is their ability to be flexible. And part of that flexibility is being careful about political allegiances; recognizing that people who are making promises today will probably not be around tomorrow, so that all those promises are contingent.</p>
<p>And I think one thing Afghans recognize is that history is contingent. It’s dependent upon variables that are outside their control. And to offer undying allegiance to an imperial power is madness, because imperial powers have shown over and over again that they are not gonna be around after awhile.</p>
<p>But for now, the question of Afghanistan’s displaced masses is one that is felt not just by Afghanistan but by many countries, as the world tries to decide which borders will be open to Afghans seeking a home.</p>
Religious Authority
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 13:59 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>Islam in Afghanistan is deeply connected to power. But there are different types of power. Religious leaders have not often become political leaders—that is, until the Taliban.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan Today
Theme:
Identity & Perception
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1983
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>Bluuurgh. "Taliban in Herat." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taliban-herat-2001_retouched.jpg.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang">Burke, John. <i>Besutee Hazara Chiefs [Hazaras of Besud]</i>. 1879. Courtesy of the British Library Board, London.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Burke, John. <i>High Priests and Moolahs of Kaubul.</i> 1879. Courtesy of the British Library Board, London.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>85-124</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>A Sign for a Mosque and Madrassah by Saudis</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>G-00190-01</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00211-14</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, and 55th Combat Camera. "090920-A-2794B-004." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4031004291/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, and Tech. Sgt. Brian Boisvert. "091027-F-2703B-014." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4057143999/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-956-A-325</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Mahwash. "Taghafol Tchi Khejlat (The Ashamed Conscience)." In <i>Radio Kaboul</i>. Accords Croisés, 2003, CD.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Rattray, Lieutenant James. <i>Mosque and Tomb of the Emperor Soolta Mahmood of Ghuznee</i>. 1848. Courtesy of the British Library Board, London.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-02184</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-04739</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<hr />
<div class="hang">Producer: Alexis Menten</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>Islam in Afghanistan is deeply connected to power. But there are different types of power. Religious leaders have not often become political leaders—that is, until the Taliban.</p>
<p>Afghans are connected to their past primarily through stories. It’s very much a story-telling culture.</p>
<p>People, when they talked about great Islamic figures of the past, they told me about them by telling me about the miracles that they performed in the past. Those miracles themselves were interesting because within those stories you found the kinds of power that was associated with Islam, and all of that potency and power ultimately derived from God and from an understanding of God’s role and his status as creator, and the ultimate source of all power in the universe. And these individuals were viewed as founts of that power, or vehicles of that power, expressions of that power.</p>
<p>In more modern times in Afghanistan, people who are knowledgeable about Islam and who were trained in madrasas claim some authority.</p>
<p>In some cases the people who have that background have very little authority, and are little more than prayer leaders in a village. In other cases, those people have considerable status and considerable prestige because of their learning. And people will go to them for advice, and in the case of disputes they are consulted.</p>
<p>Until recently in Afghanistan, religious leaders were not thought of as potential leaders of the country.</p>
<p>Even, for example, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, when there wasn’t a sitting king in Kabul, and the British were essentially forced out; and there was a period of time when the tribes controlled Kabul. And it was never considered that one of their religious leaders who was leading the revolt or the uprising against the British, it was never conceived that one of these religious figures would become King of Afghanistan.</p>
<p>So religious figures in Afghanistan have tended to be kingmakers, rather than kings.</p>
<p>The line between religious power and political power began to blur in the 1980s. From the refugee community in Pakistan, Islam emerged as a powerful organizing force to unite opposition against the Soviets.</p>
<p>When I arrived in Peshawar, all of the political parties that existed were Islamic, and all the talk was about jihad, about this Islamic resistance and about the role of Islam.</p>
<p>Mosques and madrasas, or Islamic schools, were the main public institutions in every refugee camp.</p>
<p>It was clear that Islam had become the single most important political idiom that was organizing people and rationalizing what they were doing, and providing the glue for this resistance against the Soviets and the Marxist government in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The melding of religion and politics created a strong united front against the Soviet invasion. But it also created something else—a new generation of men who equated the power of Islam with political authority: the Taliban.</p>
Seeing Red
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 13:44 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>What began as an experiment in political democracy resulted in a Marxist overthrow of government.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1973
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>Agapkin, V., writer. <i>Proshaniye Slavyanki</i>. 1912. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.sovmusic.ru/english/download.php?fname=slavank2.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang">Cel·lí. "Exèrcit Al Zócalo-28 D'agost." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ex%C3%A8rcit_al_Z%C3%B3calo-28_d%27agost.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>49-16</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>Daoud Leaving after Being Elected President</i>. 1977. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Ericd. "May 68 Poster 1." Digital image. Wikipedia. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:May_68_poster_1.png.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Eskaybe. "Zaher Shah Kennedy." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zaher_Shah_Kennedy.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">GeorgHH. "Day after Saur Revolution in Kabul." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Day_after_Saur_revolution_in_Kabul_%28773%29.jpg.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00214-29</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">HenryHartley. "Mohammed Daoud Khan." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mohammed-Daoud-Khan.jpg.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang"><i>K-00301-08</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan in 1963." Digital image. Wikipedia. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:King_Zahir_Shah_of_Afghanistan_in_1963.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Q-00500-26</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"RyszardSiwiecSelfImmolation." Digital image. Wikipedia. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RyszardSiwiecSelfImmolation.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang">Safi1919. "Daoud Khan and Asif Khan." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daoud_Khan_and_Asif_Khan.jpg.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-02408</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.<br />
</div>
<div class="hang">Unknown photographer. <i>Zahir Shah Taking the Throne</i>. 1933. Kabul.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sakata Field Recordings Reel 2-5</i>. Hiromi Lorraine Sakata, 1971.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">U.S. Army. "Vietnamprotestors." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vietnamprotestors.jpg.</div>
<hr />
<div class="hang">Producers: Alexis Menten and Kate Harding</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>Mohammad Zahir Shah became king when he was just 19.</p>
<p>His reign marks the longest period of peace and prosperity Afghanistan has seen in modern times, from 1933 to 1973.</p>
<p>During his reign, he succeeded in bringing peaceful reforms to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>One of the critical developments during the reign of Zahir Shah was the decision to promulgate a constitution, to institute a new constitutional monarchy in Afghanistan.</p>
<blockquote>“…to achieve justice and equality; to establish political, economic, and social democracy; to organize the functions of the state and its branches to ensure liberty and welfare of the individual, and the maintenance of the general order; to achieve balanced development of all phases of life in Afghanistan; and to form, ultimately, a prosperous and progressive society based on social cooperation and preservation of human dignity…”</blockquote>
<p>This happened in 1964. A commission was established to create a constitution, it was ratified, and with that constitution came the beginnings of parliamentary elections and the establishment of political parties and newspapers, many of which were associated with political parties.</p>
<p>The late 1960s was a time of political agitation all around the world. University students were demonstrating in Paris, Prague, and the United States &mdash and Afghanistan was no exception.</p>
<p>Constitutional monarchy was the incremental way that the government imagined itself progressing, but the students wanted change fast. And they had reasons for concern. For one thing even though there was a constitutional monarchy it was still very much an autocratic form of government. The political, the parliamentary system was quickly paralyzed and ineffective.</p>
<p>The students were also not finding when they were graduating from the university that there were jobs waiting for them, or good jobs waiting for them. So there were economic, political and other concerns and in the spirit of the times, students wanted change fast and they wanted revolutionary change.</p>
<p>The Soviets were importing pamphlets from, in local languages, that advanced the Communist cause, and these were fueling efforts by the student population in particular to radically change Afghanistan.</p>
<p>And so very quickly what began as an experiment in political democracy became the reality of political polarization and because the parliamentary system was not responsive, the students and other people who wanted radical change went underground and began to seek their fortunes through covert overthrow of the government.</p>
<p>In 1973, Zahir Shah’s own cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan, staged a bloodless coup and took over the government. He abolished the monarchy and formed a republic, declaring himself not king but president of Afghanistan. But he made a fatal mistake when he decided to make this new republic an autocratic, one-party system.</p>
<p>That decision alienated the country’s other parties, especially the Marxists. And only five years after Daoud took power, the Marxists stormed the palace gates and assassinated him.</p>
<p>Some say their takeover of the government was strongly backed by the Soviets, while others say the coup caught Moscow completely by surprise. Regardless, the communist takeover paved the way for the Soviets to have a clearer role in the country.</p>
<p>That meant that in the coming decade, the new Great Game between the Soviets and the Americans would continue—in Afghanistan.</p>
Educating Girls
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 13:37 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>Girls in Afghanistan seem to be caught in middle of a war of ideas. Only one out of 10 women are literate. Reformers believe educating girls is the right way to civil society. But others have made it a deadly risk.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Identity & Perception
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1970
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>Aziz, Roya, Star Group, and UNESCO. <i>Girls in School</i>. UNESCO, Kabul, Afghanistan. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://photobank.unesco.org/exec/fiche.htm.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang">Canadian Forces, and MCpl Kevin Paul. <i>IS2007-7137</i>. Kandahar, Afghanistan.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>G-00196-20</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00230-19</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>H-00231-33</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-906-A-275</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Lemoyne, Roger, and United Nations. "A Young Girl Attends School." Digital image. United Nations Photo's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/3837229586/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang">Menten, Alexis. <i>Makeshift Classroom, Kabul, Afghanistan</i>. 2004.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Omar, Ustad Mohammad. <i>(none)</i>. Sakata Music Collection, 1971.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Q2-01280-13</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Q2-01280-14</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">UNAMA, and Jawad Jalali. "Photo of the Day: 3 March 2009." Digital image. UNAMA's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. UNAMA's.</div>
<div class="hang">UNESCO, and Christophe Buffet. <i>Let's Go To School</i>. UNESCO, Kabul, Afghanistan.</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
<p>Producer: Grace Norman </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>Girls, in Afghanistan, seem to be caught in middle of a war of ideas.</p>
<p>Reformers believe an equal access to a good education is the path to civil society. But many families cannot afford for girls to be educated. In harrowing, and far too common, cases, Taliban extremists have bombed girls’ schools. Many girls wish for an education, but too often surrender their hopes to a somber reality.</p>
<p>Many Afghans are happy to have girls get educated, to a point. But if that education leads girls to want to go off and have careers, that’s a more dicey proposition. For a lot of, particularly rural, Afghans, who don’t necessarily see the advantages of female education beyond what can allow girls as they become women and mothers, to better prepare their children for the world.</p>
<p>But I think Afghans in general see the role of women to be mothers and to be the bulwark of the family. And within the family, women can have considerable amount of influence. One place that Afghans don’t want outsiders telling them what to do or telling them how to organize their affairs, and that is in relation to their domestic life.</p>
<p>And that’s always been a problem, and it’s been an issue between modernizers, people who want to change Afghanistan, and those who want Afghanistan to stay the same.</p>
<p>So I think if Afghanistan, if modernizers will look at livelihoods, look at economic opportunities, look at education, and leave aside domestic life, and let that change with time. I think the way in which domestic affairs in Afghanistan and women’s rights and women’s role in the world will change ultimately is for the country to be educated.</p>
<p>For men to be dissatisfied with having wives who are not as well educated as they are, and to see the limits of that. In that case, it’s an internal process. But so long as that reform is identified with outsiders and with people interfering in their affairs, it’s going to be a political issue. And the extent to which it is a political issue, it is not going to work. It has to become an internal matter for Afghans to work out for themselves.</p>
<p>Some have argued that the brutal Taliban attacks on school have to do with fear of outside religious or political doctrines shaping young minds--especially the minds of those who will one day become the mothers of a new generation of Afghans.</p>
<p>The literacy rate among Afghan women is 10%.</p>
Radio Kabul
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 13:30 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>Its transmissions of world news and latest hits could be heard as far as South Africa and Indonesia. Years later, not even the Taliban could resist the power of the radio.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Traces & Narratives
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1965
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
The Paradox of Development
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 13:19 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>Under President Truman, the U.S. began one of its most expensive development projects: the Helmand Dam in Afghanistan. It provided the needed infrastructure to build the local economy. Sixty years later, it also became a source of terrorism, environmental damage, and the proliferation of opium.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Geography & Destiny
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1953
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>"100 Afghanis." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:100_Afghanis_%281963_-_top%29.jpg.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang">Apodaca, Kenneth. "Beggar." Digital image. Vidi's Flickr Photstream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kda73/2270253382/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang">"AtomicWar0201." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AtomicWar0201.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Boone, Jon. "Taliban Stalls Key Hydroelectric Turbine Project in Afghanistan." The Guardian. December 13, 2009. Accessed September 04, 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/13/afghanistan-turbine-taliban-british-army.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Cullather, Nick. "Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State." The History Cooperative. Accessed September 04, 2010. http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/89.2/cullather.html.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>49-58</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>80-565</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>84-16</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>A69-562</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>A69-565</i>. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Inauguration of the Band-I-Ghazi Dam</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">ISAF, and U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Monica R. Nelson. "090415-N-6651N-003." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/3455510738/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Kelly, Jim. "City Center." Digital image. Pthread's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pthread/4061483812/.
<div>Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="hang">Qeran, Baba. <i>Naghne Danbora</i>. Radio-Television Afghanistan Archive.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Save Me From My Friends!" Digital image. Afghanistan Old Photos. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.afghanistan-photos.com/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Shah & Harry Truman." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shah_&_Harry_Truman.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">United States Army. "AfghanistanHelmandKajakaiDamm." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AfghanistanHelmandKajakaiDamm.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">U.S. Air Force, and Tech Sgt. Efren Lopez. "091103-F-9171L-074." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4085601238/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">U.S. Army, Sgt Russell Gilchrest, and ISAF. "100328-A-6225G-005 (Convoy of Trucks)." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4492489523/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">U.S. Marine Corps, and Lance Cpl. Chad J. Pulliam. "Third Turbine, Kajaki Dam." Digital image. Defenseimagery.mil. Accessed September 4, 2010. www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#a=search&s=turbine afghanistan&p=2&guid=8f11ec0c8da4edda3ebbd2376a30bab8ffaefa42.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">U.S. Military. "Overview of Helmand River." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Overview_of_Helmand_River.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">USAID Afghanistan. "Kajaki 2." Digital image. USAID Afghanistan's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/usaidafghanistan/4501645133/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Varhegyi, TSGT Jim. "Rumsfeld October 2001." Digital image. Defenseimagery.mil. Accessed September 4, 2010. .</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Waezi, Fardin, and UNAMA. "Environmental Pollution." Digital image. UNAMA's Flickr Photostream. Accessed January/February, 2010. www.flickr.com/photos/unama/4166191388/in/photostream/.</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
<p>Producer: Kate Harding</p>
Video Transcript:
<p>What is the relationship between intentions and consequences? Can we ever really know what our actions will bring? </p>
<p>In the 1950s, the United States built a dam in the Helmand Valley of Afghanistan. Sixty years later, the project has been a source of terrorism, environmental damage, and the proliferation of opium.</p>
<p>In the early 20th century, Afghanistan knew that it was politically essential to develop its infrastructure. Without doing so, the country risked economic and political isolation, not to mention an alienated public.</p>
<p>When he took power, King Zahir Shah set his sights on building modern infrastructure.</p>
<p>By the 1950s, the United States was in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The two superpowers wanted to win the hearts and minds of people all over the globe in order to guarantee the interests of their own people.</p>
<p>Like the Great Game, the Cold War was fought on the soils of other nations.</p>
<p>The US began to court the region’s affections.</p>
<p>Afghanistan’s central location in Asia and its proximity to the Soviet Union made it ideal for American interests. King Zahir Shah was also eager to invite the Americans to develop his country.</p>
<p>In the 20th century the Cold War was played out through development projects, through modernization schemes, through dams, hydroelectric power, other ways in which the West, the U.S. in particular, and the Soviet Union tried to demonstrate their superiority and to gain the allegiance and affection of the Afghan people because of what they could do for them in terms of making their country more progressive, more modern, wealthier.</p>
<p>Under President Harry Truman, the US began one of the largest and most expensive development projects in history with the Kajaki (Kajak-eye) Dam project on the Helmand River.</p>
<p>The project continued well into the 70s when two additional turbines were added. But the project failed to bring the irrigation it had promised. Only a third of the promised land was irrigated and many crops soon failed because of changes in the environment. The project also disrupted the original water pathways between Afghanistan and Iran.</p>
<p>When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the project was abandoned entirely.</p>
<p>After the US toppled the Taliban in 2001, the Americans resumed work on the project in a continued effort to win the hearts of the Afghan people. But by now, the situation in Afghanistan had changed.</p>
<p>Opium had taken over the Helmand Valley, in part because the dam had changed the salinity of the soil, making it perfect for poppy cultivation. And Helmand had become a stronghold of the Taliban’s.</p>
<p>After a massive effort, NATO forces successfully brought a third turbine to the dam in 2008, but they have not been able to install it due to continued attacks from insurgents. The Taliban have set their sights on destroying the dam.</p>
<p>Today Afghantistan suffers a 70% unemployment rate, and that makes opium and violence all the more attractive to people. The country is in need of economic resources now more than ever.</p>
<p>It’s hard to know whether large development projects like Kajaki are really the way to go. The unintended consequences of foreign aid can sometimes spiral out of control. Moreover, it may be that development projects run the risk of alienating people from their own sense of worth and sovereignty.</p>
<p>Well, I think the Afghans have always been aware of themselves as a great people in a small nation. And they resent the idea that they can be used as pawns in other great power schemes and great power conflicts And it’s always been a running theme in Afghan history that the Afghan sense of nobility, the Afghan sense of their own substantial aspect, their substantial quality as a people, has always run into conflict with their relative lack of strength, their dependence on other nations, in particular the way in which the Afghan state has always been dependent on revenues from Great Britain and now the United States, has collided with that sense of their own autonomy and independence.</p>
<p>But there is hope for economic growth in Afghanistan. And that hope is related in part to infrastructure.</p>
<p>One of the more interesting developments is that Iran allowed India to build a road connecting one of their Persian Gulf ports to the Afghan border. Now really for the first time in history you can send goods by sea to Afghanistan via Iran as opposed to Pakistan and Karachi. So the first time Afghanistan actually has alternatives to Pakistan and Karachi to transit its goods to the sea. So we’re seeing Afghanistan in an economic position where its traditional isolation needs to be rethought because given the proper economic development and security situations it could once again become a fairly wealthy country with more than enough resources to support its own people if some are or all of these projects were put into action.</p>
<p>New wealth has begun to produce an affluent class in Kabul. But, as in many places, that affluence has driven up the cost of living without in fact spreading wealth to other pockets of the country.</p>
<p>The question that few seem to be asking is whether development is really the holy grail that everyone seeks.</p>
<p>In a country with many different lifestyles all intersecting at once, it’s hard to know what development should really look like.</p>
<p>The best of intentions can go wrong, to be sure, but they can also go right. And it will be up to the new generations to decide how to transcend the paradox of development.</p>
The Pace of Reform
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 12:49 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>It was an era of nations, industrial growth, and global interdependence. And Afghans were struggling to decide how to emerge in the new order.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Identity & Perception
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1933
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>"100 Afghanis." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:100_Afghanis_%281963_-_top%29.jpg.</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang">Belton. <i>Ze Ma Janana</i>. Cassette.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Biology Class, Kabul University." Digital image. Foreign Policy. Accessed September 20, 2010. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=0,2.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>Daoud Leaving after Being Elected President</i>. 1977. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Dupree, Nancy. <i>The Sarobi Dam</i>. 1969. Dupree Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-1152-H-521</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-2182-HG-5</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-939-A-308</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan in 1963." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Zahir_Shah_of_Afghanistan_in_1963.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Mohammed Nadir Shah." Digital image. Wikipedia Commons. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mohammed_Nadir_Shah.jpg.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Susan B. Anthony</i>. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.12783/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">UNAMA, and Fardin Waezi. "Women's Rights." Digital image. UNAMA's Flickr Photostream. Accessed November 4, 2009. www.flickr.com/photos/unama/4146190177/in/photostream/.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Webster, Tony. "Our Bike Is a Global Warming Solution." Digital image. Tony Webster's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/diversey/459289180/.</div>
<hr />
<div class="hang">Producer: Kate Harding</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>We all want change. Our society and our government disappoint us at times, and we want things to be different.</p>
<p>But we also all want some things to remain the same. While we want to move forward, we also still want to hold onto that which we believe makes us who we are.</p>
<p>Like many places caught in the sweep of the modern era, Afghanistan has struggled to agree on which things should change and which things should stay the same.</p>
<p>In 1933, a king came to power and successfully ruled Afghanistan for 40 uninterrupted years. And he was able to introduce reforms while at the same time keeping traditionalists satisfied. Today he is remembered as The Father of Afghanistan and his reign is recalled with nostalgia.</p>
<p>After the 1929 coup that forced King Amanullah out of power, Afghanistan was in a turbulent place. A new world order was developing across the globe.</p>
<p>It was an era of nations, industrial growth, and global interdependence. And Afghans were struggling to decide how to emerge in the new order.</p>
<p>Should they embrace secularism and western reforms? Or might this threaten their autonomy and their very identity? Should they return to a more conservative, traditionalist lifestyle? Or might this close them off from the rest of the world?</p>
<p>As the country debated, it saw a series of assassinations and power struggles. In 1933, the king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Nadir Shah, was assassinated after only three years of rule.</p>
<p>His son Zahir however, replaced him and reigned for an uninterrupted 40 years.</p>
<p>One of the reasons Zahir was so successful was that he encouraged changes but did not insist on the same hastiness as his predecessors.</p>
<p>He went very gradually and instituted educational reform and other kinds of reform, economic reforms and modernization programs that were gradual in their nature, and that were specifically designed not to incur the wrath of the elements that had overthrown his cousin, King Amanullah.</p>
<p>As the decades passed, the rising generation would begin to demand a faster pace of reform. Forty years after Zahir ascended the throne, he would lose it to the forces of change.</p>
A World-Class Education?
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 12:36 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>Political instability often led to school closures or the cessation of education altogether. But at one time, Afghanistan had a promising education system. Many believe that re-establishing education is the only long-term hope for stability.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Traces & Narratives
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1929
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>"100513-F-7713A-061." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4626146729/.<br />
Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</p>
<div id="export-html">
<div class="chicagob">
<div class="hang"><i>Afghanistan Girls Education</i>. UNICEF, 2009. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utzNdAB84lk.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Biology Class, Kabul University." Digital image. Foreign Policy. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=0,2.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>G-00199-19</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Hundreds of Afghan Youngsters Take Active Part in Scout Programs." Digital image. Foreign Policy. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=0,8.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-196-H-107</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-379-H-290_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-379-H-290_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-864-A-233</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-905-A-274</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-906-A-275</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>KES-910-A-279</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Mahwash. "Taghafol Tchi Khejlat (The Ashamed Conscience)." In <i>Radio Kaboul</i>. Accords Croisés, 2003, CD.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">Menten, Alexis. <i>Makeshift Classroom, Kapisa Province, Afghanistan</i>. 2004.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang">"Mothers and Children at a City Playground." Digital image. Foreign Policy. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=0,10.</div>
<div class="hang"> </div>
<div class="hang"><i>Mr. Besse, Physics Teacher</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<div class="hang"><i>Sl-04726</i>. AMRC Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
<hr />
<div class="hang">Producer: Grace Norman</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>This is a photograph that shows a boy at a school, pointing to a map of Europe and Asia. And I think it’s an interesting photograph. I’ve always enjoyed looking at this photograph for what it says about the educational institutions as they developed in Afghanistan in the teens and twenties of the 20th century, and how Afghans began to see the world in broad global terms for the first time. And to begin to imagine themselves and their country within a community of nations and within a global context.</p>
<p>Education is the way societies prepare a rising generation to be productive citizens.</p>
<p>Creating a world-class education system was a priority for the reform-minded King Habibbulah and for his son King Amunallah. King Amunallah opened several schools, including ones that offered French language instruction, and international exchanges.</p>
<p>One of the sad losses that happened as a result of his being overthrown in 1929 was that the rise of education, the development of education was set back correspondingly.</p>
<p>It did develop again, to the point where gradually, incrementally during the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, primary schools spread throughout Afghanistan, along with regional high schools and a set of universities in some of the major cities in Afghanistan. But it took a long time, and one of the tragedies of Afghan history is that education has been derailed consistently. Just as its beginning to make progress and beginning to show the results of having young people with knowledge of languages and of geography, of sciences and mathematics, of humanities, that their political events happen that lead to the closure or to the cessation of the educational system.</p>
<p>The desire for education is too often met with great obstacles. Here make-shift curriculum can be pinned to trees when there are no classrooms or other resources.</p>
<p>The letters are written differently whether it’s the beginning, the middle, or the end. Same letter but it appears differently. So here for example we have a kaph, a k, and you see that’s at the beginning. This is how it links up because Arabic script is cursive and this is how it’d appear on the end.</p>
<p>After a tumultuous century, some argue that like never before, Afghanistan needs a world-class education system because it is the only hope for long-term stability.</p>
Power Symbols
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 12:18 — grace.norman@gm...description:
<p>There are many ways to communicate power. The king understood this very well. He created a visual brand and conveyed his authority efficiently in the era of photography and global media.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Identity & Perception
Traces & Narratives
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1923
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>"Black Wolf, Cheyenne." Digital image. First People of America and Canada. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.firstpeople.us/.</p>
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<div class="hang"><i>Image1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang">ISAF, Cpl. Zachary Nola, and Regimental Combat Team-7, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs. "Http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4085542826/." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4085542826/.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-225-1-H-136-1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-693-A-62</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-765-A-134</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-769-A-138</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-815-A-184</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-849-A-218</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-934-A-303_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-938-A-307_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-938-A-307_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-939-A-308</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-940-A-309_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang">"Obama's Blackberry." Digital image. The Review Crew. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.thereviewcrew.com/news/obama-to-get-his-ultra-super-bionic-blackberry/.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>Rolls Royce</i>. RollsRoycemotors.com. Accessed September 4, 2010.</div>
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<div class="hang">Sims, Brandi. "Crucifix." Digital image. House of Sims' Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/2350636791/. Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
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<p>Producer: Kate Harding</p>
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<p> </p>
Video Transcript:
<p>Power is visual. And the visual is power.</p>
<p>There are many ways to communicate power. And in the 1920s, King Amanullah understood that very well. He knew that if he could create a visual brand, then he could convey his authority more efficiently. Like governments and corporations today, he used symbols to consolidate his ideals and his power.</p>
<p>And in the era of photography, these symbols could be mediated at new speed.</p>
<p>For Amanullah, the visual signs of technology and clothing communicated so much more than speeches ever could. These symbols were used strategically to convey to his people that he was building a new kind of government for a new Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Even in a single meeting, Amanullah effectively communicated his new brand through this strategic use of symbols. This shot is of King Amanullah meeting with tribal delegates.</p>
<p>It’s interesting. In comparison with earlier shots that we have of his father and grandfather, also meeting with tribal delegates, one difference is that he is on the same level as the tribal delegates. If we look at some other shots, and again you have to be careful of drawing conclusions from a single photograph. But in other shots we have, we see the king up, elevated above his subjects. And Amanullah wanted to create a more of a citizenry as opposed to a king/subject relation, it was more of the king and his people, but on a more equal level. And I think it’s important in this photograph that we see him talking to people at the same eye level.</p>
<p>At the same time, we also see that he has got some of the accoutrements of power around him. And very modern accoutrements. If you look at the telephone that’s at his right hand, this is a relatively new invention in Afghanistan, and probably only connected to very few places within Kabul. It certainly didn’t go outside of Kabul. But it allowed him to communicate with other people in his court.</p>
<p>One imagines that it was more a symbol than it was a real instrument of communication. When push came to shove, I’m sure Amanullah communicated through couriers and through the traditional means. There was even one man in his court who was known as the Bubabark, who was the fastest runner that the king had been able to find, and he was the personal messenger of the king. So Bubabark means the father of electricity. But Amanullah, I think in this case, has that telephone by his side as a way of symbolizing his modernity and his association with what must have seen to those tribesmen, if they even knew what it was at all, it would have seemed like a symbol of the power of the king, not through guns, not through force or violence, but rather through the instruments of technology and modernity.</p>
