Soraya Tarzi was the first queen consort of Afghanistan as the wife of King Amanullah Khan.
17 Facts About Soraya Tarzi
2.
Soraya Tarzi played a major part in the modernization reforms of Amanullah Khan, particularly in regard to the emancipation of women.
3.
Soraya Tarzi belonged to the Mohammadzai Pashtun tribe, a sub-tribe of the Barakzai dynasty.
4.
Suraiya Shahzada Soraya Tarzi was born on 24 November 1899, in Damascus, Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
5.
Soraya Tarzi was the daughter of the Afghan political figure Sardar Mahmud Beg Tarzi, and granddaughter of Sardar Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi.
6.
Soraya Tarzi studied in Syria, learning Western and modern values there, which would influence her future actions and beliefs.
7.
Soraya Tarzi became the future King Amanullah Khan's only wife, which broke centuries of tradition: Amanullah was to dissolve the royal harem when he succeeded to the throne and free the enslaved women of the harem.
8.
Queen Soraya Tarzi was the first Muslim consort who appeared in public together with her husband, something which was unheard of at the time.
9.
Soraya Tarzi participated with him in the hunting parties, riding on horseback, and in some Cabinet meetings.
10.
Soraya Tarzi was specifically instrumental in designing and implementing changes pertaining to women through his personal example of monogamy.
11.
Soraya Tarzi was instrumental in enforcing change for women and publicly exhorted them to be active participants in nation building.
12.
Soraya Tarzi 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.
13.
Queen Soraya Tarzi encouraged women to get an education and opened the first primary school for girls in Kabul, the Masturat School, in 1921, as well as the first hospital for women, the Masturat Hospital, in 1924.
14.
In 1926, at the seventh anniversary of Independence from the British, Soraya Tarzi gave a public speech:.
15.
Soraya Tarzi sent 15 young women to Turkey for higher education in 1928.
16.
Queen Soraya Tarzi lived in exile in Rome, Italy, with her family, having been invited by Italy.
17.
Soraya Tarzi 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.