Prince to fast in support of Afghan women

Prince Mirwais Zaher, in an interview with Associated Press Television News Friday, also read a message by his father to the Afghan people calling for the participation of women in the country's political life.

"Let us work together toward a not too distant future when we will see the direct collaboration of Afghan women in the reconstruction and development of our country," King Mohammad Zaher Shah's message said.

"A society which excludes women's vision is a blind society," the message said.

Zaher Shah, 87, was ousted from Kabul in a 1973 palace coup and has been living in exile in Rome.

The king, who in 1964 gave women the vote, sent two women in his delegation to power-sharing talks in Germany this week. The talks are seeking to form a provisional government to replace the ousted Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime.

Under the Taliban, women were forbidden to hold jobs, walk in streets unaccompanied by men or attend school.

People supporting the initiative included former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, according to the Italian Radical Party, which organized the fast.