Irshad-e Naswan (Dari: ارشاد نسوان, lit. 'The guide for women') was a women's magazine issued in Afghanistan founded in 1921 being the first women's magazine in the country. The magazine was founded by Queen Soraya Tarzi. It was founded as a part of the king and queen's modernization project to reform Afghan society, a policy which included the emancipation of women, and the Irshad-e Naswan as well as the first women's association Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan were both founded to support the state feminism of the royal government.
The magazine was published weekly and ran articles "on the rights of women, child care, home economics and etiquette", social, political and international issues, women's rights but also fashion and household tips. It took up subject in women's issues and reform and has played a major pioneering role in the history of women in Afghanistan, and has been described as the first newspaper to enlighten women in Afghanistan.
It was edited by the queen's mother, Asma Rasmya, who thus became the first female editor in Afghanistan, and queen Soraya herself occasionally contributed to it.
King Amanullah Khan and Queen Soraya Tarzi were deposed in 1929. Their deposition from power was followed by a severe backlash on women's rights under their successor Habibullah Ghazi. The Women's Association Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan as well as Irshad-e Naswan was banned, the girls 'schools were closed, and the female students who had been allowed to study in Turkey was recalled to Afghanistan and forced to put on the veil and enter purdah again.
References
- S. Mittra; B. Kumar (2003). Encyclopaedia of Women in South Asia. Kalpaz Publications. p. 5. ISBN 978-81-7835-187-2.
- H. A. Ritchie (2016). Institutional Innovation and Change in Value Chain Development: Negotiating tradition, power and fragility in Afghanistan. Taylor & Francis. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-317-40406-4.
- The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan
- Emadi, Hafizullah, Repression, resistance, and women in Afghanistan, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2002
- "History of education in Afghanistan - Afghanistan". March 2004.
- Afghanistan Quarterly Journal. Establishment 1946. Academic Publication of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan. Serial No: 32 & 33 Archived 2023-01-29 at the Wayback Machine
- Julie Billaud: Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan
- History of education in Afghanistan
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