EVERY-DAY LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN 



97 



age, especially in the northern parts of 

 the country, where boys of fourteen 

 marry girls of not more than ten or 

 twelve years of age. 



Amir Habibullah Khan (who was as- 

 sassinated in 1919) had a harem of over 

 100 women, and among these, strangely 

 enough, were a few Europeans. The 

 present Amir, Amanullah Khan, has but 

 one wife. 



The women of Afghanistan are kept 

 in more rigid seclusion and are more 

 closely veiled than the women of any 

 other Moslem land. The Afghan is 

 notoriously jealous of his harem, and 

 few indeed are the men of the outside 

 world who have ever looked on the face 

 of an Afghan woman of the towns. 

 With the desert women, wives and 

 daughters of the nomads, it is different ; 

 the Koran permits them to go unveiled. 



AFGHAN WOMEN ARE NOT TAUGHT TO 

 READ OR WRITE 



Like the Arab, the Afghan considers it 

 unnecessary and even unwise that women 

 should learn to read or write. No girls 

 are admitted to the bazaar schools and 

 no mullahs are employed to teach them, 

 and Afghanistan knows nothing of 

 women teachers. 



In spite of their illiteracy, however, 

 many individual Afghan women wield no 

 little influence in tribal affairs, and, as a 

 rule, the wives of the upper classes lead 

 a comfortable and apparently happy life. 

 They are lavishly provided with every 

 luxury of food and dress which Afghan 

 means can afford, and they visit con- 

 stantly from one harem to another to 

 gossip, sing, and play games. To be left 

 childless is counted life's saddest misfor- 

 tune. 



About the time the little girls of the 

 family put on their veils, the boys of 

 the same age must begin their studies. 

 First of all, a boy is taught to ride ; then 

 to hunt and shoot. The horse is the 

 Afghan's constant companion. 



The education of middle and lower 

 class boys is in charge of the mullahs, or 

 teachers. Usually a shabby house or 

 convenient nook in the bazaar is utilized 

 as a school-room, the boys sitting on the 

 floor and studying aloud. The pupils are 

 often surrounded by an interested group 



of long-haired, wild-looking camel-driv- 

 ers or visiting nomads. 



The government contributes nothing to 

 maintain public schools. Often the better 

 families send their sons to be educated at 

 universities in India. 



Few Afghans have acquired any con- 

 siderable knowledge by travel in other 

 countries.* The late Habibullah Khan 

 probably surpassed all his subjects in in- 

 tellectual attainments, for he had special- 

 ized in history and the sciences. Next to 

 him, the most educated Afghan of today 

 is the editor of the only Afghan news- 

 paper, the Saradj-nl-Akhbar. This editor, 

 who has traveled much in India and 

 Turkey, is at the present time also hold- 

 ing the position of Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs. 



The longest journey any Afghan has 

 ever undertaken was made by Nasrullah 

 Khan, the brother of the murdered Amir, 

 who traveled to England in 1895. 



The present Amir has never left his 

 country ; his brother, however, has been 

 in India several times. Yet, on the whole, 

 an eager desire for learning is innate 

 in every Afghan, and of late years not 

 only Indian, but also British, culture and 

 customs have begun to influence the better 

 classes of the people. 



The Afghans call their language "Push- 

 too." For official matters, however, the 

 Persian idiom is used and understood 

 over most of the country. The Turkish 

 and Mongolian tribes in western and 

 central Afghanistan speak their own 

 tongues. The ruling Amir knows Per- 

 sian, some Pushtoo, and Turkish. 



THE AMIR LOVES PICTURES AND IS A GOOD 

 AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER 



Foreign newspapers, most of them 

 coming from India, are most carefully 

 read at the Amir's court, where they are 

 translated by hired students trained in 

 India. The Amir delights in illustrated 

 newspapers and is himself a fairly good 

 photographer. 



The Afghan works no more than is 

 absolutely necessary to make his living. 

 The upper classes consider it their privi- 



* The only considerable group of Afghans 

 who seem ever to have gotten far from home 

 is a colony of men taken to Australia some 

 years ago for handling camel caravans on the 

 Australian deserts. 



