AFGHANS' QUEEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1928, Page 10

AFGHANS' QUEEN.

WORK TO FREE WOMEN. FIRST INTERVIEW IN WBa UFE. "NO AFGHAN HAS EVER SEEN MY FACE." ! __ Queen Thouraya of Afghanistan gave the first interview of her life to "The Chicago Tribune" correspondent at Brussels. The lovely white-skinned queen of the Orient stretched a white gloved hand, smiled with ever so lightly rouged lips, and spoke in Pereian to her interpreter, who happened to be her own brother.

J "Tell this- American I am the first .. woman in all the long centuries of 0 Afghan history who has worked for the g emancipation of the women of my e country and for women's education," she said. "And I collaborate, though B from afar, in the great work of women's e progress in the world. I have been told s that American women greatly distin- * guish themselves in thi- field, and I have . for them a feeling of sincere friendship t and great admiration." | King Hides Cut; Razor Slipped, r While the Queen was giving her first > interview to an American or any other • correspondent, Amir Amanullah Khan [stood, half hidden, in the hotel hall, ! where the entire party was waiting for cars to drive them to the station to take a train for Switzerland. 1 coijjd not make out whether he was hiding because of the male's instinctive vanity not to appear ridiculous in certain circumstances, because the poor King had to call off his trip to .Liege on account of "illness," according to the local papers and other correspondents. After visiting the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Afghan King is going to Switzerland in search of*a eyre for some throat trouble and a carbuncle, the local papers said. The real reason, as apparent this afternoon from his bandaged face, was that he had suffered a serious cut while shaving.

The Queen accepted with great presence of mind the novel sensation of being interviewed. She said greatly regretted the United States was not represented in Afghanistan, "which has for the Americans suoh admiration and liking."

®he said with a wry frnOi' the King and myself United *sV«? A ? erica - Aa IoD B as the connect™*? -2*. 8 not make official we can U8 ' we do not Bee how

Moslems Fought Girls' School

The Queen explained how she founded the first girls' school of Afghanistan in the capital, Kabul, against fierce resistance from the old-fashioned Mohammedan elements of the population.

But my husband quickly repressed the revolt that broke out/' she said with pride, "and a memorial stone in Kabul now commemorates the battle for women's freedom. Eight hundred girls attend the school to-day. They are reared like European girls. Mv mother directs the school, and I help whenever I can.

"I must wear a veil in Afghanistan, but not as thick as any other woman's. As yet no Afghan has ever seen my face. I know the British India officials great!y surprised when I first unyeiled. The veil is the only concession make > Mohammedan customs. My dresses are all made in Paris, although I often send beautiful Afghan materials to Paris for the dressmakers to work on."

Enjoys £3200 Shopping Trip. She i ealed that she spent 400,000 francs (about £3200) alone for dresses on this European trip, which is costing altogether £180,000, maybe more.

Queen Thouraya wore a marvellous black broadtail mantle, which is the fifth magnificent fur coat Brussels has seen on the Queen. She uses a little powder and no rouge on her cheeks, but a tiny bit of lipstick, although her sister, Princess Tarzi, makes up rather much, using oriental kol on the rims of her eyes and a good deal of rouge and lipstick.

Queen Thouraya, who is primarily an oriental woman, considers her chief merit has been her ability to hold the King's love through ten years of happy matrimony. Fiercely autocratic and stern though he is, he is also one of the few Afghans who is not polygamous, and Queen Thouraya considers the credit is all hers. Amir Amanullah's father, the Queen's sister divulged, had fifty-four wives and seventy children. Qneen Thouraya's one sorrow, however, is the fact that the king's oldest son is the child of his first wife. However, one of her boys may be the next king after all, because the oldest is not necessarily the heir to the throne of Afghanistan, where the people choose a new ruler after the king's death from among all his sons.