Humaira Begum

Humaira Begum (24 July 1918 – 26 June 2002) (Pashto: حميرا بېگم) ^[1] was the wife of King Mohammed Zahir Shah and the last Queen consort of Afghanistan.

Marriage

Humaira Begum was the daughter of Sardar Ahmad Shah Khan and his first wife Zarin Begum. She married her first cousin, the Crown Prince of Afghanistan Mohammed Zahir on 7 November 1931 in Kabul. Together they had six sons and two daughters:

1. Princess Bilqis Begum (born 17 April 1932).
2. Prince Muhammed Akbar Khan (4 August 1933 – 26 November 1942).
3. Crown Prince Ahmad Shah (born 23 September 1934).
4. Princess Maryam Begum (born 2 November 1936).
5. Prince Muhammed Nadir Khan (born 21 May 1941).
6. Prince Shah Mahmoud Khan (15 November 1946 – 7 December 2002).
7. Prince Muhammed Daoud Pashtunyar Khan (born 14 April 1949).
8. Prince Mir Wais Khan (born 7 January 1957).

Queen of Afghanistan

On 8 November 1933 after the assassination of her father in law Mohammed Nadir Shah her husband was proclaimed King and Humaira became Queen 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 remove their veil by removing her own.^[2]

Exile

In 1973, while her husband 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.

Death

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

Honours

National honours

• Member 1st Class of the Order of the Supreme Sun (08/11/1933).^[5]

Foreign honours

• Dame Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (01/01/1950).^[6]
• Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (07/08/1963).^[7][8]
• Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown (14/04/1969).^[9]
• Member 1st Class of the Order of the Pleiades (03/1950).^[10]

Ancestry

References

External links

• Dinner in honor of King Mohammad Zahir Shah of Afghanistan