# King of Afghanistan?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-of-afghanistan/84675>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-of-afghanistan/84675 "2001-09-30T23:45:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![buddy1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy1)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-of-afghanistan/84675/1 "2001-09-30T23:45:11Z")

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Now comes an 86 year old former king of Afhanistan into the fray. I hear he lives outside of Rome, and hopes to help bring peace to his country. My question is, isn’t he a bit old for this? Is there a Crown prince around to help out? When was this dude deposed?

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-of-afghanistan/84675/2 "2001-10-01T00:14:44Z")

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> [@](#):
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> My question is, isn’t he a bit old for this?

This isn’t exactly a GQ.

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> Is there a Crown prince around to help out?

Muhammad Zahir Shah has at least one son, Prince Mir Wais.

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> When was this dude deposed?

1973

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-of-afghanistan/84675/3 "2001-10-01T00:57:00Z")

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As DDG is fond to say, Google is your friend: [http://www.afghan-web.com/history/](http://www.afghan-web.com/history/)

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**Author:** ![Caracticus\_Potts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bcef8e/32.png) [@Caracticus\_Potts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caracticus_Potts)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2001, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-of-afghanistan/84675/4 "2001-10-02T02:03:14Z")

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He says he has no desire or intention to rule. But he’ll help form a coalition of the existing rebel groups to establish an acceptable government.

If nothing else he’s a central figure form them to rally around as the Taliban falls so the country doesn’t fall back into Civil War.