Abdullah Athayi even if the alien woman was a widow and had children. The children were also recognised as Afghan citizens, but they lost this citizenship if they applied for their foreign father’s citizenship within six months of reaching the legal age. If the alien woman’s husband died she could also regain her citizenship of origin. In this case, she could submit an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and her citizenship of origin could be restored. However, her children retained their Afghan citizenship until they reached the legal age of eighteen. With the adoption of the 1936 law on citizenship, fundamental improvements were made to the Afghan citizenship provisions and rules, which then served as a basis for subsequent legislation in Afghanistan. 2.3 Citizenship during the Qanoonnama phase (1964-2016) Afghanistan has been known as a land of coups and political conspiracies where exchanges of power have always been bloody and painful. There was never a democratic structure in which power was peacefully transferred until the post-2001 era. In 1973, Mohammad Duad Khan launched a coup against the regime of his cousin, Mohammad Zaher Shah. Duad Khan gained power, ended the monarchy and established a republic. As a result of the coup, the parliament, which was in its 13th period of legislation, was abolished. The constitution of 1976 under Duad Khan’s presidency was never ratified. During Dr. Najeebullah’s regime, the parliament began its work again in 1988,11 but it only continued for one period. When Dr. Najeebullah’s government was overthrown in 1992, Afghanistan did not have a legislative body for 14 years. Therefore, during this period there were no fundamental changes to Afghan laws. This was either due to lack of expertise, the lack of a proper legislative body, or rapid changeovers of regimes. However, some restrictive provisions were added to the laws which allowed the government to remove the citizenship of opponents of the regime. For the acquisition and loss of citizenship, the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan12 refers to a particular law. As a result, the law on citizenship of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was enacted on 5 May 1986. During this phase, minor developments with regard to citizenship occurred. Citizenship was legally defined in Article 2 as “the legal and political relationship between a national and the state of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.” The law ensures equality of citizenship for all Afghanistan’s citizens and allows foreign citizens to apply for naturalisation regardless of their race, language, gender and education. For the first time, the legislator codified the prohibition of dual citizenship for Afghan citizens.13 The ius soli principle was applied to persons born in Afghan territory. As for naturalisation, in addition to the common conditions, according to Article 14 a person who applies for naturalisation should believe and trust the social and political basis as well as the structure of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. This was the main criterion which the communist regimes in the 1980s applied when granting Afghan citizenship because they had many opponents inside Afghanistan and did not want to grant citizenship to persons who were opposed to the structure, principles and basis of the regime. The law also provided support to Afghan citizens who resided outside Afghanistan. It applied the ‘independent principle of citizenship’ to married women. Article 16 therefore stipulated 11 Dr. Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai was the fourth President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. 12 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Justice, Official Gazette, 14 April 1980. 13 Article 7 stipulated that “People who according to this law acquire the nationality of the democratic government of Afghanistan cannot maintain dual citizenship.” 6 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/9 - © 2017 Author