Soraya Tarzi

Early life and family background

Suraiya Shahzada Tarzi was born on 24 November 1899, in Damascus, Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire. She was the daughter of the Afghan political figure Sardar Mahmud Beg Tarzi, and granddaughter of Sardar Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi. She belonged to the Mohammadzai Pashtun tribe, a sub-tribe of the Barakzai dynasty.

She studied in Syria, learning Western and modern values, which would influence her future actions and beliefs. Her mother was the Syrian feminist Asma Rasmya, her father's second wife, and daughter of Sheikh Muhammad Saleh al-Fattal Effendi, of Aleppo, Muezzin of the Umayyad Mosque.

Upon her family's return to Afghanistan, Soraya Tarzi would meet and marry then prince Amanullah.

Marriage

After the Tarzis returned to Afghanistan, they were received at Court as wished by the Emir Habibullah Khan. This is where Soraya Tarzi met Habibullah's son Prince Amanullah, a sympathiser of Mahmud Tarzi's liberal ideas. Amanullah and Tarzi struck an affinity, chose to marry and married on 30 August 1913 at Qawm-i-Bagh Palace in Kabul. Amanullah's older half-brother Inayatullah Khan also married Tarzi's sister Khariya Tarzi.

When she married into the royal family Tarzi grew to be one of the region's most important figures. Tarzi was the future King Amanullah's only wife, which broke centuries of tradition. They both actively denounced polygamy. Amanullah was to dissolve the royal harem when he succeeded to the throne and free the enslaved women of the harem.

Amanullah and Soraya had ten children, four sons and six daughters:

Princess Ameenah Shah (14 May 1916 – 29 October 1992). During her exile, in 1954 she married a naturalised Turkish citizen of Bosnian origin named Mustafa Hasanovic Ar. He was the son of the deputy of the Bosnian Young Muslims.

Princess Abedah. She married firstly Ali Wali, son of Muhammad Wali and had one son. She married secondly to Hamidullah Enayat Seraj, son of Sardar Enayatullah.

Ikhlil

Princess Meliha (1920–2011). She became a medical doctor in Istanbul University, and married Turkish engineer A. Tahir Söker, a close relative of Celâl Bayar.

Crown Prince Rahmatullah of Afghanistan (7 June 1921 – 11 September 2009). He married Adelia Graziani, a niece of an Italian general Rodolfo Graziani.

Prince Saifullah died young from cholera.

Prince Hymayatullah died very young from bronchial pneumonia.

Queen of Afghanistan

When the prince became Amir in 1919 and King in 1926, the Queen played an important role in the evolution of the country. When Amanullah was enthroned in June 1926, she was enthroned alongside him in front of a completely shaved and non-turbaned audience. Queen Soraya was also the first Muslim consort who appeared in public together with her husband, something which was unheard of at the time. She participated with him in the hunting parties, riding on horseback, and in some Cabinet meetings.

Women's rights

The emancipation of women was a part of Amanullah's reform policy, and the women of the royal family, particularly his wife and sisters, acted as the role models of this change. Many women from Amanullah's family publicly participated in organizations and went on to become government officials later in life. In 1926, she said that:

“Do not think… that our nation needs only men to serve it. Women should also take their part as women did in the early years of Islam. The valuable services rendered by women are recounted throughout history, from which we learn that women were not created solely for pleasure and comfort. From their examples, we learn that we must all contribute toward the development of our nation and that this can not be done without being equipped with knowledge.”

In 1921, Tarzi founded and contributed to the first magazine for women, Ishadul Naswan (Guidance for Women), which was edited by her mother, as well as the first women's organisation, Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan, which promoted women's welfare and had an office to which women could report mistreatment by their husbands, brothers, and fathers. She founded a theatre in Paghman which, although segregated for women, still gave women an opportunity to find their own social scene and break the harem seclusion.

King Amanullah said, "I am your King, but the Minister of Education is my wife — your Queen". Queen Soraya encouraged women to get education and opened the first primary school for girls in Kabul, the Masturat School (later the Ismat Malalai School), in 1921, as well as the first hospital for women, the Masturat Hospital, in 1924. In 1926, on the anniversary of independence from the British, Soraya gave a public speech:

"It (Independence) belongs to all of us and that is why we celebrate it. Do you think, however, that our nation from the outset needs only men to serve it? Women should also take their part as women did in the early years of our nation and Islam. From their examples we must learn that we must all contribute toward the development of our nation and that this cannot be done without being equipped with knowledge. So we should all attempt to acquire as much knowledge as possible, in order that we may render our services to society in the manner of the women of early Islam."

Final years in exile

In 1929, the King abdicated in order to prevent a civil war and went into exile.

Queen Soraya and her family firstly fled to India, where she gave birth to a daughter on 7 June 1929 that they would name Princess India after their adopted country. The family next lived in exile in Rome, Italy, having been invited there.

Not much is known about their life in exile. The New York Times reported that the royal couple converted to Catholicism, but this was later found to be false.

Death and legacy

Tarzi died on 20 April 1968 in Rome. The funeral was escorted by the Italian military team to the Rome airport, before being taken to Afghanistan where a solemn state funeral was held. She is buried in Bagh-e Amir Shaheed, the family mausoleum in a large marble plaza, covered by a dome roof held up by blue columns in the heart of Jalalabad, next to her husband the King, who had died eight years earlier.

Her youngest daughter, Princess India of Afghanistan, visited Afghanistan in the 2000s, setting up various charity projects. Princess India was also an honorary cultural ambassador of Afghanistan to Europe. In September 2011, Princess India of Afghanistan was honored by the Afghan-American Women Association for her work in women's rights.

Honours

National honour

Grand Collar of the Order of the Supreme Sun.

Foreign honors

Decoration of al-Kemal in brilliants (Kingdom of Egypt, 26 December 1927).

Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom, 13 March 1928).

In 2019 Time created 89 new covers to celebrate women of the year starting from 1920; it chose Tarzi for 1927.