Interview Three
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Esfandiari, Aziz
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of Afghanistan Oral Histories
unitdate: label: Date
content: November 17, 2023
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: FSA.A2024.03, File 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This session focuses on the circumstances of the National Museum of Afghanistan during and after Soviet withdrawal. Mr. Masoudi begins by discussing the condition of civil society, changes in governance structures in the late 1960s and 1970s, and political changes. He recollects how mandatory military service functioned; Radio Afghanistan; and growing divisions between the government and religious beliefs and societal traditions. Against this background, he recollects the arrival of Soviet forces and its immediate impacts on society and on museums and the cultural sector; museum workers responsibilities during conflict; the actions taken to safeguard collections against military conflict; and the difficulties of stewarding collections in wartime.