After gaining its sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1919, Afghanistan became an independent state.

The Republic of Afghanistan is located on the Asian continent. It shares land borders with six countries – Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan, China and Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. After gaining its sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1919, Afghanistan became an independent state. As at the year 2012 Afghanistan had a population of 30.5 million Afghans.

The Capital of Afghanistan

The capital of Afghanistan is Kabul, with a population of around 3 million people. Kabul is also Afghanistan’s political centre, and home to its Executive Head of State.

Afghanistan’s Popular cities

The most populated cities in Afghanistan are –

Kabul, with a population of 3 million people;

Kandahar, population 391,000;

Mazar-e Sharif, population 303,000;

Herat, population 273,000; and

Jalalabad, with a population of 200,000 Afghans.

No one can deny that Afghanistan has had a turbulent history and that it’s still living in turbulent times. Over the centuries Afghanistan has been invaded and conquered by the Greeks, Persians, Mongols, Arabs, Tartars and the British; and today the country is still involved with America and the ongoing war against terrorism.

Languages Spoken in Afghanistan

Afghanistan was once a fairly peaceful country, but for 20 years or more it’s been occupied by other countries and ravaged by civil war. United States media coverage paints Afghanistan as a country of Muslim extremists, just another part of Middle Eastern countries involved in conflicts. And with this assumption comes stereotyping, such as ‘everyone living in the Middle East is Muslim, speaks Arabic, and hates the United States’. Of course this is just Islamophobia because it’s completely untrue, and there are other countries in the Middle East who don’t mix politics and religion. In addition, there are Christians and people practising other religions in these countries, and not all speak Arabic.

In fact, Afghanistan is a perfect example of a Middle Eastern country where the predominant language is not Arabic - it’s actually barely spoken there.

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See below for Afghanistan’s most common languages –

Pashto

The Pashto language belongs to the Pashtun ethnic group located in South-Central Asia. It has many different dialects and is categorised as an Eastern Iranian language. Approximately 45 to 60% of Afghans speak Pashto. In addition, it’s one of Afghanistan’s official languages, besides being the second most common language in Pakistan. Ethnic Pashtuns living outside their traditional homeland have created pockets of groups speaking Pashto in other Middle Eastern countries as well as in Europe, the United States, and several other countries.