(1/8) Okay, this thread establishes some basic historical context on #Afghanistan for my tweets later this week on the 1990s, the Taliban, and the Clinton Administration. As previous tweeters from this account have explained, Afghanistan has a long and proud history. 
(2/8) As a very diverse country with mountainous terrain, Afghanistan has both been difficult for outsiders to conquer and for centralized governments to govern. Different regions were typically semi-autonomous. In 1919, Afghanistan won its third war against Britain, which...
(3/8) is often called the War for Independence. Amanullah Khan, the nation's monarch, then embarked on an ambitious modernizing and centralizing reform program modeled on the West. Among other reforms, Amanullah Khan's government promoted women's education and women's rights...
(4/8) a policy his wife, Queen Soraya, championed. Amanullah Khan's did not complete his vision because he was forced to abdicate in January 1929 due to a revolt during the King and Queen's trip to Europe that had turned into a civil war in 1928. Among other grievances, the...
(5/8) king's reforms related to granting women more rights were among the strongest. The country's kings thereafter - notably Mohammed Nadir Shah (r. 1929-1933) and Mohammed Zahir Shah (r. 1933-1973) - had to pursue modernization more cautiously and much more incrementally so...
(6/8) as not to cause upheaval that could lead to the kind of revolt that overthrew Amanullah Khan. As @RobRakove's current scholarship on #Afghanistan explains, Afghanistan sought to remain unaligned in the Cold War and was fairly stable under the rule of Mohammed Zahir Shah.
(7/8) By the early 1970s, cities like Kabul were pretty modernized, and many women were educated, had jobs and careers, and wore whatever clothing they liked - from Western-style clothes to traditional hijab. Women's position outside the major cities varied, but on the whole...
(8/8) Afghan women fared much better than they would in later years. In generally, things were going well by the start of the 1970s. All that would change with a coup in 1973. More on that in my next thread! - KJS @TheGingerProf
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
