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Pashtuns (, , ; (masculine), , , (feminine) ), also known as Pakhtuns, Pukhtoons, or Pathans, are an Iranian peoples primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. The Pashtuns are known for their rich history and Pashtun culture, they speak the Pashto language, which is an Eastern Iranian language, which itself is a branch of the Iranian languages, and follow Pashtunwali, the social code of conduct for Pashtuns. Together, the Pashtuns form the world's largest tribe social group, comprising from 60–70 million people, and between 350–400 Pashtun tribes with further having more sub-tribes. They were historically referred to as Afghans until 1964, after the term's meaning had become a demonym for all citizens of Afghanistan, regardless of their ethnic group, creating an Afghan national identity.
The Pashtuns speak the Pashto, which belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Iranian language family. Additionally, Dari serves as the second language of Pashtuns in Afghanistan, while those in Pakistan speak Urdu and English language. In India, the majority of those of Pashtun descent have lost the ability to speak Pashto and instead speak Hindi and other regional languages, (2025). 9780520294134, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520294134 while those in Iran primarily speak Southern Pashto, and Persian language as a second language.
There are an estimated 350–400 Pashtun tribes with a variety of origin theories. In 2021, Shahid Javed Burki estimated the total Pashtun population to be situated between 60 and 70 million, with 15 million in Afghanistan. Others who accept the 15 million figure include British academic Tim Willasey-Wilsey as well as Abubakar Siddique, a journalist specializing in Afghan affairs. This figure is disputed due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979 due to Afghan conflict there.
They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second-largest ethnic group in Pakistan, constituting around 42–47% of the total Afghan population and around 15.4% of the total Pakistani population In India, significant and historical communities of the Pashtun diaspora exist in the northern region of Rohilkhand, as well as in major Indian cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. (2010). 9781136927508, Routledge. ISBN 9781136927508
The city of Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan, is home to the world's largest urban community of Pashtuns, larger than those of Kabul and Peshawar. Likewise, Islamabad, the country's political capital, also serves as the major urban center of Pashtuns. More than 20% of the city's population belongs to the Pashto-speaking community.
Many Pathans chose to live in the Republic of India after the partition of India. Khan Mohammad Atif, a professor at the University of Lucknow, estimates that "The population of Pathans in India is twice their population in Afghanistan".
Historically, Pashtuns settled in various cities of India before and during the British Raj in colonial India. These include Bombay (now called Mumbai), Farrukhabad, Delhi, Calcutta, Saharanpur, Rohilkhand, Jaipur, and Bangalore. The settlers are descended from both Pashtuns of present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan (British India before 1947). In some regions in India, they are sometimes referred to as Kabuliwala.
In India significant Pashtun diaspora communities exist. While speakers of Pashto in the country number only 21,677 as of 2011, estimates of the ethnic or ancestral Pashtun population in India range from 3,200,000 to 11,482,000, to as high as double their population in Afghanistan (approximately 30 million).
The Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh is named after the Rohilla community of Pashtun ancestry; the area came to be governed by the Rampur State, a Pashtun dynasty.
During the 19th century, when the British were recruiting peasants from British India as indentured servants to work in the Caribbean, South Africa and other places, Rohillas were sent to Trinidad, Surinam, Guyana, and Fiji, to work in the sugarcane fields and perform manual labour. Many stayed and formed communities of their own. Some of them assimilated with the other South Asian Muslim nationalities to form a common Indian Muslim community in tandem with the larger Indian community, losing their distinctive heritage. Some Pashtuns travelled as far as Australia during the same era.
Today, the Pashtuns are a collection of diversely scattered communities present across the length and breadth of India, with the largest populations principally settled in the plains of North India and central India. Following the partition of India in 1947, many of them migrated to Pakistan. The majority of Indian Pashtuns are Urdu-speaking communities, who have assimilated into the local society over the course of generations. Pashtuns have influenced and contributed to various fields in India, particularly politics, the entertainment industry and sports.
Heinrich Zimmer connects them with a tribe mentioned by Herodotus ( Pactyans) in 430 BCE in the Histories:Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.Map of the Median Empire, showing Pactyans territory in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan... Link
These Pactyans lived on the eastern frontier of the Achaemenid Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BCE, present-day Afghanistan. Herodotus also mentions a tribe of known as Aparytai (Ἀπαρύται). Thomas Holdich has linked them with the Afridi tribe:
Josef Markwart made the connection of the Pashtuns with names such as the Parsiētai (Παρσιῆται), Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) that were cited by Ptolemy 150 CE:
Strabo, the Greek geographer, in the Geographica (written between 43 BC to 23 AD) makes mention of the Scythian tribe Pasiani (Πασιανοί), which has also been identified with Pashtuns given that Pashto is an Eastern-Iranian language, much like the Scythian languages:
This is considered a different rendering of Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι). Johnny Cheung, reflecting on Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) and Strabo's Pasiani (Πασιανοί) states: "Both forms show slight phonetic substitutions, viz. of υ for ι, and the loss of r in Pasianoi is due to perseveration from the preceding Asianoi. They are therefore the most likely candidates as the (linguistic) ancestors of modern day Pashtuns."
The earliest mention of the name Afghan ( Abgân) is by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire during the 3rd century CE, In the 4th century the word "Afghans/Afghana" (αβγανανο) as a reference to a particular people is mentioned in the documents found in Northern Afghanistan.
The name Afghan is later recorded in the 6th century CE in the form of "Avagāṇa" अवगाण by the Indian astronomer Varahamihira in his Brihat-samhita.
The word Afghan also appeared in the 982 Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where a reference is made to a village, Saul, which was probably located near Gardez, Afghanistan.
Al-Utbi, the Ghaznavids chronicler, in his Tarikh Yamini recorded that many Afghans and Khiljis (possibly the modern Ghilji) enlisted in the army of Sabuktigin after Jayapala was defeated. Al-Utbi further stated that Afghans and Ghiljis made a part of Mahmud Ghaznavi's army and were sent on his expedition to Tocharistan, while on another occasion Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked and punished a group of opposing Afghans, as also corroborated by Abulfazl Beyhaqi.R. Khanam, Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: P-Z, Volume 3 – Page 18 It is recorded that Afghans were also enrolled in the Ghurid dynasty (1148–1215). By the beginning of the Khilji dynasty in 1290, Afghans have been well known in northern India.
Ibn Battuta, when visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khilji dynasty, also wrote about the Afghans.
Ferishta, a 16th-century Muslim historian writing about the history of Muslim rule in the subcontinent, stated:
Mohan Lal stated in 1846 that "the origin of the Afghans is so obscure, that no one, even among the oldest and most clever of the tribe, can give satisfactory information on this point." Others have suggested that a single origin of the Pashtuns is unlikely but rather they are a tribal confederation.
It is suggested by some that Pashto may have originated in the Badakhshan region and is connected to a Saka language akin to Khotanese. In fact major linguist Georg Morgenstierne has described Pashto as a Saka language dialect and many others have observed the similarities between Pashto and other Saka languages as well, suggesting that the original Pashto speakers might have been a Saka group. Furthermore, Pashto and Ossetian, another Scythian-descending language, share cognates in their vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack Cheung suggests a common isogloss between Pashto and Ossetian which he explains by an undocumented Saka dialect being spoken close to reconstructed Old Pashto which was likely spoken north of the Amu Darya at that time. Others however have suggested a much older Iranic ancestor given the affinity to Old Avestan.
Some Pashtun tribes claim descent from Arabs, including some claiming to be Sayyids.Caroe, Olaf. 1984. The Pathans: 500 B.C.-A.D. 1957 (Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints)." Oxford University Press.
One historical account connects the Pashtuns to a possible past but this lacks supporting evidence.
Henry Walter Bellew, who wrote extensively on Afghan culture, noted that some people claim that the Bangash Pashtuns are connected to Ismail Samani.
The Greek ancestry of the Pashtuns may also be traced on the basis of a homologous group. And Haplogroup J2 is from the Semitic population, and this haplogroup is found in 6.5% of Greeks and Pashtuns and 55.6% of the Israelite population.
A number of genetic studies on Pashtuns have lately been undertaken by academics from various institutions and research institutes. The Greek heritage of Pakistani Pashtuns has been researched in. In this study, the Pashtuns, Kalash, and Burusho to be descended from Alexander's soldiers considered.
Henry Walter Bellew (1834–1892) was of the view that the Pashtuns likely have mixed Greek and Indian Rajput roots.
Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire expanded influence on the Pashtuns until 305 BCE when they gave up dominating power to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty.
Some groups from Peshawar and Kandahar believe to be descended from Greek people who arrived with Alexander the Great.
However, according to linguist Sims-Williams, archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the successors of the Hephthalites, while according to historian V. Minorsky, the Khalaj were "perhaps only politically associated with the Hephthalites."
According to Georg Morgenstierne, the Durrani tribe who were known as the "Abdali" before the formation of the Durrani Empire 1747, might be connected to with the Hephthalites; Aydogdy Kurbanov endorses this view who proposes that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, Hephthalite likely assimilated into different local populations.
According to The Cambridge History of Iran volume 3, Issue 1, the Ghilji tribe of Afghanistan are the descendants of Hephthalites.
This theory of Pashtuns Jewish origin has been largely denied and is said that Its biblical claims are anecdotal, its historical documentation is inconsistent, its geographic claims are incoherent, and its linguistic assertions are implausible.
One conflicting issue in the belief that the Pashtuns descend from the Israelites is that the Ten Lost Tribes were exiled by the ruler of Assyria, while Maghzan-e-Afghani says they were permitted by the ruler to go east to Afghanistan. This inconsistency can be explained by the fact that Persia acquired the lands of the ancient Assyrian Empire when it conquered the Empire of the Medes and Chaldean Babylonia, which had conquered Assyria decades earlier. But no ancient author mentions such a transfer of Israelites further east, or no ancient extra-Biblical texts refer to the Ten Lost Tribes at all.
Some Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are linked to the ancient Israelites. Mohan Lal quoted Mountstuart Elphinstone who wrote:
This theory has been criticized for not being substantiated by historical evidence. Zaman Stanizai criticizes this theory:
According to genetic studies Pashtuns have a greater R1a1a*-M198 modal halogroup than Jews:
During the so-called "Great Game" of the 19th century, rivalry between the British Empire and Russian Empire empires was useful to the Pashtuns of Afghanistan in resisting foreign control and retaining a degree of autonomy (see the Siege of Malakand). However, during the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), Pashtunistan were politically divided by the Durand Line – areas that would become western Pakistan fell within British India as a result of the border.
In the 20th century, many politically active Pashtun leaders living under British rule of undivided India supported Indian independence, including Ashfaqulla Khan,
The Afghan royal family, which was represented by King Zahir Shah, are referred to . Other prominent Pashtuns include the 17th-century poets Khushal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba, and in contemporary era Afghan Astronaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, former US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and Ashraf Ghani among many others.
Many Pashtuns of Pakistan and India have adopted non-Pashtun cultures, mainly by abandoning Pashto and using languages such as Urdu, Punjabi language, and Hindko language. These include Ghulam Mohammad (first Finance Minister, from 1947 to 1951, and third Governor-General of Pakistan, from 1951 to 1955),
Many more held high government posts, such as Asfandyar Wali Khan, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Sirajul Haq, and Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, who are presidents of their respective political parties in Pakistan. Others became famous in sports (e.g., Imran Khan, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Irfan Pathan, Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, Hashim Khan, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Wasim) and literature (e.g., Ghani Khan, Hamza Shinwari, and Kabir Stori). Malala Yousafzai, who became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 2014, is a Pakistani Pashtun. Pashtuns are considered to be well-integrated in the Pakistani society, and as per a 2009 Pew Research Center report 92% of the Pashtuns identified with their Pakistani identity before their ethnic Pashtun identity.Pew Research Center. (13 August 2009). Chapter 2. Religion, Law, and Society. Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project.
Many of the Bollywood film stars in India have Pashtun ancestry; some of the most notable ones are Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Feroz Khan, Madhubala, Kader Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Sara Ali Khan, and Zarine Khan. In addition, one of India's former presidents, Zakir Husain, belonged to the Afridi tribe. Mohammad Yunus, India's former ambassador to Algeria and advisor to Indira Gandhi, is of Pashtun origin and related to the legendary Bacha Khan.
In the late 1990s, Pashtuns were the primary ethnic group in the ruling regime i.e. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban regime). The Northern Alliance that was fighting against the Taliban also included a number of Pashtuns. Among them were Abdullah Abdullah, Abdul Qadir and his brother Abdul Haq, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Asadullah Khalid, Hamid Karzai and Gul Agha Sherzai. The Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001 during the US-led War in Afghanistan and replaced by the Karzai administration. This was followed by the Ghani administration and the reconquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan).
The long wars in Afghanistan have led to Pashtuns gaining a reputation for being exceptional fighters. Some activists and intellectuals are trying to rebuild Pashtun intellectualism and its pre-war culture.
Y haplogroup and mtdna haplogroup samples were taken from Jadoon, Yousafzai, Sayyid, Gujar and Tanoli men living in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Jadoon men have predominantly East Asian origin paternal ancestry with West Eurasian maternal ancestry and a lesser amount of South Asian maternal ancestry according to a Y and mtdna haplogroup test indicating local females marrying immigrant males during the medieval period. Y Haplogroup O3-M122 makes up the majority of Jadoon men, the same haplogroup carried by the majority (50–60%) of Han Chinese. 82.5% of Jadoon men carrying Q-MEH2 and O3-M122 which are both of East Asian origin. O3-M122 was absent in the Sayyid (Syed) population and appeared in low numbers among Tanolis, Gujars and . There appears to be founder affect in the O3-M122 among the Jadoon. 76.32% of Jadoon men carry O3-M122 while 0.75% of Tanolis, 0.81% of Gujars and 2.82% of Yousafzais carry O3-M122.
56.25% of the Jadoons in another test carried West Eurasian maternal Haplogroup H (mtDNA). Dental morphology of the Swabi Jadoons was also analysed and compared to other groups in the regions like Yousufzais and Sayyids.
Pashto is categorized as an Eastern Iranian language, but a remarkably large number of words are unique to Pashto. Pashto grammar in relation to verbs is complex compared to other Iranian languages. In this respect MacKenzie states:
Pashto has a large number of Pashto dialects: generally divided into Northern Pashto, Southern Pashto and Central Pashto groups;Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. . Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. and also Wanetsi as distinct group. As Elfenbein notes: "Dialect differences lie primarily in Pashto phonology and lexicon: the morphology and syntax are, again with the exception of Wanetsi, quite remarkably uniform".
The first Pashto alphabet was developed by Pir Roshan in the 16th century.
The overwhelming majority of Pashtuns adhere to Sunni Islam and belong to the Hanafi school of thought. Small Shia Islam communities exist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Paktia. The Shias belong to the Turi tribe while the Bangash tribe is approximately 50% Shia and the rest Sunni, who are mainly found in and around Parachinar, Kurram District, Hangu, Kohat and Orakzai District.
A legacy of Sufism activity may be found in some Pashtun regions, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as evident in songs and dances. Many Pashtuns are prominent Ulema, Islamic scholars, such as Maulana Aazam an author of more than five hundred books including Tafasee of the Quran as Naqeeb Ut Tafaseer, Tafseer Ul Aazamain, Tafseer e Naqeebi and Noor Ut Tafaseer etc., as well as Muhammad Muhsin Khan who has helped translate the Noble Quran, Sahih Bukhari and many other books to the English language. Many Pashtuns want to reclaim their identity from being lumped in with the Taliban and international terrorism, which is not directly linked with Pashtun culture and history.
Little information is available on non-Muslim as there is limited data regarding irreligion groups and minorities, especially since many of the Hindu and Sikh Pashtuns migrated from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the partition of India and later, after the rise of the Taliban.
There are also Hindus who claim to be Pashtun, sometimes known as the Sheen Khalai (though their ethnic claim is disputed by other Pashtuns), who have moved predominantly to India. A small Hindu community, known as the Sheen Khalai meaning 'blue skinned' (referring to the color of Pashtun women's facial ), migrated to Unniara, Rajasthan, India after partition. Prior to 1947, the community resided in the Quetta, Loralai and Maikhter regions of the British Indian province of Baluchistan. They are mainly claim to be members of the Pashtun Kakar tribe. Today, they continue to speak Pashto and celebrate Pashtun culture through the Attan dance.
There is also a minority of Pashto speaking Sikhs in Tirah, Orakzai District, Kurram District, Malakand, and Swat District. Due to the ongoing insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, some Pashto speaking Sikhs were internally displaced from their ancestral villages to settle in cities like Peshawar and Nankana Sahib.
The earliest describes Sheikh Mali's conquest of Swat. Pir Roshan is believed to have written a number of Pashto books while fighting with the Mughals. Pashtun scholars such as Abdul Hai Habibi and others believe that the earliest Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana as proof. Amir Kror Suri, son of Amir Polad Suri, was an 8th-century folk hero and king from the Ghor Province region in Afghanistan.
The advent of poetry helped transition Pashto to the modern period. Pashto literature gained significant prominence in the 20th century, with poetry by Ameer Hamza Shinwari who developed Pashto Ghazals. In 1919, during the expanding of mass media, Mahmud Tarzi published Seraj-al-Akhbar, which became the first Pashto newspaper in Afghanistan. In 1977, Khan Roshan Khan wrote Tawarikh-e-Hafiz Rehmatkhani which contains the family trees and Pashtun tribal names. Some notable poets include Malak Ahmad Khan Yusufzai Abdul Ghani Khan, Afzal Khan Khattak, Ahmad Shah Durrani, Gaju Khan Kalu Khan Yousafzai Ajmal Khattak, Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi, Hamza Shinwari, Hanif Baktash, Khushal Khan Khattak, Nazo Tokhi, Pareshan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Shuja Shah Durrani, and Timur Shah Durrani.
Producers based in Peshawar have created Pashto-language films since the 1970s.
Pashtun performers remain avid participants in various physical forms of expression including dance, sword fighting, and other physical feats. Perhaps the most common form of artistic expression can be seen in the various forms of Pashtun dances. One of the most prominent dances is Attan, which has ancient roots. A rigorous exercise, Attan is performed as musicians play various native instruments including the dhol (drums), (percussions), rubab (a bowed string instrument), and toola (wooden flute). With a rapid circular motion, dancers perform until no one is left dancing, similar to Sufism Mevlevi. Numerous other dances are affiliated with various tribes notably from Pakistan including the Khattak Wal Atanrh (eponymously named after the Khattak tribe), Mahsood Wal Atanrh (which, in modern times, involves the juggling of loaded rifles), and Waziro Atanrh among others. A sub-type of the Khattak Wal Atanrh known as the Braghoni involves the use of up to three swords and requires great skill. Young women and girls often entertain at weddings with the Tumbal (Dayereh) which is an instrument.
Makha is a traditional archery sport in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, played with a long arrow ( gheshai) having a saucer shaped metallic plate at its distal end, and a long bow. In Afghanistan, some Pashtuns still participate in the ancient sport of buzkashi in which horse riders attempt to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal circle. "Dom Joly: Know your Kokpar from your Kyz-Kuu" , The Independent: ColumnistsDean, Ruth and Melissa Thomson, Making the Good Earth Better: The Heritage of Kurtz Bros., Inc. pp. 17–18
The decades of war and the rise of the Taliban caused considerable hardship among Pashtun women, as many of their rights have been curtailed by a rigid interpretation of Sharia. The difficult lives of Afghan female refugees gained considerable notoriety with the iconic image Afghan Girl (Sharbat Gula) depicted on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine.
Modern social reform for Pashtun women began in the early 20th century, when Queen Soraya Tarzi of Afghanistan made rapid reforms to improve women's lives and their position in the family. She was the only woman to appear on the list of rulers in Afghanistan. Credited with having been one of the first and most powerful Afghan and Muslim female activists. Her advocacy of social reforms for women led to a protest and contributed to the ultimate demise of Amanullah Khan's reign in 1929. Civil rights remained an important issue during the 1970s, as feminist leader Meena Keshwar Kamal campaigned for women's rights and founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) in the 1977.
Pashtun women these days vary from the traditional housewives who live in seclusion to urban workers, some of whom seek or have attained parity with men. But due to numerous social hurdles, the literacy rate remains considerably lower for them than for males. Abuse against women is present and increasingly being challenged by women's rights organizations which find themselves struggling with conservative religious groups as well as government officials in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a 1992 book, "a powerful ethic of forbearance severely limits the ability of traditional Pashtun women to mitigate the suffering they acknowledge in their lives."
Further challenging the status quo, Vida Samadzai was selected as Miss Afghanistan in 2003, a feat that was received with a mixture of support from those who back the individual rights of women and those who view such displays as anti-traditionalist and un-Islamic. Some have attained political office in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A number of Pashtun women are found as TV hosts, journalists and actors. In 1942, Madhubala (Mumtaz Jehan), the Marilyn Monroe of India, entered the Bollywood film industry.
(2020). 9781624669057, Hackett Publishing. ISBN 9781624669057 They also live in the states of Maharashtra in central India and West Bengal in eastern India that each have a population of over a million with Pashtun ancestry; both Bombay and Calcutta were primary locations of Pashtun migrants from Afghanistan during the colonial era. There are also populations over 100,000 each in the cities of Jaipur in Rajasthan and Bangalore in Karnataka. Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Kolkata both have a Pashtun population of over 1 million, while Jaipur and Bangalore have an estimate of around 100,000. The Pashtuns in Bangalore include the Khan siblings Feroz, Sanjay Khan and Akbar Khan, whose father settled in Bangalore from Ghazni.
Iran
Pashtuns are also found in smaller numbers in the eastern and northern parts of Iran. Records as early as the mid-1600s report Durrani living in the Khorasan province of Safavid Iran. After the short reign of the Hotak dynasty, Nader Shah defeated the last independent Ghilji ruler of Kandahar, Hussain Hotak. In order to secure Durrani control in southern Afghanistan, Nader Shah deported Hussain Hotak and large numbers of the Ghilji to the Mazandaran province in northern Iran. The remnants of this once sizeable exiled community, although assimilated, continue to claim Pashtun descent. During the early 18th century, in the course of a very few years, the number of Durrani Pashtuns in Iranian Khorasan, greatly increased. Later the region became part of the Durrani Empire itself. The second Durrani king of Afghanistan, Timur Shah Durrani was born in Mashhad. Contemporary to Durrani rule in the east, Azad Khan Afghan, an ethnic Ghilji Pashtun, formerly second in charge of Azerbaijan during Afsharid dynasty, gained power in the western regions of Iran and Azerbaijan for a short period. According to a sample survey in 1988, 75 per cent of all Afghan refugees in the southern part of the Iranian Khorasan province were Durrani Pashtuns.
In other regions
Indian and Pakistani Pashtuns have utilized the British/Commonwealth links of their respective countries, and modern communities have been established starting around the 1960s mainly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia but also in other commonwealth countries (and the United States). Some Pashtuns have also settled in the Middle East, such as in the Arabian Peninsula. For example, about 300,000 Pashtuns migrated to the Persian Gulf countries between 1976 and 1981, representing 35% of Pakistani immigrants. The Pakistani and Afghan diaspora around the world includes Pashtuns.
Etymology
Ancient historical references: Pashtun
A tribe called Pakthas, one of the tribes that fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna, or "Battle of the Ten Kings", are mentioned in the seventh mandala of the Rigveda, a text of Vedic Sanskrit hymns dated between 1500 and 1200 BCE:p. 2 "Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture" By D. R. Bhandarkar
Middle historical references: Afghan
In the Middle Ages until the advent of modern Afghanistan in the 18th century, the Pashtuns were often referred to as "Afghans".
The etymological view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Aśvakan, or the Assakenoi of Arrian, which was the name used for ancient inhabitants of the Hindu Kush.* "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J.W. McCrindle).
Aśvakan literally means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "" (from aśva or aspa, the Sanskrit and Avestan words for "horse"). This view was propounded by scholars like Christian Lassen,Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol I, fn 6; also Vol II, p 129, et al. J. W. McCrindle, "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J. W. McCrindle). M. V. de Saint Martin,Etude Sur la Geog Grecque & c, pp 39–47, M. V. de Saint Martin. and É. Reclus,The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83, Élisée Reclus – Geography. "Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).cf: "Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the Sanskrit, Asva , or Asvaka , a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander "(Ref: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1999, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society). "Afghans are Assakani of the Greeks; this word being the Sanskrit Ashvaka meaning 'horsemen' " (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood).Cf: "The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a cavalier , and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander" (Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological..by Henry Yule, AD Burnell).See few more references on Asvaka = Afghan: The Numismatic Chronicle, 1893, p 100, Royal Numismatic Society (Great Britain); Awq, 1983, p 5, Giorgio Vercellin; Der Islam, 1960, p 58, Carl Heinrich Becker, Maymūn ibn al-Qāsim Tabarānī; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City), University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Literary History of Ancient India in Relation to Its Racial and Linguistic Affiliations, 1970, p 17, Chandra Chakraberty; Stile der Portugiesischen lyrik im 20 jahrhundert, p 124, Winfried Kreutzen.; See: Works, 1865, p 164, Dr H. H. Wilson; The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83; Chants populaires des Afghans, 1880, p clxiv, James Darmesteter; Nouvelle geographie universelle v. 9, 1884, p.59, Elisée Reclus; Alexander the Great, 2004, p.318, Lewis Vance Cummings (Biography & Autobiography); Nouveau dictionnaire de géographie universelle contenant 1o La géographie physique ... 2o La .., 1879, Louis Rousselet, Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin; An Ethnic Interpretation of Pauranika Personages, 1971, p 34, Chandra Chakraberty; Revue internationale, 1803, p 803; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City). University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Edinburgh University Publications, 1969, p 113, University of Edinburgh; Shi jie jian wen, 1930, p 68 by Shi jie zhi shi chu ban she. Cf also: Advanced History of Medieval India, 1983, p 31, Dr J. L. Mehta; Asian Relations, 1948, p 301, Asian Relations Organization ("Distributed in the United States by: Institute of Pacific Relations, New York."); Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1892, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society – Geography; The geographical dictionary of ancient and mediaeval India, 1971, p 87, Nundo Lal Dey; Nag Sen of Milind Paṅhö, 1996, p 64, P. K. Kaul – Social Science; The Sultanate of Delhi, 1959, p 30, Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava; Journal of Indian History, 1965, p 354, University of Kerala Dept. of History, University of Allahabad Dept. of Modern Indian History, University of Travancore – India; Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, 1858, p 313, fn 3, Stanislas Julien Xuanzang – Buddhism.
(2025). 9781874780922, The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781874780922
The same book also speaks of a king in Ninhar (Nangarhar), who had Muslim, ''Afghan'' and Hindu wives. In the 11th century, Afghans are mentioned in [[Al-Biruni]]'s ''Tarikh-ul Hind'' ("History of the Indus"), which describes groups of rebellious Afghans in the tribal lands west of the [[Indus River]] in what is today Pakistan.A Glossary of the Tribes And Castes of the Punjab And North-West Frontier Province Vol. 3 By H.A. Rose, Denzil Ibbetson Sir Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1997, Page 211, ,
History and origins
The ethnogenesis of the Pashtun ethnic group is unclear. There are many conflicting theories among historians and the Pashtuns themselves. Modern scholars believe that Pashtuns do not all share the same origin. The early ancestors of modern-day Pashtuns may have belonged to old Iranian tribes that spread throughout the eastern Iranian plateau. Historians have also come across references to various ancient Indo-Aryan tribes called Pakthas ( Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, although according to Richard N. Frye the identification of Pashtuns with the Pakhtas is a mere guess and not proven. And scholars such as Georg Morgenstierne propose the derivation of Pashto from Parsa or Parswana.
Linguistic origin
Pashto is generally classified as an Eastern Iranian language. It shares features with the Munji language, which is the closest existing language to the extinct Bactrian, but also shares features with the Sogdian language, as well as Khwarezmian, Shughni language, Sanglechi, and Khotanese Saka.
Diverse origin
According to one school of thought, Pashtun are descended from a variety of ethnicities, including Persians, Greeks, Turkish people, Arabs, Bactrians, Dards, Scythians, Tatars, Huns (Hephthalites), Mongols, Moghol people (Mughals), and anyone else who has crossed the region where these Pashtun live. Unexpectedly, this includes alleged ties of Israelite descent.
Greek origin
According to Firasat et al. 2007, a proportion of Pashtuns may descend from Greeks, but they also suggest that Greek ancestry may also have come from Greek slaves brought by Xerxes I.
Hephthalite origin
According to some accounts the Ghilji tribe has been connected to the Khalaj people. Following al-Khwarizmi, Josef Markwart claimed the Khalaj to be remnants of the Hephthalite confederacy." ḴALAJ i. TRIBE" – Encyclopaedia Iranica, 15 December 2010 (Pierre Oberling) The Hephthalites may have been Indo-Iranian, although the view that they were of Turkic peoples Tiele people origin "seems to be most prominent at present".. "The suggestion that the Hephthalites were originally of Turkic origin and only later adopted Bactrian as their administrative, and possibly native, language (de la Vaissière 2007: 122) seems to be most prominent at present." The Khalaj may originally have been Turkic-speaking and only federated with Iranian Pashto-speaking tribes in medieval times.
Anthropology and oral traditions
Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites
Some lend credence to the of the Pashtun tribes themselves. For example, according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites is traced to Nimat Allah al-Harawi, who compiled a history for Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of Mughal Empire Emperor Jehangir in the 17th century. The 13th century Tabaqat-i Nasiri discusses the settlement of immigrant Bani Israel at the end of the 8th century CE in the Ghor Province of Afghanistan, settlement attested by Jewish inscriptions in Ghor. Historian André Wink suggests that the story "may contain a clue to the remarkable theory of the Jewish origin of some of the Afghan tribes which is persistently advocated in the Persian-Afghan chronicles." These references to Bani Israel agree with the commonly held view by Pashtuns that when the twelve tribes of Israel were dispersed, the tribe of Joseph, among other Hebrew tribes, settled in the Afghanistan region. This oral tradition is widespread among the Pashtun tribes. There have been many legends over the centuries of descent from the Ten Lost Tribes after groups converted to Christianity and Islam. Hence the tribal name Yusufzai in Pashto translates to the "son of Joseph". A similar story is told by many historians, including the 14th century Ibn Battuta and 16th century Firishta. However, the similarity of names can also be traced to the presence of Arabic through Islam.
Modern era
Their modern past stretches back to the Delhi Sultanate (Khalji dynasty and Lodi dynasty), the Hotak dynasty and the Durrani Empire. The Hotak rulers rebelled against the Safavids and seized control over much of Persia from 1722 to 1729. This was followed by the conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani who was a former high-ranking military commander under Nader Shah and founder of the Durrani Empire, which covered most of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir region, Indian Punjab, as well as the Quhistan and Khorasan provinces of Iran. After the decline of the Durrani dynasty in the first half of the 19th century under Shuja Shah Durrani, the Barakzai dynasty took control of the empire. Specifically, the held Afghanistan's monarchy from around 1826 to the end of Zahir Shah's reign in 1973.
K. Guru Rajesh9789352061730, Notion Press. ISBN 9789352061730 Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, Ajmal Khattak, Bacha Khan and his son Wali Khan (both members of the Khudai Khidmatgar), and were inspired by Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolence method of resistance. Many Pashtuns also worked in the Muslim League to fight for an independent Pakistan through non violent resistance, including Yusuf Khattak and Abdur Rab Nishtar who was a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The Pashtuns of Afghanistan attained complete independence from British political intervention during the reign of Amanullah Khan, following the Third Anglo-Afghan War. By the 1950s a popular call for Pashtunistan began to be heard in Afghanistan and the new state of Pakistan. This led to bad relations between the two nations. The Afghan monarchy ended when President Daoud Khan seized control of Afghanistan from his cousin Zahir Shah in 1973 on a Pashtun Nationalist agenda, which opened doors for a proxy war by neighbours. In April 1978, Saur Revolution along with his family and relatives in a bloody coup orchestrated by Hafizullah Amin. Afghan mujahideen commanders in exile in neighbouring Pakistan began recruiting for a guerrilla warfare against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan – the Marxist government which was also dominated by Pashtun who held Nationalist views including Hafizullah Amin, Nur Muhammad Taraki, General Mohammad Aslam Vatanjar, Shahnawaz Tanai, Mohammad Gulabzoy and many more. In 1979, the Soviet Union intervened in its southern neighbour Afghanistan in order to defeat a rising insurgency. The Afghan mujahideen were funded by the United States, Saudi Arabia, China and others, and included some Pashtun commanders such as Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi and Mohammad Yunus Khalis. In the meantime, millions of Pashtuns joined the Afghan diaspora in Pakistan and Iran, and from there tens of thousands proceeded to Europe, North America, Oceania and other parts of the world. The Afghan government and military would remain predominantly Pashtun until the fall of Mohammad Najibullah's Republic of Afghanistan in April 1992.
Many high-ranking government officials in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan were Pashtuns, including: Abdul Rahim Wardak, Abdul Salam Azimi, Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, Amirzai Sangin, Ghulam Farooq Wardak, Hamid Karzai, Mohammad Ishaq Aloko, Omar Zakhilwal, Sher Mohammad Karimi, Zalmay Rasoul, Yousef Pashtun. The list of current governors of Afghanistan also include large percentage of Pashtuns. Mullah Yaqoob serves as acting Defense Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani as acting Interior Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi as acting Foreign Minister, Gul Agha Ishakzai as acting Finance Minister, and Hasan Akhund as acting Prime Minister. A number of other ministers are also Pashtuns.
(2025). 9781317245094, Routledge. ISBN 9781317245094 Ayub Khan, who was the second President of Pakistan, Zakir Husain who was the third President of India and Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived 12 May 2025.
(1983). 9788126121755, Vision Books. ISBN 9788126121755
Genetics
The majority of Pashtuns from Afghanistan belong to R1a, with a frequency of 50–65%. Subclade R1a-Z2125 occurs at a frequency of 40%. This subclade is predominantly found in Tajiks, Turkmen, Uzbeks and in some populations in the Caucasus and Iran. Haplogroup G-M201 reaches 9% in Afghan Pashtuns and is the second most frequent haplogroup in Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan. Haplogroup L and Haplogroup J2 occurs at an overall frequency of 6%. According to a Mitochondrial DNA analysis of four ethnic groups of Afghanistan, the majority of mtDNA among Afghan Pashtuns belongs to West Eurasian lineages, and share a greater affinity with West Eurasian and Central Asian populations rather than to populations of South Asia or East Asia. The haplogroup analysis indicates the Pashtuns and Tajiks in Afghanistan share ancestral heritage. Among the studied ethnic groups, the Pashtuns have the greatest mtDNA diversity. The most frequent haplogroup among Pakistani Pashtuns is haplogroup R which is found at a rate of 28–50%. Haplogroup J2 was found in 9% to 24% depending on the study and Haplogroup E has been found at a frequency of 4% to 13%. Haplogroup L occurs at a rate of 8%. Certain Pakistani Pashtun groups exhibit high levels of R1b. Overall Pashtun groups are genetically diverse, and the Pashtun ethnic group is not a single genetic population. Different Pashtun groups exhibit different genetic backgrounds, resulting in considerable heterogeneity.
Definitions
The most prominent views among Pashtuns as to who exactly qualifies as a Pashtun are:
Tribes
A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the intricate system of . The tribal system has several levels of organization: the tribe they are in is from four 'greater' tribal groups: the Sarbani, the Bettani, the Gharghashti, and the Karlani. The tribe is then divided into kinship groups called khels, which in turn is divided into smaller groups ( pllarina or plarganey), each consisting of several extended families called kahols.
Durrani and Ghilji Pashtuns
The Durranis and Ghiljis (or Ghilzais) are the two largest groups of Pashtuns, with approximately two-thirds of Afghan Pashtuns belonging to these confederations. The Durrani tribe has been more urban and politically successful, while the Ghiljis are more numerous, more rural, and reputedly tougher. In the 18th century, the groups collaborated at times and at other times fought each other. With a few gaps, Durranis ruled modern Afghanistan continuously until the Saur Revolution of 1978; the new Khalq were Ghilji. Tribal allegiances are stronger among the Ghilji, while governance of the Durrani confederation is more to do with cross-tribal structures of land ownership.
Language
Pashto is the First language of most Pashtuns. (2025). 9780415939195, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415939195 It is one of the two national languages of Afghanistan.Modarresi, Yahya: "Iran, Afghanistan and Tadjikistan, 1911–1916." In: Sociolinguistics, Vol. 3, Part. 3. Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier, Peter Trudgill (eds.). Berlin, De Gryuter: 2006. p. 1915. [5] In Pakistan, although being the second-largest language being spoken, Population by Mother Tongue , Population Census – Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan it is often neglected officially in the education system.Hallberg (1992). 9789698023140, Quaid-i-Azam University & Summer Institute of Linguistics. . ISBN 9789698023140 This has been criticized as adversely impacting the economic advancement of Pashtuns, as students do not have the ability to comprehend what is being taught in other languages fully. Robert Nichols remarks:
(2025). 9780203412336 ISBN 9780203412336
(1997). 9781575060194, Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060194 Ibrahim Khan provides the following classification on the letter ښ: the Northern Western dialect (e.g. spoken by the Ghilji) having the phonetic value , the North Eastern (spoken by the Yusufzai etc.) having the sound , the South Western (spoken by the Durrani etc.) having and the South Eastern (spoken by the etc.) having . He illustrates that the Central dialects, which are spoken by the Karlani, can also be divided on the North and South distinction but provides that in addition these Central dialects have had a vowel shift which makes them distinct: for instance represented by Pashto alphabet the non-Central dialects becoming in Banuchi dialect.
(2025). 9781849042925, Hurst. ISBN 9781849042925 In 1958, a meeting of Pashtun scholars and writers from both Afghanistan and Pakistan, held in Kabul, standardized the present Pashto alphabet.
Culture
Pashtun culture is based on Pashtunwali, Islam and the understanding of Pashto language. The Kabul dialect is used to standardize the present Pashto alphabet. Poetry is also an important part of Pashtun culture and it has been for centuries. Pre-Islamic traditions, dating back to Alexander's defeat of the Persian Empire in 330 BC, possibly survived in the form of Attan, while literary styles and music reflect influence from the Persian tradition and regional musical instruments fused with localized variants and interpretation. Like other Muslims, Pashtuns celebrate Islamic holidays. Contrary to the Pashtuns living in Pakistan, Nowruz in Afghanistan is celebrated as the Afghan New Year by all Afghan ethnicities.
Jirga
Another prominent Pashtun institution is the loya jirga () or 'grand council' of elected elders. Most decisions in tribal life are made by members of the jirga (), which has been the main institution of authority that the largely egalitarian Pashtuns willingly acknowledge as a viable governing body.
Religion
Before Islam there were various different beliefs which were practised by Pashtuns such as
"it is believed that millennia ago they emerged from Kandahar in Afghanistan and the Sulaiman Mountains in Pakistan. They then began expanding into what is known as the NWFP today. They are believed to have mainly practiced the Buddhist and Zoroastrian religions." Buddhism and Hinduism. (2025). 9780824049461, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780824049461
Ruchi Kumar, The decline of Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh communities, Al Jazeera, 2017-01-01, "the culture among Afghan Hindus is predominantly Pashtun"
Beena Sarwar, Finding lost heritage, Himal, 2016-08-03, "Singh also came across many non turban-wearing followers of Guru Nanak in Pakistan, all of Pashtun origin and from the Khyber area."
Sonia Dhami, Sikh Religious Heritage – My visit to Lehenda Punjab, Indica News, 2020-01-05, "Nankana Sahib is also home to the largest Sikh Pashtun community, many of whom have migrated from the North West Frontier Provinces, renamed Khyber-Pakhtunwa."
Neha, Pak misusing Durand Line to facilitate terrorists, says Pashtun, Siasat Daily, 2019-09-20, "The members of the Pashtun and Afghan Sikh community living in Europe and UK have gathered in Geneva"
Sabrina Toppa, Despite border tensions, Indian Sikhs celebrate festival in Pakistan, TRT World, 2019-04-16, "Hasanabdal is home to around 200 Sikh families that have primarily moved from Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including Pakistan's former tribal areas. The majority are Pashtun Sikhs who abandoned their homes and took refuge near Sikhism's historical sites."
Pashto literature and poetry
The majority of Pashtuns use Pashto as their first language, belonging to the Iranian language family,Nicholas Sims-Williams, , in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition, 2010. "The Modern Eastern Iranian languages are even more numerous and varied. Most of them are classified as North-Eastern: Ossetic; Yaghnobi (which derives from a dialect closely related to Sogdian); the Shughni group (Shughni, Roshani, Khufi, Bartangi, Roshorvi, Sarikoli), with which Yaz-1ghulami (Sokolova 1967) and the now extinct Wanji (J. Payne in Schmitt, p. 420) are closely linked; Ishkashmi, Sanglichi, and Zebaki; Wakhi; Munji and Yidgha; and Pashto." and spoken by up to 60 million people. It is written in the Pashto alphabet and is divided into two main dialects, the southern "Pashto" and the northern "Pukhto". The language has ancient origins and bears similarities to such as Avestan language and Bactrian. Its closest modern relatives may include Pamir languages, such as Shughni language and Wakhi language, and Ossetic language. Pashto may have ancient legacy of borrowing vocabulary from neighbouring languages including such as Persian language and Vedic Sanskrit. Modern borrowings come primarily from the English language.Awde, Nicholas and Asmatullah Sarwan. 2002. Pashto: Dictionary & Phrasebook, New York: Hippocrene Books Inc. . Retrieved 18 February 2007.
(2025). 9781156384251, General Books. ISBN 9781156384251 However, this is disputed by several European experts due to lack of strong evidence.
Media and arts
Pashto media has expanded in the last decade, with a number of Pashto TV channels becoming available. Two of the popular ones are the Pakistan-based AVT Khyber and Pashto One. Pashtuns around the world, particularly those in Arab countries, watch these for entertainment purposes and to get latest news about their native areas. Others are Afghanistan-based Shamshad TV, Radio Television Afghanistan, TOLOnews and Lemar TV, which has a special children's show called Baghch-e-Simsim. International news sources that provide Pashto programs include BBC Pashto and Voice of America.
Sports
Both the Pakistan national cricket team and the Afghanistan national cricket team have Pashtun players. One of the most popular sports among Pashtuns is cricket, which was introduced to South Asia during the early 18th century with the arrival of the British. Many Pashtuns have become prominent international , including Imran Khan, Shahid Afridi, Majid Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Shinwari, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim and Yasir Shah. Australian cricketer Fawad Ahmed is of Pakistani Pashtun origin who has played for the Australian national team.
Women
Pashtun women are known to be modest and honourable because of their modest dressing.Ahmed, A. (2010). Women's Agency in Muslim Society. The SAGE Handbook of Islamic Studies, 22, 213Agarwal, B. (1998). A field of one's own: Gender and land rights in South Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press. The lives of Pashtun women vary from those who reside in the ultra-conservative rural areas to those found in urban centres. At the village level, the female village leader is called "qaryadar". Her duties may include witnessing women's ceremonies, mobilizing women to practice religious festivals, preparing the female dead for burial, and performing services for deceased women. She also arranges marriages for her own family and arbitrates conflicts for men and women. Though many Pashtun women remain tribal and illiterate, some have completed universities and joined the regular employment world.
(2022). 9789394407640, Harper Collins. ISBN 9789394407640 Bollywood blockbusters of the 1970s and 1980s starred Parveen Babi, who hailed from the lineage of Gujarat's historical Pathan community: the royal Babi Dynasty. Other Indian actresses and models, such as Zarine Khan, continue to work in the industry. During the 1980s many Pashtun women served in the ranks of the Afghan communist regime's Military. Khatol Mohammadzai served paratrooper during the Afghan Civil War and was later promoted to brigadier general in the Afghan Army. Nigar Johar is a three-star rank in the Pakistan Army, another Pashtun female became a fighter Aviator in the Pakistan Air Force.
Pashtun women often have their legal rights curtailed in favour of their husbands or male relatives. For example, though women are officially allowed to vote in Pakistan, some have been kept away from by males.
Notable people
Explanatory notes
Further reading
(2025). 9781402756962, Union Square Press. ISBN 9781402756962
Categories: Social Groups Of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Social Groups Of Balochistan, Pakistan, Ethnic Groups In Pakistan, Ethnic Groups In Balochistan, Nomads, Iranian Nomads, Modern Nomads, Pastoralists, Ethnic Groups In Afghanistan, Ethnic Groups In India, Iranian Ethnic Groups, Ethnic Groups Divided By International Borders, Pashtun People, Ethnic Groups In South Asia
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