Can anyone explain to me, and possibly others, what Afghanistan was like pre-Soviet etc?
Before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, it was a republic which happened due to a coup d'etat that took place in 1973. The Durrani monarchy was toppled by a man called Daoud. This is when Afghan revenue from foreign employment started to increase. Daoud was ousted in 1961 with western support and he came back and took over in 1973. During this time there were many political problems with uprisings and foreign boycott and trade squeezing with severely unfair trade deals. Daoud was against Pakistan from a long time and Pakistan tried to aid these militant Islamic uprisings through radicalisation from Sufi/Deobandi groups that started from India. The Indian/Pakistani British/American pressure only increased because Daoud secured aid from the Soviets and Iran signed a deal for aid, although the money never came because of the political climate in Iran. The U.S defeat in the Vietnam war had reduced their influence immensely, thus the political support Afghanistan looked for didnt come. The Soviets were supporting Afghanistan, but Daoud was against the left and was always suppressing the left. Afghanistan then looked for support from India because the communist pressure is huge. They were surrounded by the communists and the communists wanted communism everywhere. Daoud thought that because India and Pakistan were murderous enemies of each other and since Daoud was an enemy of Pakistan indian would support them. At least in military training.
The country was in constant turmoil. Constantly. The geographical location was one of the reasons for it. Every tom, dick, and harry had to intervene. The communists in India and Iran somehow put pressure by reuniting two big factions in Afghanistan to conduct another coup to topple the then government I believe in 1978. All this while, the CIA is always there and were blamed for the Parcham leader in the same year. That began the Anti US movement as a demonstration by his people. 30,000 people took to the streets with anti U.S slogans. The women all over Afghanistan didnt like the outcome with communism in 78 because of one major issue. The Mahr or Dowry was abolished. Now unlike India the dowry was given by the man to the woman at the time of marriage. Its a sum of money given for women to keep and they can use it as they will. A lot of women banked this money just in case they lose their husband, which is not that uncommon in this war trodden country. Also, when the value of the bride goes down, the value of the woman goes down. Until then, the women had a different dignity level. So there was mass rejection of communism. Women wanted the Islamic law to prevail (ironically).
It was more of a liberal society with cinemas, education for women etc. It was a nice place in some sense. The Russian invasion happened 1979.