Former Afghan king dies
King Mohammed Zahir Shah [AFP, File]23 July 2007
Mohammed Zahir Shah, the former Afghan king, has died aged 92.
Presidential palace sources announced the death on Monday, saying the former monarch died in his bed. He had been in poor health and used a wheelchair.
"He had been sick for a month," a palace official said.
Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan from 1933 until he was deposed in 1973. He lived in exile in Italy before returning as an ordinary citizen in 2002.
He came from a long line of ethnic Pashtun rulers and is a distant relative of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.
He attended the opening of the loya jirga (grand council) in 2002 and some Afghans were keen to see him returned to power.
The former king's reign is remembered as one of the most peaceful periods of Afghanistan's history.
Born in Kabul on October 15, 1914, Zahir Shah received part of his education in France and returned to Kabul for military training.
He ascended the throne in 1933 after his father was assassinated by a student.
For two decades, he took a back seat, allowing three uncles to run the government. He gradually gained confidence and took control in 1953, overseeing a cautious modernisation of his country.
He supported an end to women wearing the veil, used foreign money to develop the country's infrastructure and balanced rival Soviet and Western interests in his country.
Coup
In 1973, while on holiday in Italy, he was removed in a bloodless coup by his cousin and brother-in-law, Prince Daoud, bringing to an end two centuries of rule by the Durrani dynasty.
Daoud was later killed in a coup, and after Soviet troops entered the country in 1979 to prop up the communist government, Afghanistan has barely seen peace.
Zahir Shah's wife, Homaira, whom he married in 1931, died as preparations were under way for her to return to Afghanistan to join her husband in 2002.
The couple had five sons and two daughters.
Source
Mohammed Zahir Shah, the former Afghan king, has died aged 92.
Presidential palace sources announced the death on Monday, saying the former monarch died in his bed. He had been in poor health and used a wheelchair.
"He had been sick for a month," a palace official said.
Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan from 1933 until he was deposed in 1973. He lived in exile in Italy before returning as an ordinary citizen in 2002.
He came from a long line of ethnic Pashtun rulers and is a distant relative of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.
He attended the opening of the loya jirga (grand council) in 2002 and some Afghans were keen to see him returned to power.
The former king's reign is remembered as one of the most peaceful periods of Afghanistan's history.
Born in Kabul on October 15, 1914, Zahir Shah received part of his education in France and returned to Kabul for military training.
He ascended the throne in 1933 after his father was assassinated by a student.
For two decades, he took a back seat, allowing three uncles to run the government. He gradually gained confidence and took control in 1953, overseeing a cautious modernisation of his country.
He supported an end to women wearing the veil, used foreign money to develop the country's infrastructure and balanced rival Soviet and Western interests in his country.
Coup
In 1973, while on holiday in Italy, he was removed in a bloodless coup by his cousin and brother-in-law, Prince Daoud, bringing to an end two centuries of rule by the Durrani dynasty.
Daoud was later killed in a coup, and after Soviet troops entered the country in 1979 to prop up the communist government, Afghanistan has barely seen peace.
Zahir Shah's wife, Homaira, whom he married in 1931, died as preparations were under way for her to return to Afghanistan to join her husband in 2002.
The couple had five sons and two daughters.
Source
Labels: Afghanistan, Obituary
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 10:27 AM
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