The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

300 Afghani, according to an exchange rate that had been calculated by an unknownfinancial authority. Three hundred Afghani was the cost of a carton of American cigarettesat the local market. The argument for that amount was that Prophet Mohammad paid akalym of 10 dirhem, and no other Muslim should pay more, lest he appear more generousthan the Prophet. It was prohibited to force the groom to give any gifts to the bride or herfamily on the occasion of holidays or social events. It was prohibited to force anyone tomarry, as well as to prevent a legal wedding by means of threat, violence, or imposingunrealistic wedding budgets. A minimum age of entering wedlock was established: sixteenfor women, eighteen for men. Any violation of this decree was punishable by imprisonmentof between six months to three years, and the confiscation of kalym and other gifts.“Nikolai Alexandrovich, do you remember how the basmachi movement in CentralAsia began?” asked Starostin, going on to answer his own question. “It began with the‘liberation of women’ and the prohibition of polygamy, the removal of the burqa, and withforcing girls to attend schools and to learn professions. I studied the history of thebasmachi resistance with special attention. The Soviet authorities fought them for manyyears, only managing to overcome them because we had a multinational and multiconfessionalcountry. Mostly Russians, Ukrainians, and Latvians fought the basmachi.Parallel to this struggle, the population of Central Asia was generously diluted byrepresentatives of non-Muslim nationalities. It happened not only in the cities. Rural areas,too, received many Russian teachers and doctors who demonstrated their way of life topeasants. In Afghanistan, more than 99% of the population is Muslim. If a broad, antigovernmentmovement similar to basmachi were to begin here, the authorities would notbe able to suppress it.282