Wikipedia

Pashtun diaspora

Pashtun diaspora (Pashto: بهر مېشت پښتانه) comprises all ethnic Pashtuns. There are millions of Pashtuns who are living outside of their traditional homeland of Greater Afghanistan, a historic region that is today situated over parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.[1] While the (erstwhile) Greater Afghanistan is home to the majority of Pashtun people, there are significant local Pashtun diaspora communities scattered across the neighbouring Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab, particularly in their respective provincial capital cities of Karachi and Lahore. Outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pashtun diaspora communities are found in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, Australia and the Gulf Arab states.

The Pashtun people, who are an Eastern Iranian ethnolinguistic group, are believed to have settled in the traditional Pashtunistan region around the early 1st millennium AD.[2][3]

Statistics

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Country Ethnic Pashtuns Year
United States United States 279,628 2024[4]
United Kingdom United Kingdom 50,597 2021[5][6][7]
Germany Germany 48,000 2023[8]
Tajikistan Tajikistan 32,400 2017[9]
Canada Canada 31,700 2021[10]
Russia Russia 19,800 2015[11]
India India 21,677 2011[a][b][12]
Australia Australia 8,979 2021[13]

Native land

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Pashtun people of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

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The ethnonym Afghan (of Persian origin) has been historically used since the 3rd century AD to refer to the Pashtuns, and is now used to describe every citizen of Afghanistan. Pashtuns make up the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, comprising 46–65%[14][15] of the total Afghan population. Approximately 2 million Afghan refugees live in the neighboring Pakistan. The majority of them are Pashtuns who were born in that country.[16]

The Pashtuns are scattered all over Afghanistan, they can be found in almost every province of the country.[17] Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan and a stronghold of the Pashtun culture. The city of Lashkargah in the south, Farah in the west, Jalalabad in the east, and Kunduz in the north are other prominent cultural centres whose populations are predominantly Pashtuns.

Pakistan

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Most Pashtuns are based in Pakistan. Pashtuns are one of the largest ethnic minorities in Pakistan, making up to 15.4% of the total population of Pakistan.[18][19][20] Pashtuns form the majority ethnic group in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan.

With as many as 7 million by some estimates, the city of Karachi in the Sindh province hosts the largest concentration of urban Pashtuns population in the world[21][22] Some important Pashtun cities of Pakistan include Peshawar, Quetta, Zhob, Loralai, Killa Saifullah,Swat, Mardan, Charsada, Mingora, Bannu, Parachinar, and Swabi. Though the province of Baluchistan is named after the Baloch, Pashtuns are the majority there and the Baloch population is in fact less than Pashtuns in the Balochistan province.[citation needed] However most of the land of Baluchistan is covered by Balochs and Brahuis while Pashtuns are concentrated only in the north of the province.

Iran

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Map of Pashtuns in Iran

Today there are over 2,400,000 Pashtuns living in Iran.[23] In 1993 there were 100,000 Pashtuns living in Iran. The Pashtuns there are mainly concentrated in the Afghan-Iran border, in the Khorasan Province of Iran.[24] The settling of Pashtuns in Iran goes back to the 18th century during the Durrani reign. Timur Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun, the son of Ahmad Shah Durrani and King of Afghanistan, was born in Mashhad, in the Khorasan province of Iran, which was part of the Durrani empire at that time.[25]

Numerous Pashtun tribes have settled in Zabul since the Durrani dynasty.[26][27] The Pashtun tribes in Zabol from other tribes such as Moradgholi, Kouchakzai, Ghaljaei, lakziyan, Galavi, Barakzai, Khajeali, and Sufi. Regardless of their origins, they are generally seen as Persian zaboli by the society in Iran. The Moradgholi tribe is descended from Amir Shahu Khan Barakzai a member of Barakzai dynasty. The founder of this tribe in Zabul is Murad Khan, the son of Amir Kalan Khan. After him, his son Moradgholi, who also takes the name of the tribe, became the leader. Members of Moradgholi clan also live in Mazandaran, Golestan and other parts of Iran. Kouchakzai is a sub-tribe of the moradgholi clan.[27]

Minority areas within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

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Pashtuns make up a minority of the total population of Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[28] Pashtuns are mostly found in Battagram and Torghar District. Pashtun tribes speak Pashto language while Jadoons, Tareens and Dilazaks of Abbottabad and Haripur District speak Hindko language and sometimes Pashto as their second language. Pashtuns also make up a minority of the Chitral district, which is mainly inhabited by Kho and Kalasha people who speak Khowar.

In North America

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United States

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Zalmay Khalilzad with George W. Bush in 2004

In the United States, the first documented presence of Pashtuns first occurred in the 1900s. Following the overthrow of King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan in the 1973 Afghan Republican Coup, the Crown Prince of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Khan settled in Virginia. Since the late 1970s and onwards, Pashtuns began immigrating to the United States of America in larger numbers following the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan in 1978. Pashtuns in the United States are famous for running top Afghan cuisine restaurants.[29][30][31] The Pashtun diaspora in the United States is the largest Pashtun Diaspora in the west numbering at over 270,000.[32] Zalmay Khalilzad, an ethnic Pashtun from the Noorzai tribe, served as United States ambassador to the United Nations, serving in the role from 2007 to 2009. Khalilzad was the highest ranking Muslim-American in the United States government at the time he left the position.[33] He would later be appointed by Trump to serve as special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation in 2018 and helped broker the US–Taliban deal and facilitating the final United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.[34][35][36] In April 2025, Trump appointed member of the Pashtun Barakzai Dynasty, Mary Kabir-Seraj Bischoping as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan.[37]

Canada

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As of 2021 there are over 31,000 Pashtuns living in Canada[38]

In The Former Soviet Union

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Russia

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The Russian Federation is home to around 20,000 Pashtuns.[11] The Pashtun diaspora in Russia largely originated during the 1980s, when thousands of ethnic Pashtuns migrated to the Soviet Union on state-sponsored scholarships to study at universities and military academies.[39] This population expanded significantly into a permanent community after 1992, following the collapse of President Mohammad Najibullah's pro-Soviet government, which prompted an exodus of Pashtun officials, diplomats, and military personnel fleeing political reprisals.[40][41]

In Russia, Moscow serves as the primary hub for the Pashtun diaspora, housing roughly one-third of the country's Pashtun population.

Outside the capital, a smaller Pashtun community exists in Voronezh. Supported by the state-registered Pashtun Cultural and Business Center "Pashtun", the Voronezh community consists of students, professionals, and small business owners.[41]

On 2 February 2020, one year after Pakistani police beat a Pashtun professor of literature Ibrahim Arman Loni to death, members of the Pashtun diaspora from both Afghanistan and Pakistan held anti-Pakistan rallies in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and other Russian demanding that Pakistan cease its crackdown on the Pashtun Protection Movement and release Manzoor Pashteen.[42]

Notable figures of Pashtun descent in Russian politics include former State Duma deputy Darya Mitina, a leftist politician born to a Russian mother and an ethnic Pashtun father, Kasem Iskander Ibrahim Mohammed Yusufzai, who was the son of a former Afghan Prime Minister.[43]

During the War in Donbass and the Russo-Ukrainian War, many Pashtuns fought in the Pro-Russian Vostok Battalion of the Donestk People's Republic and the Russian Armed Forces. Two prominent Pashtun figures in the war are Rafi Jaffar and Mohammad Omar Nasser Rahmanovich. Jaffar's parents, who were part of the PDPA, were killed by the Mujahedeen during the Afghan Civil War. The Soviets took him in and sent him to a Soviet boarding school in the city of Rostov. He joined the Vostok Battalion in 2014 and is known by his comrades as "Abdullah". In 2018, Jaffar lost both legs in a mortar attack. Despite this he continues to serve the DPR and later Russian Military. In May 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Jaffar via E conference after being told about Jaffar's health.[44][45][46] Jaffar currently serves as part of the 51st Donetsk Army, 114th Brigade in the Russian Army.[47] Mohammad Omar Nasser Rahmanovich who goes by the callsign "Pashtun", was born in Kharkiv to a Russian specialist mother and an Afghan doctor father and was featured on Russia Today on a report about drone warfare. Rahmanovich has participated in the conflict since its start in 2014.[48][49][50]

In Europe

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United Kingdom

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The United Kingdom is home to some 50,000 Pashtuns.[51][52][53] Pashtun diaspora in UK have made their presence felt through their restaurants with traditional names like Bab-e-Khyber, Hujra, and Kabuli pulao.[54]

In Asia

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India

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The 2011 Indian census found the number of Pashto speakers in the country numbered at 21,677.[c][d][55]

Although their exact numbers are hard to determine, they are at least more than 100,000, for it is known that in 1954, over 100,000 nomadic Pakhtuns living in Kashmir Valley were granted Indian citizenship.[56] They still follow their traditional justice system of Jirga.[57] Those settled and living in the Kashmir Valley speak Pashto, and are found chiefly in the southwest of the valley, where Pashtun colonies have been built over time. The Pashtuns chiefly came in under the Durranis, but many were brought by Maharajah Gulab Singh for service on the frontier.[58] Pashto is also spoken in two villages, Dhakki and Changnar (Chaknot), located on the Line of Control in Kupwara district.[59]

Small, scattered Pashtun population still exists in some major cities of India with large Muslim populations, with the majority of Pashto-speaking individuals residing in the states of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh India; who also have adopted local languages of the respective areas they live in, as their second language.[60] These Pashtuns, numbering around 14,161,[61][62] have retained the use of the Pashto language and are still able to speak and understand it.

Gulf States

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Large numbers of Pashtuns from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and the Afghan borderlands migrated to the Persian Gulf following the oil boom of the 1970s. Pashtun migrants were particularly prominent in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states, where they worked in occupations including construction and transport.[63]

The scale of historical Pashtun migration to the Gulf is difficult to determine precisely because available Pakistani migration statistics generally do not record migrants by ethnicity. Official statistics nevertheless show a sharp increase in Pakistani labour migration during this period: 153,081 Pakistani workers were recorded as leaving for overseas employment in 1981 alone.[64]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Only includes those who speak Pashto as mother tongue.
  2. ↑ A 2018 AJPH estimate places the number of people with distant Pashtun ancestry (having a Pashtun great grandparent) at 3.2 million. However, almost none of them speak Pashto.
  3. ↑ Only includes those who speak Pashto as mother tongue.
  4. ↑ A 2018 AJPH estimate places the number of people with distant Pashtun ancestry at 3.2 million. However, the majority of these individuals do not speak Pashto, nor do they actively maintain Pashtun cultural practices. Their claim to Pashtun heritage is based on distant ancestral connections, often tracing back multiple generations, sometimes many centuries ago. Consequently, while these individuals may identify as having Pashtun heritage, their ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity is predominantly Indian, and they do not identify as Pashtun in the contemporary sense of the term.

References

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  1. ↑ "Pashtun". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  2. ↑ "Afghan and Afghanistan". Abdul Hai Habibi. alamahabibi.com. 1969. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  3. ↑ Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah (Firishta). "History of the Mohamedan Power in India". Persian Literature in Translation. Packard Humanities Institute. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
  4. ↑ 50% of 348,945 Afghan-Americans = 174,473 and 15.4% of 684,438 Pakistani-Americans = 105,155. Total Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns in USA = 279,628.
  5. ↑ "Ethnicity, Identity, Language and Religion, TS024 – Main language (detailed)". Office for National Statistics. 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  6. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2022: write-in responses for Ethnicity, National Identity, Language and Religion topic". National Records of Scotland. 3 October 2024. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025.
  7. ↑ "MS-B13 Main language – Full Detail". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 22 September 2022. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Bevölkerung mit Migrationshintergrund". Statistisches Bundesamt. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  9. ↑ "Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Tajikistan (2017)". Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  10. ↑ "Knowledge of languages by age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions". Census Profile, 2021 Census. Statistics Canada Statistique Canada. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  11. 1 2 "Perepis.ru". perepis2002.ru (in Russian).
  12. ↑ "Census of India" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  13. ↑ "Afghan – Population Statistics". Cultural Atlas. 1 January 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  14. ↑ "Afghan Population: 31,108,077 (July 2013 est.) [Pashtun = 42%]". Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The World Factbook. Archived from the original on 26 July 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
  15. ↑ See:
  16. ↑ "PAKISTAN: Tolerance wanes as perceptions of Afghan refugees change". IRIN. 27 February 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  17. ↑ "District Development Plans (DDP)". Government of Afghanistan and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  18. ↑ "Pakistan". Central Intelligence Agency. 13 August 2025. Archived from the original on 26 August 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025 – via CIA.gov.
  19. ↑ "Pakistan population: 187,342,721 [Pashtun (Pathan) 15.42%]". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2012. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  20. ↑ "Pakistan Index: Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security" (PDF). Brookings Institution. 29 December 2011. p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  21. ↑ Obaid-Chinoy, Sharmeen (17 July 2009). "Pakistan: Karachi's Invisible Enemy City potent refuge for Taliban fighters". PBS. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  22. ↑ "In a city of ethnic friction, more tinder". The National. 24 August 2009. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  23. ↑ "Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Iran (2022)". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  24. ↑ "Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Iran (2022)". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  25. ↑ Dalrymple, William; Anand, Anita (2017). Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4088-8885-8.
  26. ↑ "Tribes and clans of Sistan and Baluchestan(In Persian)". Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  27. 1 2 Afshar, Iraj (1991). Tribes and clans of Sistan and Baluchestan (in Persian). Nasle Danesh. pp. 375, 376.
  28. ↑ "District Abbottabad". Local Government, Elections and Rural Development Department. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  29. ↑ Helmand – Baltimore, Maryland
  30. ↑ Helmand – San Francisco, California Archived 26 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  31. ↑ Helmand – Cambridge, Massachusetts
  32. ↑ 50% of 348,945 Afghan-Americans = 174,473 and 15.4% of 684,438 Pakistani-Americans = 105,155. Total Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns in USA = 279,628.
  33. ↑ Mashal, Mujib; Jakes, Lara (2 March 2020). "At Center of Taliban Deal, a U.S. Envoy Who Made It Personal". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  34. ↑ "Zalmay Khalilzad, Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018.
  35. ↑ "Biden administration asks US negotiator with Taliban to stay on". Al Jazeera. 28 January 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  36. ↑ Crowley, Michael (18 October 2021). "Zalmay Khalilzad, Biden's Envoy for Afghanistan, Steps Down". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  37. ↑ Sirat, Siyar (21 April 2025). "Trump's political appointee on Afghanistan comes from Afghan royal dynasty". Amu TV. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  38. ↑ "Knowledge of languages by age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions". Census Profile, 2021 Census. Statistics Canada Statistique Canada. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  39. ↑ Piipponen, Minna; Virkkunen, Joni (2020). "The Remigration of Afghan Immigrants from Russia". Nationalities Papers. 48 (2). Cambridge University Press: 310–324. doi:10.1017/nps.2019.100.
  40. ↑ Bezhan, Frud (25 December 2017). "Moscow's 'Little Kabul'". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 25 September 2026.
  41. 1 2 "Дело тонкое: как воронежские пуштуны продвигают русский мир на Восток". 21 September 2020. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  42. ↑ Serenko, Andrey. "Российские пуштуны обвинили Исламабад в поддержке терроризма". www.ng.ru. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  43. ↑ "МИТИНА Дарья Александровна - Биография - БД "Лабиринт"". www.labyrinth.ru. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  44. ↑ "Донбасс воюет на двух фронтах". vesti.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  45. ↑ "Чем известен боец, о состоянии здоровья которого рассказали Путину?". AiF (in Russian). 19 May 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  46. ↑ "Чем известен боец, о состоянии здоровья которого рассказали Путину?". forpost-sevastopol.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  47. ↑ Sputnik, Радио (14 September 2025). "Рафи Джабар. В чем проблема Афганистана?". Радио Sputnik (in Russian). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  48. ↑ "RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE SIGNS OF CRIMES AGAINST UKRAINE'S NATIONAL SECURITY, PEACE, HUMAN SECURITY AND INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ORDER".
  49. ↑ "Корр Косарев". Telegram. Retrieved 9 August 2023.[better source needed]
  50. ↑ "VK.com | VK". m.vk.com. Retrieved 9 August 2023.[better source needed]
  51. ↑ "Ethnicity, Identity, Language and Religion, TS024 – Main language (detailed)". Office for National Statistics. 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  52. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2022: write-in responses for Ethnicity, National Identity, Language and Religion topic". National Records of Scotland. 3 October 2024. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025.
  53. ↑ "MS-B13 Main language – Full Detail". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 22 September 2022. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  54. ↑ "The Other Languages of England", British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3 (October 1986), pp. 288–289.
  55. ↑ "Census of India" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  56. ↑ "Pakhtoons in Kashmir". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 20 July 1954. Archived from the original on 9 December 2004. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
  57. ↑ "Justice rolls in Kashmir, Afghan-style". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 23 June 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
  58. ↑ "Saiyids, Mughals, Pashtuns and Galawans". OPF. Archived from the original on 15 May 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2007.
  59. ↑ "A First Look at the Language of Kundal Shahi in Azad Kashmir" (PDF). SIL International. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  60. ↑ "Pathan". Isa-Masih in Lucknow. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  61. ↑ "Phonemic Inventory of Pashto" (PDF). CRULP. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2007.
  62. ↑ Abstract of speakers’ strength of languages and mother tongues – 2001, Census of India (retrieved 17 March 2008)
  63. ↑ Nichols, Robert (2008). A History of Pashtun Migration, 1775–2006. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. 143–152. ISBN 978-0-19-547600-2.
  64. ↑ Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 1985 (Report). United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 1986. p. 105.

Bibliography

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