

Search β):



a member of a Pashto-speaking people inhabiting NW Pakistan and SE Afghanistan. Also called Pathan. Their origins are unclear: Pashtun tradition asserts that they are descended from Afghana, grandson of King Saul of Israel, but most scholars believe that they arose from an intermingling of ancient Aryans from the north or west with subsequent invaders. (Wikipedia) - Pashtun people   (Redirected from Pashtun) "Pashtun" and "Pathan" redirect here. For other uses, see Pashtun (disambiguation) and Pathan (disambiguation). Pashtun پښتانه Paṣ̌tun Total population Regions with significant populations  Pakistan  Afghanistan  India  UAE  United States  Iran  United Kingdom  Germany  Canada  Russia  Australia  Malaysia  Tajikistan Languages Religion
Hamid Karzai Ahmad Shah Durrani Sher Shah Suri Madhubala
Mahmud Hotaki Dost Mohammad Khan of Bhopal Dost Mohammad Khan Akbar Khan
Ashraf Ghani Amanullah Khan Soraya Tarzi Zalmay Khalilzad
Bacha Khan Zahir Shah Salim Khan Mir Wais Hotak
Malala Yousafzai Shahid Khan Afridi Mohammad Ayub Khan Abdur Rahman Khan
Approx. 50 million (2011)
29,342,892 (2012)
12,776,369 (2012)
Over 6,000 families
338,315 (2009)
138,554 (2010)
110,000 (1993)
100,000 (2009)
37,800 (2012)
26,000 (2006)
9,800 (2002)
8,154 (2006)
5,500 (2008)
4,000 (1970)
Pashto Urdu, Dari and English as second languages
Islam (Sunni Hanafi) with small Shia minority

The Pashtun people (Pashto: پښتانه‎ Pax̌tānə, Pakhtun in the northern dialects), historically known as Afghans (Persian: افغان‎ Afġān), and Pathans in Hindi-Urdu (पठान پٹھان Paṭhān), are an Indo-European ethnicity from the subgroup of Eastern Iranians, with populations primarily in Afghanistan and northwestern and western parts of Pakistan. They are typically characterised by the usage of the Pashto language, an Eastern Iranian language, and practice of Pashtunwali, which is a traditional set of ethics guiding individual and communal conduct. Their origin is unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called Pakthas (Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, who may be the early ancestors of the Pashtun people. Often characterised as a warrior and martial race, their history is mostly spread amongst various countries of South and Central Asia, centred around their traditional seat of power in medieval Afghanistan.

During the Delhi Sultanate era, the Pashtun Lodi dynasty replaced the Turkic rulers in Northern India. Other Pashtuns fought the Safavids and Mughals before obtaining an independent state in the early-18th century, which began with a successful revolution by Mir Wais Hotak followed by conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani. The Barakzai dynasty played a vital role during the Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the British and Russian empires. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and reigned as the dominant ethno-linguistic group for over 300 years, with nearly all rulers being Pashtun. They also made up majority of the mujahideen groups in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s. The current Afghan governments under Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani are also dominated by Pashtuns.

Many members have left their native land to other parts of the world where they achieved international fame. Abdul Ahad Mohmand journied into outer space in 1988, spending nine days aboard Mir space station, the first Afghan and 4th Muslim to do so. Zalmay Khalizad became the first Muslim and first Afghan to become Ambassador of the United States. A number of Bollywood superstars in India are of Pashtun descent, including Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Feroz Khan, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala. Others rose to high-ranking officials at the World Bank, the United Nations and other international organizations. Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 2014.

They are also an important community in Pakistan, which has the largest Pashtun population, and constitute the second-largest ethnic group, having attained presidency there and high rankings in sports. They are the world''s largest (patriarchal) segmentary lineage ethnic group. According to Ethnologue, the total population of the group is estimated to be around 50 million but an accurate count remains elusive due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979. Estimates of the number of Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400.


Geographic distribution See also: Pashtun tribes and Pashtun tribal structureNative Pashtun areas in orange

The vast majority of Pashtuns are found in the traditional Pashtun homeland, located in an area south of the Oxus River in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan, which includes Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and part of Balochistan. Additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province of Pakistan. There are also sizeable Muslim communities in India, which are of largely Pashtun ancestry. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, excluding Pashtun-dominated regions, they are often referred to as Pathans. Smaller Pashtun communities are found in the countries of the Middle East, such as in the Khorasan Province of Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, and the Americas, particularly in North America.


Pashtuns comprise little over 15% of Pakistan''s population. In Afghanistan they are the largest ethnic group and make up an estimated 42% of the population according to the CIA World Factbook. Other sources give 45–60% because the exact figure remains uncertain in Afghanistan, and are affected by the 1.7 million Afghan refugees that remain in Pakistan, a majority of which are Pashtuns. Another 937,600 Afghans live in Iran according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A cumulative population assessment suggests a total of around 49 million individuals all across the world.

History and origins Pashtuns Kingdoms Religion
Part of a series on
  • Art
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Etymology
  • Language
  • Tribes
  • Lodi
  • Suri
  • Hotaki
  • Bhopal
  • Durrani
  • Barakzai
  • Islam
  • v
  • t
  • e
Further information: History of Afghanistan and History of PakistanTents of Afghan nomads in Badghis Province who are known in Pashto language as Kuchans. They migrate from region to region depending on the season. Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan about 7,000 years ago.

The history of the Pashtun people is ancient and has not been fully researched. Excavations of prehistoric sites suggest that early humans were living in what is now Afghanistan and North-west Pakistan at least 50,000 years ago. Since the 2nd millennium BC, cities in the region now inhabited by Pashtuns have seen invasions and migrations, including by Ancient Iranian peoples, the Medes, Persians and Greeks of antiquity, Indians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and others. In recent times, people of the Western world have explored the area as well.




Early precursors to some of the Pashtuns may have been old Iranian tribes that spread throughout the eastern Iranian plateau. According to the Russian scholar Yu. V. Gankovsky, the Pashtuns probably began as a "union of largely East-Iranian tribes which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis, dates from the middle of the first millennium CE and is connected with the dissolution of the Epthalites (White Huns) confederacy." He proposes Kushan-o-Ephthalite origin for Pashtuns but others draw a different conclusion. According to Abdul Hai Habibi, some oriental scholars hold that the second largest Pasthun tribe, the Ghilzais, are the descendants of a mixed race of Hephthalite and Pakhtas who have been living in Afghanistan since the Vedic Aryan period.

They are intimately tied to the history of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. Following Muslim conquests from the 7th to 11th centuries, many Pashtun ghazis (warriors) invaded and conquered much of the northern parts of South Asia during the periods of the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Khiljis, Lodis, Suris and Durranis. The Nasher clan is believed by some as remnants of the Ghaznavids.

Ancient references Further information: Afghan (ethnonym) and AfghanaThe Arachosia Satrapy and the Pactyan people during the Achaemenid Empire in 500 B.C.

A variety of ancient groups with eponyms similar to Pakhtun have been hypothesized as possible ancestors of modern Pashtuns. The Rigveda (1700–1100 BC) mentions a tribe called Paktha inhabiting eastern Afghanistan and academics have proposed their connection with today''s Pakhtun people. Furthermore, the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a people called Pactyans living in the same area (Achaemenid''s Arachosia Satrapy) as early as the 1st millennium BCE.

Some modern-day Pashtun tribes have also been identified living in ancient Gandhara (i.e. Alexander''s historians mentioned "Aspasii" in 330 BC and that may refer to today''s Afridis). Herodotus has mentioned the same Afridi tribe as "Apridai" over a century earlier. Strabo, who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, claims that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana and to their east was India.


Hiven Tsiang, a Chinese pilgrim, visiting the present-day Afghanistan area several times between 630 to 644 CE also speaks about them. In Shahnameh 1–110 and 1–116, it is written as Awgaan. Ancestors of many of today''s Turkic-speaking Afghans settled in the Hindu Kush area and began to assimilate much of the culture and language of the Pashtun tribes already present there. Among these were the Khalaj people which are known today as Ghilzai. According to several scholars such as V. Minorsky, the name "Afghan" is documented several times in the 982 CE Hudud-al-Alam.


—Hudud ul-''alam, 982 CE

The village of Saul was probably located near Gardez, Afghanistan. Hudud ul-''alam also speaks of a king in Ninhar (Nangarhar), who had Muslim, Afghan and Hindu wives. Al-Biruni wrote about Afghans in the 11th century as various tribes living in the western mountains of India and extending to the region of Sind, which would be the Sulaiman Mountains area between Khorasan and Hindustan. It was reported that between 1039 and 1040 CE Mas''ud I of the Ghaznavid Empire sent his son to subdue a group of rebel Afghans near Ghazni. An army of Arabs, Afghans, Khiljis and others was assembled by Arslan Shah Ghaznavid in 1119 CE. Another army of Afghans and Khiljis was assembled by Bahram Shah Ghaznavid in 1153 CE. Muhammad of Ghor, ruler of the Ghorids, also had Afghans in his army along with others. A famous Moroccan travelling scholar, Ibn Battuta, visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khilji dynasty in early 1300s gives his description of the Afghans.


—Ibn Battuta, 1333



—Ferishta, 1560–1620



—Ferishta, 1560–1620

Additionally, although this too is unsubstantiated, some Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are linked to the ancient Israelites. Mohan Lal quoted Mountstuart Elphinstone who wrote:

"The Afghan historians proceed to relate that the children of Israel, both in Ghore and in Arabia, preserved their knowledge of the unity of God and the purity of their religious belief, and that on the appearance of the last and greatest of the prophets (Muhammad) the Afghans of Ghore listened to the invitation of their Arabian brethren, the chief of whom was Khauled (or Caled), son of Waleed, so famous for his conquest of Syria...if we consider the easy way with which all rude nations receive accounts favourable to their own antiquity, I fear we much class the descents of the Afghans from the Jews with that of the Romans and the British from the Trojans, and that of the Irish from the Milesians or Brahmins."

—Mountstuart Elphinstone, 1841

Henry Walter Bellew concluded in 1864 that the Yousefzai Pashtuns likely have Greek-Rajput roots. Following Alexander''s brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire controlled the Pashtun area until 305 BCE when they gave much of it to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty.

Anthropology and oral traditions See also: Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites and Dasht-e YahudiEarliest Pashtun photograph in which Amir Sher Ali Khan is sitting with Prince Abdullah Jan and the Afghan Sardars in 1869.




Modern era See also: List of PashtunsLeader of the non-violent Khudai Khidmatgar, also referred to as "the Red shirts" movement, Bacha Khan, standing with Mohandas Gandhi.

Their modern past stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty and the Durrani Empire. The Hotakis were Ghilzai tribesmen, who rebelled against the once powerful, but by then heavily declined Persian Safavids and seized brief 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 Iranian military genius Nader Shah. He created the last Afghan empire that covered most of what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indian Punjab, as well as the Kohistan and Khorasan provinces of far eastern 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 Mohamedzai subclan held Afghanistan''s monarchy from around 1826 to the end of Zahir Shah''s reign in 1973. This legacy continues into modern times as the state is led by the Karzai administration under President Hamid Karzai, who is from the Popalzai tribe of Kandahar.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Defense Minister of Afghanistan since 2004.From left to right: Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, and Abdullah Abdullah.Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal and Education Minister Ghulam Farooq Wardak during a joint US-Afghan letter signing in 2011.Zalmai Rassoul, Asadullah Khalid, Daud Shah Saba and Hedayat Amin ArsalaBollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan standing with other Indian celebrities (Anushka Sharma and Vidya Balan) at the 2011 Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards ceremony in Mumbai, India.



In the late 1990s, Pashtuns became known for being the primary ethnic group comprised by the Taliban, which was a religious government based on Islamic sharia law which was formed during the civil war. On the other hand, the Taliban opposition also included Pashtuns. Among them were Abdul Qadir and his brother Abdul Haq, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Gul Agha Sherzai, the Karzais, Abdullah Abdullah, Asadullah Khalid and many others. The Taliban were ousted in late 2001 during the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom and replaced with the current Karzai administration, which is dominated by Pashtun ministers.




Pashtuns, especially their females, love watching Indian films and dramas. It is not only due to cultural similarities but also because of the fact that many of the Bollywood film stars in India trace their roots or are connected to this ethnic group, some of the most notable ones are Madhubala, Kader Khan, Sharukh Khan, Dilip Kumar, Feroz Khan, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan, Sohail Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Zarine Khan. In addition, one of India''s former presidents, Zakir Hussain, belonged to the Afridi tribe. He came from an upper middle class Pashtun family that had settled in Farrukhabad. Mohammad Yunus, India''s former ambassador to Algeria and advisor to Indira Gandhi, is of Pashtun origin and related to the legendary Bacha Khan.


The haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) is found at a frequency of 51.02% among the Pashtun people. Paragroup Q-M242 (xMEH2, xM378) (of Haplogroup Q-M242 (Y-DNA)) was found at 16.3% in Pashtuns. Haplogroup Q-M242 is also found at a frequency of 18% in Pashtuns in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

According to a 2012 study:



Pashtuns definedIndigenous people of the Pashtunistan region


  • They are Sunni Muslims who follow Pashtunwali.

    Ethnic definition


    Cultural definition

    The religious and cultural definition requires Pashtuns to be Muslim and adhere to Pashtunwali codes. This is the most prevalent view among orthodox and conservative tribesmen, who refuse to recognise any non-Muslim as a Pashtun. Pashtun intellectuals and academics, however, tend to be more flexible and sometimes define who is Pashtun based on other criteria. Pashtun society is not homogenous by religion: the overwhelming majority of them are Sunni, with a tiny Shia community (the Turi and partially the Bangash tribe) in the Kurram and Orakzai agencies of FATA, Pakistan. Pakistani Jews and Afghan Jews, have largely relocated to Israel and the United States.

    Ancestral definition Main article: Pashtun diaspora Further information: Pathans of Bihar, Pathans of Gujarat, Pathans of Kashmir, Pathans of Punjab, Pathans of Rajasthan, Pathans of Sindh and Pathans of Uttar PradeshAyub Khan, President of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969.



    Some Indians claim descent from Pashtun soldiers who settled in India by marrying local women during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent. No specific population figures exist, as claimants of Pashtun descent are spread throughout the country. Notably, the Rohillas, after their defeat by the British, are known to have settled in parts of North India and intermarried with local ethnic groups. They are believed to have been bilingual in Pashto and Urdu until the mid-19th century. Some Urdu-speaking Muslims (Muhajir people) claiming descent from Pashtuns began moving to Pakistan after independence in 1947.

    In Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan), an unknown number of ethnic Pashtuns (together with at the later stage numbers of Iranian-speakers, these often secondary migrants from north India) settled among Bengalis from the 12th century to mid 18th century. These Pashtuns assimilated into Bengali culture, and intermarried with native Bengali Muslims to provide a component of the modern Bengali Muslim meme and biological identity, most prominently among the older wealthy classes of Bangladeshi Muslims. Historical structures built by Pashtun descendants can still be found there. For example, the mosque of Musa Khan still remains intact in Bangladesh. He was an ethnic Pashtun and a descendant of the great Suleiman Khan, who was born in the Suleiman Mountains but moved to Bengal.


    Culture Main article: Pashtun culture See also: Pashtun cuisine and Pashtun dressJamaluddin Badar, Lutfullah Mashal, Gul Agha Sherzai, and Fazlullah Wahidi discussing security related matters while serving as governors in the Pashtun dominated areas.


    Pashtunwali Main article: Pashtunwali

    Pashtunwali (or Pakhtunwali) refers to an ancient self-governing tribal system that regulates nearly all aspects of Pashtun life ranging from community to personal level. Numerous intricate tenets of Pashtunwali influence Pashtun social behaviour. One of the better known tenets is Melmastia, hospitality and asylum to all guests seeking help. Perceived injustice calls for Badal, swift revenge. One guide on Pakistan claims that the famous phrase Revenge is a dish best served cold is of Pashtun origin, borrowed by the British and popularised in the West, Males are expected to protect Zan, Zar, Zmaka (females, gold and land). Many aspects promote peaceful co-existence, such as Nanawati, the humble admission of guilt for a wrong committed, which should result in automatic forgiveness from the wronged party. These and other basic precepts of Pashtunwali continue to be followed by many Pashtuns, especially in rural areas.


    The tribal system has several levels of organisation: the tribe, tabar, is divided into kinship groups called khels, in turn divided into smaller groups (pllarina or plarganey), each consisting of several extended families called kahols. Pashtun tribes are divided into four ''greater'' tribal groups: Sarbans, Batians, Ghurghusht and Karlans.

    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.

    Pashto literature and poetry Main article: Pashto literature and poetryMahmud Tarzi, son of Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi, became the pioneer of Afghan journalism.






    Media and arts Further information: Pashto media, Pashto music and Pollywood

    Pashto media outlets play a major role in the everyday life of Pashtuns. A number of Pashto TV channels are available in the Pashtun regions, which also broadcast internationally. One of the leading ones is the Pakistan-based AVT Khyber, which helps promote Pashtun culture with their daily programs. Pashtuns around the world are informed about issues in their region and amused with their entertaining shows, such as the show with Amanullah Kaker which is based on educating viewers by using messages in Pashto poetry. Others are Shamshad TV, Radio Television Afghanistan, and Lemar TV, which has a special children''s show called Baghch-e-Simsim that is based on the American Sesame Street. International news sources that provide Pashto programs include BBC and Voice of America.

    Khattak dance involves running and whirling, it is mainly performed in and around the Peshawar area of Pakistan.Farhad Darya, one of many Pashto music singers.




    Sports Further information: Sport in Afghanistan and Sport in PakistanImran Khan won the 1992 Cricket World Cup for Pakistan, made it to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009 and is currently the President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).




    Squash is a sport in which Peshawar Pashtuns excelled, and Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan, former world champions of squash, and are listed in Guinness World Records. They are considered to be the greatest professional squash players of all time. Although now retired, they are engaged in promoting the sport through the Pakistan Squash Federation. They both originally belong to Neway Kelay, Peshawar. Neway Kelay also produced other world champions of Pashtun origin: Hashim Khan, Roshan Khan, Azam Khan, Mo Khan and Qamar Zaman.



    Religion Main articles: Islam in Afghanistan and Islam in PakistanThe Friday Mosque in Kandahar. Adjacent to it is the Shrine of the Cloak and the tomb of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the 18th century Pashtun conqueror who became the founding father of Afghanistan.





    Lastly, little information is available on non-Muslim Pashtuns as there is limited data regarding irreligious 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 is an affirmed community of Sikh Pashtuns residing in Peshawar, Parachinar, and Orakzai Agency of FATA, Pakistan. The origins of the Sikh Pashtuns are unclear.

    Women Further information: Women''s rights in Afghanistan and Women in Pakistan



    The lives of Pashtun women vary from those who reside in conservative rural areas, such as the tribal belt, to those found in relatively freer urban centres. At the village level, the female village leader is called "qaryadar". Her duties may include witnessing women''s ceremonies, mobilising 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, others have become educated and gainfully employed.

    Zarine Khan, Indian model and actress in Bollywood filmsZeenat Karzai, wife of Hamid Karzai, representing the women of Afghanistan at a meeting in 2005, is sitting on the right next to the former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush.Malala Yousafzai with U.S. President Barack Obama and family. She won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.


    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 King Amanullah''s reign in 1929. In 1942, Madhubala, the Marilyn Monroe of India, entered the Bollywood film industry. Other Indian actresses and models, such as Zarine Khan, continue to work in the industry. 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 Pashtun females than for males. Abuse against women is present and increasingly being challenged by women''s rights organisations 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."

    Despite obstacles, many Pashtun women have begun a process of slow change. A rich oral tradition and resurgence of poetry has inspired many Pashtun women seeking to learn to read and write. 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 Pashtun women have attained political office in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, following recent elections, the proportion of female political representatives is one of the highest in the world. A number of Pashtun women are found as TV hosts, journalists and actors. Khatol Mohammadzai serves as Brigadier general in the military of Afghanistan, another Pashtun female became a fighter pilot in the Pakistan Air Force. Some other notable Pashtun women include Suhaila Seddiqi, Zeenat Karzai, Shukria Barakzai, Fauzia Gailani, Naghma, Najiba Faiz, Sana Safi, Malalai Kakar, Malala Yousafzai, and the late Ghazala Javed.

    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 Afghanistan and Pakistan, some have been kept away from ballot boxes by males. Another tradition that persists is swara, the giving of a female relative in order to rectify a dispute. It was declared illegal in Pakistan in 2000 but continues in some parts. Substantial work remains for Pashtun women to gain equal rights with men, who remain disproportionately dominant in most aspects of Pashtun society. Human rights organisations continue to struggle for greater women''s rights, such as the Afghan Women''s Network and the Aurat Foundation in Pakistan which aims to protect women from domestic violence. Due to recent reforms in the higher education commission (HEC) of Pakistan, a number of competent Pashtun female scholars have been able to earn Masters and PhD scholarships.

    Tags:Achaemenid, Achaemenid Empire, Afghan, Afghanistan, Africa, Ahmad Shah, Ahmad Shah Durrani, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Alam, Alexander the Great, Algeria, Amazon, American, Anthropology, Arab, Arabia, Arabic, Arachosia, Archaeological, Ariana, Asadabad, Ashraf, Asia, Assyria, Assyrian, Attorney General, Australia, Australian, BBC, Babylonia, Bactria, Balochistan, Bangladesh, Bangladeshi, Barack Obama, Bengal, Bengali, Biruni, Bismillah, Bismillah Khan, Bollywood, British, Bronze Age, Bush, CIA, Canada, Central Asia, Chinese, Christianity, Communication, DNA, Delhi, Dost Mohammad Khan, Egyptian, Eid al-Fitr, Emirates, Europe, European Union, Farhad, Foreign Minister, Gandhara, Genetics, Germany, Ghilzai, Governor, Great Game, Greek, Guinness, Guinness World Records, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Guyana, Hamid Karzai, Hebrew, Herat, Herodotus, Hindustani, Hollywood, Hotaki, Huns, Ibn, India, Indira Gandhi, Indus, Indus River, Iran, Iranian, Iranian Revolution, Islam, Islamabad, Islamic, Islamization, Israel, Jalalabad, Jalali, Jewish, Kabul, Kandahar, Karachi, Karzai, Kashmir, Kennedy, Khan, Khorasan, Lahore, Maidan, Malala Yousafzai, Malaysia, Mali, Margiana, Marxism, Medes, Media, Medina, Mediterranean, Middle Ages, Middle East, Mir, Moroccan, Mughal, Mughals, Mullah, Mumbai, Musa, Musa Khan, Muslim, NATO, Nader Shah, Nangarhar, Nations, Nobel, Nobel Peace Prize, North America, Obama, Oxus, Oxus River, Pakistan, Pakistani, Pashtun, Persia, Persian, Persian Empire, Peshawar, PhD, Pishin, President, Quran, Radio, Ramadan, Red Sea, Refugees, Revolution, Russia, Russian, Saba, Safavids, Safi, Sanskrit, Sassanid, Satrapy, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Seleucid, Sesame, Shah, Shahnameh, Sheikh, Shia, Sind, Solomon, South Africa, South Asia, Soviet, Soviet Union, Sport, Sunni, Syria, Tajikistan, Taliban, Timur, Turks, UAE, UNHCR, US, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Nations, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United States, Urdu, Vedic, Wardak, White Huns, Wikipedia, World Bank, World Cup

    Related History Articles:

    Add definition or comments on Pashtun

    Your Name / Alias:
    Definition / Comments
    neutral points of view
    Source / SEO Backlink:
    Anti-Spam Check
    Enter text above
    Upon approval, your definition will be listed under: Pashtun

    Iranians Celebrating Khordadgan 1394

    Copyright @ 2004-2013 All Rights Iranian