That changed this weekend when his return to the throne became a distinct, if remote, possibility and his name became a rallying cry for anti-Taliban forces inside and outside his homeland.
At 87, the man who was king says he is prepared to exchange his luxury apartment in a quiet residential block on the Via Cassia of Rome for the perilous and uncertain streets of Kabul and a palace that decayed from neglect long ago.
Sturdy and lucid despite his age, Zahir said he is prepared to take back the scepter he lost in 1973 when his nephew headed a palace coup.
“I am ready to return to Afghanistan and serve my people. I have waited for years for the chance to be among my people again,” Zahir said over the weekend while Western envoys and Afghan opposition representatives sought audiences with him to discuss a future in which he may play a key role.
The plan to restore the monarchy in Afghanistan, even temporarily, is among the options envisaged by U.S. and European officials looking for a viable alternative to the Taliban government.
Zahir supporters believe he retains popular support among Afghans. Many, for example, say they recall his monarchy as more pacific and far more liberal than the repressive Taliban government, which has relegated women to the veil and meted out cruel punishment for anyone violating its strict religious edicts.
The king’s backers argue that his crown could unify a scattered opposition run by warlords in a country whose tribal chieftains have warred with each other for generations. His status also could galvanize an anti-Taliban rebellion and therefore minimize the force and duration of a U.S. strike against Afghanistan, they say.
Chance for popular revolt
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“Once the Taliban have been weakened, there could be a popular revolt against them, encouraged by Western military support for the Northern Alliance,” one European diplomat in Rome suggested.
Representatives of the Northern Alliance–the anti-Taliban opposition that holds about 8 percent of Afghan territory–met with Zahir and his advisers over the weekend to begin working out details of a post-Taliban government.
The Northern Alliance lost its leader, Ahmed Shah Massood, two days before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Massood was killed by two suicide bombers whom investigators linked to exiled Saudi Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden is suspected by the U.S. of being behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and near Washington.
Since Massood’s death, the Northern Alliance has been trying to gather its scattered forces in the hope of toppling the Taliban regime.
Resurrecting electing council
In an interview, Zahir said that once he returns to Kabul he intends to convene the loya jirga, the traditional council of intellectuals, landowners, Islamic clerics and tribal elders that formerly elected leaders or kings.
The Taliban replaced the loya jirga with the Shura, an assembly of clerics loyal to the Taliban’s interpretation of the Koran.
Zahir said that once convened, the loya jirga could confirm him as president or monarch, or elect another leader.
Forgotten for decades, Zahir ruled Afghanistan for 40 years before his nephew deposed him. His removal ushered in a violent period of tribal fighting that culminated with the communist takeover of the country.
Until this month, he lived anonymously in Rome in a large flat placed at his disposal by the Italian government. Zahir is surrounded by a bevy of loyal servants and advisers who had all but given up hope of ever seeing Afghanistan again.
Last week, the exiled monarch sent out a call on worldwide radio programs exhorting his compatriots to purge Afghanistan of what he calls “foreign elements.”
In his first interview since the current crisis, Zahir separated ordinary Afghans from the thousands of religiously motivated volunteers who arrived from other Muslim nations to help the Taliban gain power. Among those “foreigners” was bin Laden.
Zahir agrees that those responsible for the attacks on the U.S. must be punished, but added, “I hope that the punishment for acts of terrorism committed by foreigners living in my country will not include the people of Afghanistan.
“What has happened is that these foreigners, with the help of concrete foreign interference, have inserted terrorism in my country,” he said. “The Afghan people have solidarity with the victims of terrorism. I personally feel profound pain for what has happened to the American people.”