The First Phase of Constitutionalism in Afghanistan

چکیده

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 19th 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.