Afghanistan

Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It borders Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.^[15] Kabul is the capital city.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan د افغانستان اسلامي امارت (Pashto) Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat امارت اسلامی افغانستان  (Dari) Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān
Flag Emblem
Motto: lā ʾilāha ʾillà l-Lāh, Muhammadur rasūlu l-Lāh لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله (Arabic) "There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God." (Shahada)
Anthem: دا د باتورانو کور Dā də bātorāno kor "This is the Home of the Brave"[1][2][3][4]
Capital and largest city	Kabul 33°N 66°E
Official languages	Pashto Dari
Recognised regional languages	Uzbek Turkmen Balochi Pashayi Hazaragi Nuristani
Recognised minority languages	Arabic Urdu English Kyrgyz Tajik Sindhi
Major sign language	Afghan Sign Language
Ethnic groups (2019)	32%Pashtun 30% Tajik 26% Hazara  8% Uzbek  2% Turkmen <0.5% Aimaq <0.5% Baloch  3% others
Religion	85.7% Islam (official)  14.3% others
Demonym(s)	Afghan[lower-alpha 1][7][8]
Government	Unitary Deobandi Islamic caretaker government under an autocracy[lower-alpha 2]
• emir[lower-alpha 2]	Hibatullah Akhundzada
• Prime Minister	Hasan Akhund (acting)
• First Deputy Prime Minister	Abdul Ghani Baradar (acting)
• Second Deputy Prime Minister	Abdul Salam Hanafi (acting)
Legislature	TBA (as of 2021)
Formation
• Hotak Empire	1709–1738
• Durrani Empire	1747–1842
• Emirate	1823–1926
• Recognised	19 August 1919
• Kingdom	9 June 1926
• Declaration of Republic	17 July 1973
• Islamic Emirate	7 September 1996
• Islamic Republic	26 January 2004
• Taliban takeover of Kabul	15 August 2021
Area
• Total	652,864[10] km2 (252,072 sq mi) (40th)
• Water (%)	negligible
Population
• 2020 estimate	32,890,171[11] (43rd)
• Density	48.08/km2 (124.5/sq mi) (174th)
GDP (PPP)	2018 estimate
• Total	$72.911 billion[12] (96th)
• Per capita	$2,024[12] (169th)
GDP (nominal)	2018 estimate
• Total	$21.657 billion[12] (111st)
• Per capita	$493[12] (177th)
Gini (2008)	27.8[13] low · 1st
HDI (2019)	0.511[14] low · 169th
Currency	Afghani (افغانی) (AFN)
Time zone	UTC+4:30 Solar Calendar (D†)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+93
ISO 3166 code	AF
Internet TLD	.af افغانستان.
Website www.alemarahenglish.af
Preceded by Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Taliban insurgency

Afghanistan is currently governed by the Taliban, after the collapse of the internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on 15 August 2021. In early times people passed through it with animals and other goods as it connected China and India with Central Asia and the Middle East. More recently, Afghanistan has been damaged by many years of war. There are not enough jobs.

The country is around 251,826 square miles (652,230 square kilometres) in size. There are 40.976 million people in Afghanistan. There are about 3 million Afghan refugees (people who had to leave the country) in Pakistan and Iran. In 2011 Kabul, had about 3,691,400 people living in it.^[16]

United Nations Human Rights Council decided in October 2021 to appoint an independent expert, known as a United Nations special rapporteur on Afghanistan, to find out about violations carried out by the Taliban and others who are now part of a big conflict.^[17]

Economy

The economy does not have growth (as April 2024), of that kind that is called GDP growth, according to Worldbank.org.^[18] In regard to the mining industry: In 2024, Chinese engineers broke ground for a mine; "The deposit is estimated to [... have] 11.5 million tons of copper ore".^[19]

Geography

Snow-capped Koh-i-Baba mountains in Bamyan Province of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has many mountains. The mountains are called the Hindu Kush and Himalayas. The tallest mountain in Afghanistan is Mount Nowshak. There are plains (which have soil that is good for growing plants) and foothills. Parts of the country are also dry, especially the Registan Desert. Afghanistan has snow and glaciers in the mountains. Amu Darya is the big water stream, or river.

The country has a lot of a valuable stone called lapis lazuli, which was used to decorate the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.^[20]

Climate

Afghanistan has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. Having no water sometimes causes problems for farmers. Sandstorms happen a lot in the desert.^[21]

Plants and animals

Endangered snow leopards live in the cold Hindu Kush

Southern Afghanistan has not many plants because it is dry. There are more plants where there is more water. Mountains have forests of pine and fir, cedar, oak, walnut, alder, and ash trees.

Afghanistan's wild animals live in the mountains. There are wolves, foxes, jackals, bears, and wild goats, gazelles, wild dogs, camels, and wild cats such as the snow leopard in the country. The birds are falcons, eagles and vultures. The Rhesus Macaque and the red flying squirrel are also in Afghanistan.

Many years of war, hunting, and years of no water have killed animals in Afghanistan. There used to be tigers in Afghanistan, but now there aren't any. Bears and wolves are almost gone.^[20]

People and culture

Ethno-linguistic map of Afghanistan 1997

Many people have moved through or invaded the land of Afghanistan. Today's people of Afghanistan are known as Afghans.

The largest group of people are the Pashtuns. These make up about half the population.^[22] Tajiks are the second-largest ethnic group, making up about one-fifth of the population.^[23] Before the 20th century, Tajiks were called Sarts^[24] and some come from Iranian peoples.^[25] Most Pashtuns are also related to the Iranian peoples. Some Pashtuns and Tajiks marry each other but at the same time they are rivals. The third-largest group are the Hazaras. They are native to the Hazaristan area in central Afghanistan. The country's other groups include the Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Nuristani, Baloch, and Pashayi.^[20]

Dari-Persian and Pashto are the official languages of Afghanistan. Many people speak both languages.^[26] Both are Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family. They are usually written with the Arabic alphabet. Uzbek and Turkmen are widely spoken in the north and Nuristani and Pashai are spoken in the east.^[26] Around 99% of Afghans follow the religion of Islam.

Afghanistan is a largely rural country. This means there are only a few major cities. About one fifth of the population live in cities. Kabul, the capital, is the largest city. It is south of the Hindu Kush range and alongside the Kabul River. Other cities are Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, and Jalalabad. The rural population is made up of farmers and nomads. The farmers live mainly in small villages along the rivers. The nomads live in tents while moving from place to place with their animals and belongings. Some people live in the high central mountains. Some live in the deserts in the south and southwest. Millions of people left Afghanistan to get away from the wars that happened in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Most of them went to Pakistan and Iran.

History

Afghanistan is in the path of important trade routes that connect southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East. Because of this, many empire builders have tried to rule over the area. Signs that these emperors were near Afghanistan still exist in many parts of the country.^[27] Afghanistan is near what used to be the Silk Road. The peoples of Afghanistan helped develop major world religions, traded and exchanged many products, and sometimes controlled politics and culture in Asia.^[28]

Prehistory

Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism, lived in Bactria, an ancient land in the north of today's Afghanistan.

Archaeologists digging a cave in Badakhshan discovered that people lived in the country as early as 100,000 years ago. They found the skull of a Neanderthal, or early human, as well as tools from about 30,000 years ago. In other parts of Afghanistan, archaeologists uncovered pottery and tools that are 4,000 to 11,000 years old—evidence that Afghans were among the first people in the world to grow crops and raise animals.^[1]

A Stone Female Figurine, known as Bactrian Princess, from Bactria, north of Afghanistan, about 4,000 years ago

Farmers and herders settled in the plains surrounding the Hindu Kush as early as 7000 B.C. These people may have grown rich off the lapis lazuli they found along riverbeds, which they traded to early city sites to the west, across the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia. As farms and villages grew these ancient people started irrigation (digging ditches for water so it flows to crops) that allowed them to grow crops on the northern Afghanistan desert plains. This civilization (advanced state of organization) is today called BMAC (Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex), or the "Oxus civilization".^[29]

The Oxus civilization expanded as far east as western edge of the Indus Valley during the period between 2200 and 1800 B.C.^[30] These people, who were the ancestors of the Indo-Aryans, used the term "Aryan" to identify their ethnicity, culture, and religion. Scholars know this when they read the ancient texts of these people; the Avesta of Iranic peoples and the Vedas of Indo-Aryans.^[31][32]

Zoroaster, the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, the world's earliest monotheistic religion, (meaning a religion believing in one god) lived in the area (somewhere north of today's Afghanistan), around 1000 B.C.^[33]

Ancient history

Names of territories during the Caliphate in 750 CE. Khorasan was part of Persia (in yellowish).

Before the middle of the sixth century BCE, Afghanistan was held by the Medes. Then the Achaemenids took over control of the land and made it part of the Persian empire. Alexander the great defeated and conquered the Persian Empire in 330 BCE. He founded some cities in the area. The people used Macedonian culture and language. After Alexander, Greco-Bactrians, Scythians, Kushans, Parthians and Sassanians ruled the area.^[34][35]

Kushans spread Buddhism from India in the 1st century BCE, and Buddhism remained an important religion in the area until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century CE.^[36]

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were giant statues, a reminder of Buddhism in Afghanistan. They were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. There were international protests. The Taliban believe that the ancient statues were un-Islamic and that they had a right to destroy them.

Medieval history

Arabs introduced Islam in the 7th century and slowly began spreading the new religion. In the 9th and 10th centuries, many local Islamic dynasties rose to power inside Afghanistan. One of the earliest was the Tahirids, whose kingdom included Balkh and Herat; they established independence from the Abbasids in 820. The Tahirids were succeeded in about 867 by the Saffarids of Zaranj in western Afghanistan. Local princes in the north soon became feudatories of the powerful Samanids, who ruled from Bukhara. From 872 to 999, north of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan enjoyed a golden age under Samanid rule.^[37]

In the 10th century, the local Ghaznavids turned Ghazni into their capital and firmly established Islam throughout all areas of Afghanistan, except the Kafiristan region in the northeast. Mahmud of Ghazni, a great Ghaznavid sultan, conquered the Multan and Punjab region, and carried raids into the heart of India. Mohammed bin Abdul Jabbar Utbi, a historian from the 10th century, wrote that thousands of "Afghans" were in the Ghaznavid army.^[38][39] The Ghaznavid dynasty was replaced by the Ghorids of Ghor in the late 12th century, who reconquered Ghaznavid territory in the name of Islam and ruled it until 1206. The Ghorid army also included ethnic Afghans.^[38]

Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the modern state of Afghanistan in 1747.

Afghanistan was recognized as Khorasan, meaning "land of the rising sun," which was a prosperous and independent geographic region reaching as far as the Indus River.^[40][41]

All the major cities of modern Afghanistan were centers of science and culture in the past. The New Persian literature arose and flourished in the area. The early Persian poets such as Rudaki were from what is now Afghanistan. Moreover, Ferdowsi, the author of Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, and Rumi, the famous Sufi poet, were also from here. It has produced scientists such as Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Al-Biruni, Omar Khayyám, Al-Khwarizmi, and many others who are widely known for their important contributions in areas such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, geography, and geology. It remained the cultural capital of Persia until the devastating Mongol invasion in the 13th century.^[42][43]

Timur, the Turkic conqueror, took over in the end of the 14th century and began to rebuild cities in this region. Timur's successors, the Timurids (1405–1507), were great patrons of learning and the arts who enriched their capital city of Herat with fine buildings. Under their rule Afghanistan enjoyed peace and prosperity.

Between south of the Hindu Kush and the Indus River (today's Pakistan) was the native land of the Afghan tribes. They called this land "Afghanistan" (meaning "land of the Afghans"). The Afghans ruled the rich northern Indian subcontinent with their capital at Delhi. From the 16th to the early 18th century, Afghanistan was disputed between the Safavids of Isfahan and the Mughals of Agra who had replaced the Lodi and Suri Afghan rulers in India. The Safavids and Mughals occasionally oppressed the native Afghans but at the same time the Afghans used each empire to punish the other. In 1709, the Hotaki Afghans rose to power and completely defeated the Persian Empire. Then they marched towards the Mughals of India and defeated them with the help of the Afsharid forces under Nader Shah Afshar.

In 1747, after Nader Shah of Persia was killed, a great leader named Ahmad Shah Durrani united all the different Muslim tribes and established the Afghan Empire (Durrani Empire). He is considered the founding father of the modern state of Afghanistan^[1] while Mirwais Hotak is the grandfather of the nation.

Since the 1800s

During the 1800s, Afghanistan became a buffer zone between two powerful empires, the British Indian Empire and the Russian Empire. As British India advanced into Afghanistan, Russia felt threatened and expanded southward across Central Asia. To stop the Russian advance, Britain tried to make Afghanistan part of its empire but the Afghans fought wars with British-led Indians from 1839 to 1842 and from 1878 to 1880. After the third war in 1919, Afghanistan under King Amanullah gained respect and recognition as a completely independent state.

The Kingdom of Afghanistan was a constitutional monarchy established in 1926. It was the successor state to the Emirate of Afghanistan. On 27 September 1934, during the reign of Zahir Shah, the Kingdom of Afghanistan joined the League of Nations. During World War II, Afghanistan remained neutral. It pursued a diplomatic policy of non-alignment.

The creation of Pakistan in 1947 as its eastern neighbor created problems. In 1973, political crises led to the overthrow of the king. The country's new leader ended the monarchy and made Afghanistan a republic. In 1978, a Communist political party supported by the Soviet Union seized control of Afghanistan's government. This move sparked rebellions throughout the country. The government asked the Soviet Union for military assistance. The Soviets took advantage of the situation and invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.

Most people in Afghanistan opposed the sudden Soviet presence in their country. For nearly a decade, anti-Communist Islamic forces known as Mujahideen were trained in Pakistan to fight the Soviets and the Afghan government. The United States and other anti-Soviet countries supported the Mujahideen. In the long war, over one million Afghan civilians were killed. The Soviet Army also lost more than 15,000 soldiers in that war. Millions of Afghans left their country to stay safe in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. In 1989 the Soviet Army withdrew the last of its troops.

After the Soviets left in 1989, the Afghan Civil War started; different Afghan warlords began fighting for control of the country. The warlords received support from other countries, including neighboring Pakistan and Iran. A very conservative Islamic group known as the Taliban emerged in an attempt to end the civil war. By the late 1990s the Taliban had gained control over 95% of Afghanistan. A group known as the Northern Alliance, based in northern Afghanistan near the border with Tajikistan, continued to fight against the Taliban.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan according to their strict version of Islamic law. People whom the Taliban believed violated these laws were given cruel punishments. In addition, the Taliban completely restricted the rights of women. Because of such policies, most countries refused to recognize the Taliban government. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates accepted them as the official government. The Taliban also angered other countries by allowing suspected terrorists to live freely in Afghanistan. Among them were Osama bin Laden and members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. In September 2001, the United States blamed bin Laden for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. The Taliban refused to hand him over to the United States. In response, the United States and its allies launched a bombing campaign against al-Qaeda in October 2001. Within months the Taliban abandoned Kabul, and a new government led by Hamid Karzai came to power, but fighting between the Taliban and US-led armies continued. Taliban fighters have gone into Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan. Afghans accused Pakistan's military of being behind the Taliban militants but Pakistan rejected this and stated that a stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan's own interest.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the 2011 Afghan Independence Day in Kabul.

The NATO-trained Afghan National Army (ANA) collapsed in 2021

In December 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan.^[15] NATO began rebuilding Afghanistan, including its military and government institutions. Many schools and colleges were built. Freedom for women improved. Women can study, work, drive, and run for office. Many Afghan women work as politicians, some are ministers while at least one is a mayor. Others have opened businesses, or joined the military or police. Afghanistan's economy has also improved dramatically, and NATO agreed in 2012 to help the country for at least another 10 years after 2014. Afghanistan improved diplomatic ties with many countries in the world and continues.

In August 2021, the Cabinet of Afghanistan lost its power. Most of the country fell to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 with President Ashraf Ghani escaping the country. As of 18 August 2021, the former government's last remaining holdout is the Panjshir Valley.^[44]

Government

Since the Taliban captured Kabul on 15 August 2021, the governance of Afghanistan is disputed between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

According to Transparency International, Afghanistan remains in the top most corrupt countries list.^[45]

Provinces

As of 2004, there are thirty-four provinces. Each province is divided into districts. (For cities see List of cities in Afghanistan.)

Province map of Afghanistan

Provinces of Afghanistan^[46]

Province	Map #	ISO 3166-2:AF[47]	Capital	Population[48]	Area (km²)	Languages	Notes	U.N. Region
Badakhshan	30	AF-BDS	Fayzabad	889,700	44,059	Dari (Persian), Pamiri, Pashto	29 districts	North East Afghanistan
Badghis	4	AF-BDG	Qala i Naw	464,100	20,591	Dari, Pashto	7 districts	West Afghanistan
Baghlan	19	AF-BGL	Puli Khumri	848,500	21,118	Dari, Uzbeki, Turkmeni, Pashto	16 districts	North East Afghanistan
Balkh	13	AF-BAL	Mazari Sharif	1,219,200	17,249	Dari, Pashto	15 districts	North West Afghanistan
Bamyan	15	AF-BAM	Bamiyan	418,500	14,175	Dari	7 districts	Central Afghanistan
Daykundi	10	AF-DAY	Nili	431,300	8,088	Dari, Pashto	8 districts Formed from Oruzgan in 2004	South West Afghanistan
Farah	2	AF-FRA	Farah	474,300	48,471	Pashto, Dari, Balochi	11 districts	West Afghanistan
Faryab	5	AF-FYB	Maymana	931,800	20,293	Uzbek, Dari, Pashto, Turkmen	14 districts	North West Afghanistan
Ghazni	16	AF-GHA	Ghazni	1,149,400	22,915	Pashto, Dari	19 districts	South East Afghanistan
Ghor	6	AF-GHO	Chaghcharan	646,300	36,479	Dari, Pashto	10 districts	West Afghanistan
Helmand	7	AF-HEL	Lashkar Gah	1,441,769	58,584	Pashto, Dari	13 districts	South West Afghanistan
Herat	1	AF-HER	Herat	1,744,700	54,778	Dari, Pashto, Turkmeni	15 districts	West Afghanistan
Jowzjan	8	AF-JOW	Sheberghan	503,100	11,798	Uzbeki, Turkmeni, Pashto, Dari	9 districts	North West Afghanistan
Kabul	22	AF-KAB	Kabul	3,691,400	4,462	Dari, Turkmeni, Pashto, Uzbeki	18 districts	Central Afghanistan
Kandahar	12	AF-KAN	Kandahar	1,127,000	54,022	Pashto, Dari	16 districts	South East Afghanistan
Kapisa	29	AF-KAP	Mahmud-i-Raqi	413,000	1,842	Dari, Pashto, Pashai	7 districts	Central Afghanistan
Khost	26	AF-KHO	Khost	537,800	4,152	Pashto	13 districts	South East Afghanistan
Kunar	34	AF-KNR	Asadabad	421,700	4,942	Pashto	15 districts	North East Afghanistan
Kunduz	18	AF-KDZ	Kunduz	935,600	8,040	Pashto, Dari, Uzbeki, Turkmeni	7 districts	North East Afghanistan
Laghman	32	AF-LAG	Mihtarlam	417,200	3,843	Pashto, Pashai, Nuristani, Dari	5 districts	East Afghanistan
Logar	23	AF-LOW	Pul-i-Alam	367,000	3,880	Pashto, Dari	7 districts	Central Afghanistan
Nangarhar	33	AF-NAN	Jalalabad	1,409,600	7,727	Pashto, Dari	23 districts	East Afghanistan
Nimruz	3	AF-NIM	Zaranj	153,900	41,005	Balochi, Pashto, Dari	5 districts	South West Afghanistan
Nuristan	31	AF-NUR	Parun	138,600	9,225	Nuristani, Pashto	7 districts	North East Afghanistan
Oruzgan	11	AF-ORU	Tarin Kowt	328,000	22,696	Pashto, Dari	6 districts	Central Afghanistan
Paktia	24	AF-PIA	Gardez	516,300	6,432	Pashto	11 districts	South East Afghanistan
Paktika	25	AF-PKA	Sharan	407,100	19,482	Pashto	15 districts	South East Afghanistan
Panjshir	28	AF-PAN	Bazarak	143,700	3,610	Dari, Pashto	5 districts Created in 2004 from Parwan Province	North East Afghanistan
Parwan	20	AF-PAR	Charikar	620,900	5,974	Dari, Pashto	9 districts	Central Afghanistan
Samangan	14	AF-SAM	Aybak	362,500	11,262	Dari, Uzbeki	5 districts	North West Afghanistan
Sar-e Pol	9	AF-SAR	Sar-e Pol	522,900	16,360	Dari, Pashto, Uzbeki	7 districts	North West Afghanistan
Takhar	27	AF-TAK	Taloqan	917,700	12,333	Dari, Uzbeki, Pashto	12 districts	North East Afghanistan
Wardak	21	AF-WAR	Meydan Shahr	558,400	9,934	Pashto, Dari	9 districts	Central Afghanistan
Zabul	17	AF-ZAB	Qalat	284,600	17,343	Pashto	9 districts	South East Afghanistan

Relationship with other countries

• Russia's ambassador (Dmitrij Zjirnov) had a meeting with representatives from Taliban on 18 August 2021; Russia's embassy was still in operation (or open).^[49]
• An "Indian [ diplomat or] envoy to Qatar" had [at least one] meeting "with Taliban leader Stanekzai in Doha in late August", media said.^[50]
• A United States "team led by" [then] "Deputy Special Representative Tom West and [a] top USAID humanitarian official" had meetings, in Qatar in October 2021, with Afghanistani officials.^[51] Women's rights was a subject during the talks.^[52]
• Norway's ambassador visited Afghanistan - and had meetings with Taliban - during a two-day visit in the middle of January 2022. Representatives of the Taliban leadership will come to Norway and meet diplomats from different countries, during 23.-25. January.^[53][54] Norway stopped (as of 2022's first quarter) supporting with money the authorities of Afghanistan. ^[54] Previously, Norwegian diplomats had at least two meetings with Taliban in Doha, in 2021's fourth quarter;^[55][56][57] The talks are about humanitarian aid and evacuation.^[58]
• Turkey's foreign minister had a meeting (in Turkey) with "a delegation led by" foreign minister of Afghanistan, in 2021's fourth quarter.^[59]
• In Russia, a meeting about Afghanistan was held on October 20; "The participants [... were] India, USA, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran and Central Asian" countries.^[60]

Diplomatic missions that still represent the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

• The ambassador in Oslo, Norway did not recognize the Taliban-led government (as of 2021's fourth quarter).^[61]

Related pages

• Government of Afghanistan
• List of rivers of Afghanistan

Notes

1. Other names that have been used as demonyms are Afghani^[5] and Afghanistani.^[6]
2. Taliban Supreme Commander Hibatullah Akhundzada has no official position in the country's caretaker government, but is widely believed to wield ultimate authority and is expected to be given an official role soon.^[9]

References

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2. Amirzai, Shafiq l. "د ملي سرود تاریخ | روهي". Rohi.Af (in Pashto). Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
3. "ملا فقیر محمد درویش د جهادي ترنم منل شوی سرخیل". نن ټکی اسیا (in Pashto). 16 January 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
4. Tharoor, Ishaan (19 June 2013). "The Taliban's Qatar Office: Are Prospects for Peace Already Doomed?". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
5. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Reference.com (Retrieved 13 November 2007).
6. Dictionary.com. WordNet 3.0. Princeton University. Reference.com (Retrieved 13 November 2007). Archived 28 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
7. "Constitution of Afghanistan". 2004. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
8. Afghan | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. the Cambridge English Dictionary. ISBN 978-1-107-66015-1.
9. Zucchino, David (1 September 2021). "Shifting to Governing, Taliban Will Name Supreme Afghan Leader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
10. Central Statistics Office Afghanistan
11. Central Statistics Office Afghanistan, 2020.
12. "Afghanistan". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
13. "Gini Index". World Bank. Archived from the original on 11 May 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
14. Human Development Report 2020 The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 15 December 2020. pp. 343–346. ISBN 978-92-1-126442-5. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
15. "Afghanistan". CIA - The World Factbook. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
16. "Settled Population by Province" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
17. https://www.news18.com/news/world/un-rights-body-agrees-to-establish-investigator-on-afghanistan-4297415.html. Retrieved 7 October 2021
18. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/overview. Retrieved 2024-07-29
19. https://www.rferl.org/a/china-afghanistan-mes-aynak-copper-mining/33050447.html. Retrieved 2024-07-26
20. "Afghanistan Facts and Pictures". National Geographic Kids. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
21. "Afghanistan." Britannica Student Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
22. See:

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    • "Ethnic groups". BBC News. Retrieved 7 June 2013. Pashtun: Estimated to be in excess of 45% of the population, the Pashtuns have been the most dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan.
    • "Afghan Population: 30,419,928 [Pashtun 42%]". Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2012. Archived from the original on 7 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
    • Janda, Kenneth; Jeffrey M. Berry and Jerry Goldman (2008). The Challenge of Democracy: Government in America (9 ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 46 of 647. ISBN 978-0-618-81017-8. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
    • "Afghanistan's complex ethnic patchwork". The Asian Wall Street Journal. 10 March 2011. Archived from the original on 20 November 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
    • "Pathans". Faqs.org. 2003. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
    • "About Afghanistan - Ethnic Divisions". Archived from the original on 17 September 2010. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
    • Christensen, Asger (1995). Aiding Afghanistan: the background and prospects for reconstruction in a fragmented society. NIAS Press. p. 46 of 170. ISBN 978-87-87062-44-2. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
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Other websites

• "Afghanistan Virtual Jewish History Tour". Alden Oreck. Jewish Virtual Library.
• Afghan Studies Center Archived 2021-09-12 at the Wayback Machine