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AMANULLAH

be the tearing down of the purdah coverings. The key-
stone of the future structure, new Afghanistan, would
be the emancipation of women. That thought burned
and persisted in his brain.

He reckoned that half the possible abilities of
Afghanistan as a nation were being wasted by the con-
tinuance of the abuse* He pictured the modern country
of working women, as in his land of ideals, Turkey. He
had read of the great services of women in the field of
medicine and education. Some day, he dreamed, he
would see Afghanistan helped on the way to progress by
its women.

The elementary schools were part of his scheme. Edu-
cation would be the groundwork for a female revolution,
egged on by the encouragement of the ruler* He would
lead the East by beginning with the women. And from
that moment he realised that in the future his first
enemy would be the village mullah.

Gradually, as news trickled through the ranks of the
Church, it was hinted that the organisation which had
fed on the fat of the land for countless generations was
in danger. The fear was never put into words. The
Afghan can paint a clever picture, and convey his
meaning by a roundabout method, without expressing
his thoughts too plainly. But the impression grew
throughout Afghanistan that there was secreted in the
mind of the ruler some dangerous thought which meant
peril for the priests. They set to work without more
ado to nullify the progress already being made in the
whole land.

They had plenty of excuses on which to work. First
and foremost, there were the taxes. Since the tussle
with the British, increased pressure had been brought
to bear on the landowners. Their taxes were steadily
mounting. Rumours of the poverty of the Treasury

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