King Amanullah khan 1919 documentary English version — Transcript

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1. 0:03it was the roaring 20s new technologies
2. 0:06new music and new fashion were
3. 0:09transforming the world radios and
4. 0:13telephones made the world smaller moving
5. 0:16pictures and automobiles made the world
6. 0:18faster but the change wasn't just about
7. 0:21technology it would also be about values
8. 0:24and no where were the values being
9. 0:26challenged more the world had been
10. 0:43ripped apart by the end of World War one
11. 0:4615 million lives were lost around the
12. 0:48globe but the fighting did finally end
13. 0:51and when it did the world needed
14. 0:53rebuilding across the globe a new hope
15. 0:56for the future was coming to life that
16. 0:59hope believed that a revolution in
17. 1:01values and technologies would put to
18. 1:03rest the madness of war
19. 1:07Afghanistan remained neutral during
20. 1:09World War one but the impact of the war
21. 1:12was anything but distant
22. 1:16the entire world was wrapped in the war
23. 1:18and nations vied for the country's
24. 1:20support
25. 1:23the king Habibullah played his suitors
26. 1:26off of each other but only a few months
27. 1:28after the Armistice King Habibullah was
28. 1:31assassinated
29. 1:33in February 1919 his third son Amnon
30. 1:37Allah took the reins
31. 1:40a manila understood that the world was
32. 1:43being radically transformed and he knew
33. 1:46that Afghanistan could take a prominent
34. 1:48place in the new order if the country
35. 1:50underwent quick and serious changes
36. 1:54he sought guidance from Mahmud Tarzi an
37. 1:56Afghan intellectual who had once been
38. 1:58exiled and had lived abroad in Turkey
39. 2:01and Syria
40. 2:03he during his exile had lived in the
41. 2:06Middle East and had been very influenced
42. 2:08by movements in the Middle East for
43. 2:11modernization for trying to decolonize
44. 2:16the Middle East to bring Islam into a
45. 2:21new renaissance a new period of a
46. 2:25flowering intellectually and politically
47. 2:29that looked - it was a movement that
48. 2:32looked to indigenous roots to Islam
49. 2:34itself as an example for education
50. 2:38modernization and reform
51. 2:41this new interpretation of Islam was
52. 2:44being embraced by elites across the
53. 2:46Muslim world they believed that a
54. 2:48modernized Islam could coexist with
55. 2:50westernization allowing Muslims to excel
56. 2:53in the 21st century
57. 2:56Tarzi provided a manila with
58. 2:58intellectual inspiration for a new
59. 3:00Afghanistan
60. 3:04he also provided the king with a wife a
61. 3:07mother love fell in love with and
62. 3:09married tarses daughter
63. 3:10Sariah
64. 3:13she was herself educated and they had a
65. 3:18marriage that by all accounts and is
66. 3:20from all evidence that we have was was a
67. 3:22real romantic love affair you see in the
68. 3:27archive photographs of Amana and soraia
69. 3:30that in a very romantic poses and with
70. 3:34Soraya's hair down dancing very intimate
71. 3:38photographs from the time
72. 3:41together the new king and queen set out
73. 3:44to transform Afghanistan
74. 3:47over the next decade they built schools
75. 3:49started in Air Force established a
76. 3:52national bank and a national currency
77. 3:54they supported education of all sectors
78. 3:58of society including women and nomads
79. 4:06like Ataturk in Turkey a Manilla was
80. 4:08obsessed with the idea of using clothing
81. 4:11to express a new world order
82. 4:13Lennie was fascinated with playing with
83. 4:16those clothing and and I have a feeling
84. 4:18played with identity as well one of the
85. 4:21things that he did that also was very
86. 4:23controversial was he held a national
87. 4:26Loya Jirga in 1927 and he made all the
88. 4:30delegates to the to the Jirga where
89. 4:36Western suits and hats and all these
90. 4:40proud Afghans look vaguely ridiculous
91. 4:44wearing these baggy suits that were not
92. 4:46tailored and not meant for them and they
93. 4:48look a little bit embarrassed to be made
94. 4:51to wear this kind of clothing but it
95. 4:53makes you realize that that a model of
96. 4:55one of the mistakes that he made as he
97. 4:57sometimes viewed modernization in a very
98. 5:00superficial way he viewed modernization
99. 5:03as the the the accoutrements of
100. 5:07modernization more than the substance of
101. 5:09it and he encouraged all the members of
102. 5:12his court the women in the court to wear
103. 5:14western style clothing and to to go with
104. 5:18no veil or a minimal veil
105. 5:20at a public function Amon Allah
106. 5:23denounced the veil saying that nowhere
107. 5:25did Islam require women to cover
108. 5:27themselves suryya responded by ripping
109. 5:30her veil from her face as the wives of
110. 5:32other officials soon followed suit
111. 5:34suryya knew that her clothing was being
112. 5:36watched by her entire country and she
113. 5:39wanted to make a statement Sirois was
114. 5:42the first or one of the first women to
115. 5:45wear western clothing outside the palace
116. 5:48in public places and she would make
117. 5:51concessions certainly to local norms and
118. 5:55expectations including she would wear a
119. 6:00veil of a sort but it was a very light
120. 6:04veil that you could see through and
121. 6:06attach to a flapper hat a very 20s style
122. 6:12fashion and so she would make certain
123. 6:15concessions and within the boundaries of
124. 6:17Islam she was dressing appropriately she
125. 6:20was covering her hair she was covering
126. 6:22her arms up to her or to her wrists she
127. 6:24was covering she was covered to her
128. 6:27ankles although she also sometimes wore
129. 6:29stockings but they were always pushing
130. 6:35the boundaries of fashion
131. 6:38but together the King and queens changes
132. 6:41appeared to be too much too fast
133. 6:44for many critics in the country the
134. 6:46symbols of change were becoming more
135. 6:48troubling than the change itself the
136. 6:51clothing and lifestyle of the royal
137. 6:52couple was becoming a flashpoint for
138. 6:54opposition to a manila
139. 6:59the more gradual more incremental
140. 7:01reforms that he also was backing which
141. 7:05could have resulted in positive change
142. 7:08in Afghanistan got bowled over by the
143. 7:11opposition to the symbolic relatively
144. 7:14unimportant reforms and so I think that
145. 7:16that was one example of the kinds of
146. 7:19mistakes not only a model of but that
147. 7:22all reformers in Afghanistan have tended
148. 7:24to make they have mistaken the
149. 7:26superficial symbolic aspects of reform
150. 7:29they've allowed those to interfere with
151. 7:31the more substantive reforms of
152. 7:34livelihoods education industry that
153. 7:39would incrementally have allowed Afghans
154. 7:42to create a whole different way of life
155. 7:44from the ground up avoiding some of
156. 7:46those hot-button issues that have been
157. 7:48so disastrous in Afghanistan in 1927 a
158. 7:54manila and Sariah went on a tour to
159. 7:56Europe where they were the darlings of
160. 7:58the political and intellectual circles
161. 8:02they were the it couple of the 1920s
162. 8:05working to build a new post-war society
163. 8:08where modern values could flourish but
164. 8:11at home they were not as popular while
165. 8:14they were away opposition to their
166. 8:16reforms mounted by 1929 and uprising led
167. 8:22by Habib Ulukaya Connie broke out in
168. 8:25Jalalabad and the couple was forced to
169. 8:27abdicate the throne they lived the rest
170. 8:31of their lives in Europe
171. 8:33the roaring 20s and all of their
172. 8:36optimism had come to an end
173. 8:40[Music]