CHANGES IN KABUL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 9 January 1929, Page 7

CHANGES IN KABUL

AFGHAN KING’S DECREES Tli ere are changes, revolutionary changes in Kabul, picturesque Kabul, away in Afghanistan, the land of lofty mountains and plateaus—the guardian of (lie gateway into India, writes T. Macdonald jin “The Sun (News Pictorial.”

King Anianullah is bringing the West to the East. lie is bent on .Westernising the old hermit nation. Little wonder, then, that he has made his turbulent people gasp. He has introduced fell, hats and top hats and frock coats and monogamy, tho very antithesis of Afghan custom. In the old bazaar, the loudest and most bizarre of any in tho world, where people from all the corners of the world have come by way of Peshawar, tho King’s decrees have been discussed amid—

“The din of words to cheapen this and that.”

In the maze of narrow alleys, in the jumbled houses that have no windows on the streets, the dwellers in Kabul, 160,000 of them, have wondered what it is all about; the old, old ways of life changed into new modes which are baffling. And now King Amanullah lias decreed that every inhabitant of Kabul must wear European dress, including a hat, while walking or riding. It means that the national dress of the Afghans has been discarded by a stroke of the pen. Baggy trousers, a loose shirt worn outside, a vest, a girdle, turned up shoes and a black or white turban go to mako the national dress. s They will now bo absent from tho old streets of Kabul.

Tho innumerable decrees, however, have not yet affected women’s dresses. Still, London and Paris fashions have appeared in Kabul following the return of the King from his Western tour, and somo of the richer women have changed their national costumes.

Indoors, the Afghan . women wear' loose trousers, a mantle with long sleeves, stockings and sandals and a veil covering the hair. Out of doors they go enveloped in long mantles of white or black or blue.

But these picturesque mantles will probably, in due course, go the way of the loose shirt and tho tufned-up shoes of the men.

Tho Afghan King, with his sweeping changes, has set his country definitely oh the lines of progress. He has already abolished a few barbaric customs, and there are others which must go same way. His people, however, include no less than five distinct races and they are all intensely Mohammedan. They are fanatical where their religious customs are threatened, and some of these the King has already abolished. Moreover, tho Afghans are the most turbulent people in the world. Rapid changes have occurred, but the products and customs of the ancient East still preponderate in Afghanistan. They have sunk deep into the lives of the people, and it can easily be imagined how extremely difficult their eradication must be. Beliefs of centuries take centuries to pass away. The native city of Kabul could not bo westernised in a hundred years. The new quarter of tho city on the opposite bank of the is essentially European, with its foreign legations and the new Royal Palace, a spacious building of English style. But the finest sight in the city is the ancient Royal Palace, surrounded by battlements, a monument of tho past, bristling with memories of conflict and turbulence.

Picturesque Kabul is changing. Maybe the jumbled houses will come down to give place to Western dwellings. In the long run the innovations of the King will go towards the improvement of the country.