Shalleh-ye Javiyd

Shola-e Javiyd (Persian شعلهی جاوید; meaning "Eternal Flame", also transliterated Shalleh-ye Javiyd) was a Maoist political party founded around 1964 in the Kingdom of Afghanistan. Its strategy was populist, gaining support from university students, professionals, and Shi'a Muslims, particularly the Shi'a Hazaras.^[1] It grew significantly in popularity throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, possibly eclipsing that of the Parcham and Khalq factions of the pro-Soviet People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) up until the factions' reconciliation in 1977. The Shola-e Javid party was made illegal in 1969 after criticizing King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan.

After the exile of King Zahir Shah to Italy and President Mohammed Daoud Khan's takeover of Afghanistan in 1973, Shola-e Javid continued to be condemned as a Pakistani-backed movement hostile to the ruling regime. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Sino-Albanian Split caused splits within the Shola-e Javid party, with one section denouncing the pro-Chinese stance in favor of a pro-Albanian one in 1978, condemning Mao's Three Worlds Theory as revisionist.^[2] Ahmad Shah Massoud, the ethnic Tajik rebel commander from Panjshir, is believed by some to be a member of Shola-e Javid.^[3]

References

1. Arnold, Anthony. Afghanistan's Two-Party Communism: Parcham and Khalq. 1st ed. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1983.
2. Alexander, Robert. International Maoism in the Developing World. 1st ed. London: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999.
3. Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 23. University of Michigan. pg 74.