[NOTE: my first experience with service clubs was brief and negative. Around 1952 an effort was made by a faculty member to establish a KEY CLUB (Junior Kiwanis) at my St John Berchman's High School in Shreveport. I not only did not join, but I exhorted against the club's being among us. Why? I do not remember. Once upon a time I was not a joiner, I guess.]
 
 

In March 1968 I first became a Rotarian. The country was Afghanistan and the club was The Rotary Club of Kabul. Mohammed Zahir Shah was king. The Cold War saw both Americans and Soviets building highways there, providing professors at universities (including my wife Mary) and in general leaving other givers such as Germans (who built the road down the Kabul River gorge to Jalalabad) and the United Nations Development Program far behind. 

My first Foreign Service Assignment with the US Department of State had been to Hong Kong 1964-66. The situation in Viet-Nam had heated up after the Tonkin Gulf incident and U.S. congressmen and armed forces brass poured through en route to and from Saigon. I was from time to time detailed to escort admirals and such to speak at the Rotary Club of Kowloon or the Lions Club of Victoria. While sitting with British and Chinese businessmen at round tables over lunch I learned a lot about service clubs and responded positively to invitations to become a Rotarian. By then, alas, my tour  was ending in Hong Kong and so I promised to join Rotary wherever the State Department sent me next. 

That turned out to be assignment to the US Embassy in Kabul as Economic Officer beginning in December 1966. But there was no Rotary Club in Afghanistan. So I looked up the Evanston, Illinois address of Rotary International (RI) world headquarters and naively sent a letter asking, “How do I start a Rotary Club?”  Sometime in mid 1967 a reply came from Evanston via diplomatic pouch. Its gist was, “Congratulations, you are now the official representative of Rotary International to do a preliminary survey to see whether Kabul can support a Rotary Club.” I needed to show that Kabul was diverse enough to have examples of 40 of a master list of 120 business or professional classifications. With some difficulty and fudging I succeeded, e.g., by finding a  “Mullah” instead of  a “Christian Minister.” When we finally got organized as a provisional Rotary Club in late 1967, one of our charter members was a mullah and used car dealer from Herat, Senator Mujadeddi. I have  met no one since who could eat so many and such hot peppers. 

I soon found that the President of Ariana Afghan Airlines (51% owned by Pan American World Airways), Charles Bennett, and a European businessman had tried three years earlier to start Rotary but had run into too much suspicion from both the Soviets and the government. My job became to convince (during 10:00 a.m. vodka and caviar meetings at the Soviet Embassy) that a Rotary Club was not a CIA plot (as indeed it was not). I had to  assure the Russians that they too might apply to join the club. Our principal Afghan organizer was Abdul Rahim Majid, a prominent Kabul businessman. He went personally to the king and persuaded His Majesty that a Rotary Club would not break Afghanistan’s official neutrality among the Great Powers. Mr Majid returned with the King’s tacit approval on the condition that at least 50% of the club’s members be Afghans. That was wise, as the club might otherwise been entirely foreign. As it was, the club's meetings were held in English.

Rotary International was puzzled that its nomination of the Rotary Club of Peshawar, Pakistan to be our sponsor was vetoed by our potential Afghan members. That taught me a lesson just how little trust  Afghans had for their eastern neighbor. Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (where Peshawar is) had once belonged to the Afghans who in 1967 styled it  Southern Occupied Pushtunistan. Our Rotary Club therefore began as “non districted,” directly under Evanston. 

All obstacles having been cleared, in March 1968 I drove RI President (onetime NC Governor and John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Commerce) Luther Hodges from Peshawar through the Khyber Pass to six hours distant and 4,500 feet higher Kabul where he then formally chartered The Rotary Club of Kabul. Those were the grand peaceful monarchical, pre-Soviet, pre-Taliban days. When Communists took over in the 1970s, Rotary was dissolved. In 1987, while Diplomat in Residence at the University of Oklahoma, I renewed friendship with club charter secretary (American immigrant) Sher Afridi and with Charles Bennett’s Oklahoma State Senator daughter. 

--1. Geography:: Afghanistan then and now roughly the size of Texas or pre WW-II Germany with the climate of Colorado. Bordered then in the north in 1968 by the USSR, today it is neighbored by Turkmenistan, Ukbekistan and Tajikistan (in 1968 all still republics of USSR). To the north-east Afghanistan is barely touched by China, east and south by Pakistan and by Iran in the west. It is landlocked. The easiest connection to the ocean is through Pakistan: the Spin Boldak railhead in the south and then via Quetta to Karachi.

--2. History: Alexander Great took an Afghan wife, Roxanna. Afghanistan was often an eastern province of Persia; at other times it controlled India up to Indus River. The first Mogul Emperor of India, Babar. is buried in Kabul whose fruits he had memorialized. His small mausoleum has survived the recent decades of violence.

--3 Afghans enjoyed various degrees of independence off and on after the 1750s. In 1968 when Rotary came to Kabul, Afghanistan was a Kingdom led by a constitutional monarch, Mohammed Zahir Shah. His Pathan dynasty was based on Kandahar. In the 19th C. Afghanistan was a pawn in the "Great Game" between Russia and British India. Fully independent since Third Afghan War just after WW I. It was recently (on paper at least) a fledgling constitutional monarchy with a parliament and judiciary.

--4. The Kingdom's foreign policy was based on international neutrality. It asserted evenhandedness to all countries. But it displayed notable reserve towards Pakistan and tilted a bit towards India. Some said towards the USSR as well.

--By-Law: Membership was to be at least 1/2 Afghan--by wish of King. This limited membership by foreigners. And to that extent this by-law kept the club small.

Charter Members (whose names spring to mind): 

--Abdul Rahim Madjid of Bank e Melli, Afghanistan, 
--Senator Mojaddedi (from Herat), 
--Club President Reza Najem, M.D.,
--Club Secretary Sher Afridi, a businessman,
--Club Director (for International Service, if I recall aright) Patrick Killough of the American Embassy, --Charles Bennett, Pan-Am nominated President. of Ariana Afghan Airlines (51% owned by Pan-Am).

--The club was NOT part of a Rotary District with Pakistani clubs, by wish of the King--as reported to other founders by Abdul Rahim Madjid..

--RI's reaction to Afghans’ declining to be affiliated  with (which they saw as "subordinated to"  Pakistan--a country widely seen as illegally a large part of the Afghan heartland) was: no problem. Just be non-districted. i.e., report directly to RI in Evanston, Illinois. This was confirmed in writing by RI.

--My recollection is that we met at the old Kabul Hotel. I believe that Sher Afridi told me in Oklahoma in the 1980s that meetings had since shifted to the Intercontinental Hotel, not completed in December 1968 when I left the country.

--Ironically the beautiful banner of the first Rotary Club of Kabul (designed as I recall by Abdul rahim Madjid) was labeled on the back “Made in Pakistan.” This shows that Kabul Rotarians were happy to deal with Pakistani Rotarians as equals, but not as junior partners or apprentices. The banner shows drops of water flowing into a cup and reflects a traditional etymology of KABUL, as AB (water) surrounded by G/K...UL (flower, rose). I still have my personal copy of the banner and have scanned its image for transmission by email.
 
 

My tour of duty with the American Embassy in Kabul ended in December 1968. I have never revisited Afghanisitan. My subsequent information about the country and about the Rotary Club of Kabul was sporadic and sparse until 2002 when I began to learn of effortts to re-introduce Rotary to that country. If, therefore, there are errors of  fact or interpretaiton in what follows, I will be grateful to any reader who points them out and corrects them.

--King Zahir Shah, absent in Rome for medical treatment, was detrhoned in a virtually bloodless family coup in 1973. He remained in exile in Rome. I might mention that His Majesty's best foreign language was French. I happened to be present at a dinner in Frankfurt years later hosted by Consul General Robert Harlan (my chief in Saigon 1970-71) during which former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Neuman placed a phone call to the King in Rome. They spoke, as always, French.

--After some turbullent intervening  years, in 1978 there was a bloody takeover by Afghan communists, supported by USSR.

--Soviets invaded December1979. Around that time the Rotary Club of Kabul officially ceased to exist. Afghans resisted the Soviets with help from USA funneled through Pakistan. These times saw the beginnings of Al Qaida (anti-Soviet non-Afghan "Freedom Fighters") and later the Afghan Taliban (young Islamic "students" often religiously trained by religious schools in Pakistan catering to Afghan refugees.).

--After 9/11/2001 the Taliban government was removed by USA and anti-Taliban Afghans. A rare but traditional Loya Jirga (Great Council) was convoked by former King. An interim Government was formed under Pathan Hamed Karzai. A new national Constitution is being written.
 
 

--The club was officially re-chartered in April 2003. Its initial roster included, I am told, 41 members. Thus ended 24 years absence of Rotary from Afghanistan. The written Charter was presented during the June 2003 annual Rotary International Convention in Brisbane, Australia.

I do not know where or even whether (yet)  the club holds its meetings or in what language.

Its President: is a woman. She is Karima Farani (karimafarani@aol.com), formerly resident in London, England. I am told from California that she also represents or represented a Pakistan Rotary Charity.

--The impetus to re-start came from California RC--Hayward Sunset Rotary Club, made up mostly of Afghan immigrants, For details see Hayward Sunset's web site. (http://www.haywardsunsetrotary.org).

Hayward Club President is Sophia Omar (sophiamomar@yahoo.com). She traveled to Kabul in 2002, meeting both the nation's Acting President Hamid Karzai and the former King. She assured them (countering their expressed concerns) that there would be no formal Rotary ties to Pakistan. Ms Omar was present in Brisbane in June 2003 when the new RC of Kabul was presented its banner.

--Tammy Duckworth, Manager Club and District Administration Asia/Pacific (DuckworL@rotaryintl.org) co-ordinated the applications to form the club and staffed the decision to assign it to a district or let it be non-districted (as was the first club)

--RI  President Bhichal Rattakul took personal interest in the application to re-charter and apparently insisted that the club belong to a Pakistan district 3270. In any event, RI appeared to give neither the Karzai government nor  Kabul Rotarians a fully briefed, formal option re districting (unlike RI with1968 club).

--Anthony ("Tony") Craine Senior Editor, THE ROTARIAN (crainea@rotaryintl.org) co-ordinated subdued publicity for new club.

--At RI World Convention in Brisbane, Australia in June 2003, RI  officially presented a new charter to the RC of Kabul.

--2002-2003 RI 3270 District Governor Mohammad Ashraf Baig (rotary_bluemoon@hotmail.com) visited Kabul in 2002. He assigned the RC of Peshawar Unitown as Kabul Club sponsor.

--RI District 3270 DG for 2003-2004  is Dr. Ali Akhtar (akhtar02@super.net.pk) He intends to make an official visit to Kabul in the second half of 2003. He is of Afghan/Pathan heritage. He has invited me to join him.

--Mohammad Usman Khan (frdp2000@yahoo.com) is President and Azhar Ali Babar (babarchamber@hotmail.com) is Secretary of the RC of Peshawar Unitown. This is the club assigned to sponsor RC Kabul and train and support its members form an able Rotary Club.

A. Districting v. Non-Districting: there are pros and cons now as there were in 1968.

B. If districted, what district would be most appropriate?

C. The Afghan Government must agree that Rotary can function in Afghanistan. There is no such thing as a clandestine Rotary Club. Did the Karzai Government approve embedding the RC of Kabul in Pakistan district 3270? Did it do so on assurances (tacit or explicit) that the club would be non-districted?

D. Political stability and security. There are doubts that the club is as yet able to meet regularly and with a sense of the kind of security which we took for granted in 1968.

E. Challenges which the new club faces.

F. RC of Kabul as rallying point for worldwide Rotary attention.

--One American Rotarian in a visit opined the feasibility of a Rotary Club in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

G. If members of the Rotary Club of Asheville-West or other clubs within our RI 7670 wish to be helplful in Aghanistant, Rotary channels now exist to make that easier.

ENJOY ROTARY!
 

-OOO-

TPK
Swannanoa, NC
Wednesday, June 18, 2003

[NOTE: some of this text was first published in Lewis Green's THE INDEPENDENT TORCH in November 2001.]