| Humaira Begum | |
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| Afghan King Zahir Shah and queen Humaira with US President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline in New York. | |
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| Tenure | 8 November 1933 - 17 July 1973 (39 years, 251 days) |
| Spouse | Mohammed Zahir Shah |
| Father | Sardar Ahmad Shah Khan |
| Mother | Zarin Begum |
| Born | 1918 |
| Died | 2002 (aged 83–84) Rome |
Humaira Begum (1918 – 27 June 2002) was the wife of Mohammed Zahir Shah and the last Queen consort of Afghanistan
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Humaira Begum was the daughter of Sardar Ahmad Shah Khan and his first wife Zarin Begum. She married her cousin the Crown Prince of Afghanistan Mohammed Zahir on 7 November 1931. Together they had six sons and two daughters.
On 8 November 1933 after the assassination of her father in law Mohammed Nadir Shah her husband was proclaimed King and Humaira became Queen consort of Afghanistan.
In 1946 Queen Humaira created the Women's Society which was the first ever women's institute in Afghanistan. In 1959 she supported the call by the Prime minister Mohammed Daoud Khan for women to voluntary removal the veil by removing her own.[1]
In 1973, while her husband Mohammed Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for lumbago, his cousin and former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a coup d'état and established a republican government. Daoud Khan had been removed from office by Zahir Shah a decade earlier. In the August following this coup, Zahir Shah abdicated rather than risk an all-out civil war.
Humaira and Zahir Shah spent their twenty-nine years in exile in Italy living in a relatively modest four-bedroom villa in the affluent community of Olgiata on Via Cassia, north of the city of Rome. The king never had feathered any nests in foreign bank accounts, and he depended on the generosity of friends.
Just weeks before she was to return to Afghanistan and be reunited with her husband who recently had returned, Begum was admitted to hospital with breathing problems and heart trouble and died two days later.[2]
Her body was returned to Afghanistan and was greeted at the airport by military personnel, tribal representatives in traditional robes, and cabinet ministers from Hamid Karzai's government. Memorial and funeral services were also held for her in two Kabul mosques. Her remains were buried in the Royal Mausoleum in Kabul.[3]
| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mah Parwar Begum |
Queen Consort of Afghanistan 1933–1973 |
Monarchy abolished |