Irshad-e Naswan

{{Short description|First women's magazine in Afghanistan (1921–29)}}

Irshad-e Naswan ({{langx|prs|ارشاد نسوان|italic=yes}}, {{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.{{cite book|author1=S. Mittra|author2=B. Kumar| title=Encyclopaedia of Women in South Asia|publisher=Kalpaz Publications|year=2003|isbn=978-81-7835-187-2| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5KKskm1gaBgC&pg=PA5|page=5}} The magazine was founded by Queen Soraya Tarzi.{{cite book|author=H. A. Ritchie|title=Institutional Innovation and Change in Value Chain Development: Negotiating tradition, power and fragility in Afghanistan|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2016|isbn=978-1-317-40406-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51qpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA67|page=67}} 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", [https://books.google.com/books?id=AlhG1Fp6G8wC&dq=Irshad-e+Naswan&pg=PA337 The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan] social, political and international issues, women's rights but also fashion and household tips.Emadi, Hafizullah, Repression, resistance, and women in Afghanistan, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2002 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.{{Cite web|url=https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/history-education-afghanistan|title = History of education in Afghanistan - Afghanistan| date=March 2004 }}

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. [http://www.afghandata.org:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/22431/acku_serial_ds350_a37_a34_v2018_n32_33_w.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Afghanistan Quarterly Journal. Establishment 1946. Academic Publication of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan. Serial No: 32 & 33] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129154401/http://www.afghandata.org:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/22431/acku_serial_ds350_a37_a34_v2018_n32_33_w.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y |date=2023-01-29 }}

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.Julie Billaud: [https://books.google.com/books?id=SiH3BgAAQBAJ&dq=queen+afghanistan+veil&pg=PA31 Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan] 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.[https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/history-education-afghanistan History of education in Afghanistan]