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Preserving the History and Culture of Afghanistan

The Constitutions of Afghanistan represent snapshots of the evolution of governance in the state.

These works are the initial digitization projects completed by the Library. The digital copies are located on Stax, a locally-developed digital repositories application. Stax provides complete texts of these books in three formats: page images, exact reproductions of the original; plain text, suitable for screen readers and representing an accurate page-by-page rendering of content; and Adobe PDF, a multi-page image-based format suitable for printing which also permits searching of the content. Depending on the text, additional formats may be offered.

Stax represents the Library's effort to follow best practices in digitizing materials, incorporating extensive descriptive metadata, permanent urls and provision for long-term preservation.

A portion of the title page of the 1990 Constitution

The 1990 Constitution of Afghanistan [Link opens in new window]

The Constitution of Republic of Afghanistan was created following the defeat and withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. This revised consitution "...changed the name of the country back to the Republic of Afghanistan, reaffirmed its nonaligned status, strengthened the post of president, and permitted other parties to participate in government." ("Afghanistan." Encyclopedia Britannica. [http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=108470]). It remained the constitution of record until 2004.

Cover of the 1964 Constitution showing the seal of Afghanistan over the title text

Asasi Qanun - The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan [Link opens in new window]

The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan represents movements towards democracy in Afghanistan. According to the Afghanistan Atlas Project (Center for Afghanistan Studies), King Zahir Shah decreed the creation of a constitution outlining the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial authorities. With this constitution, a two-chamber legislature whose membership was partially elected by the people was established.