The First Phase of Constitutionalism in Afghanistan

Abstract

Constitutionalism first started in the West, especially in the UK (Great Charter), the United States of America, and then in France. The first constitution in the world was adopted in the United States in 1789 and then in France in 1791, later on, the process expanded to the rest of Europe and later to Asia and Africa. While Afghanistan tried to exercise the phenomena in the second half of the 19^th century, British aggression stopped the process. In 1903 some teachers of Habibya High School established a constitutional movement. They started a struggle with the government to adopt a constitution for the country, unfortunately, the movement was dismissed when its key members were killed by Amir Habibullah in 1906.

This paper talks about the history and meaning of constitutionalism, the constitutional movement, and its various groups, goals, and some internal & external reasons that motivated and accelerated the movement in Afghanistan. The findings of this article show that, despite of severe situation in the country, various internal and external obstacles in the way of constitutional movement, and a lot of sacrifices, the constitutional movement’s members, finally changed the situation and the tree of constitutionalism gave fruit and Afghanistan got independence and exercised constitution for the first time.