r/Afghan

Hi there! I'm an ESOL teacher, and I have a student from Afghanistan, and she says she speaks Dari.

The concept of "pretty" versus "beautiful" is difficult to explain because it's highly subjective, so it's a rare occasion I give students a translation.

For example, in French it is "jolie" versus "belle", in Spanish it's "bonita" versus "linda".

What would you say in Dari/Farsi?

If this is not the right place to post this, I apologize. I would appreciate is you recommended a different subreddit instead.

Thanks for your help!

Salam alaikum everyone. I live in Toronto, Canada, but lately I’ve been feeling deeply unhappy with my life here. I’m a 35-year-old man and have lived in Canada for 28 years. My mother is from Logar and my father is from Wardak. I’ve been wondering whether Afghanistan’s nomadic Pashtun communities would ever accept an outsider who genuinely wants to live their way of life. I really admire their lifestyle and often find myself wishing I could live that way too.

My Pashto is weak because I’ve spent most of my life here and never really had Afghan friends growing up. I fully understand how difficult that life would be and I know I’d be giving up many comforts and opportunities here in the West. I’m not ungrateful, and I have nothing against living in Canada or the West in general — this is simply a personal feeling and preference. For the negative people who have an issue with this post, please keep it to yourself.

Salaam everyone,

we've recently launched an app called Ikhtiar — a platform built for Muslims who are serious about marriage,

Unlike typical apps, Ikhtiar focuses on:

* Respectful and Serious users from across the world

* Privacy-first options (including profiles without photos) for women

* A structured and serious approach toward finding a spouse

* Free for first 1000 users

The goal is simple: to make the process of finding a spouse more dignified, intentional, and aligned with our Islamic values.

If you or someone you know is looking for marriage, I’d really appreciate you checking it out and sharing it with others who may benefit.

JazakAllah Khair for your support 🤍

You can find the app here :

https://www.ikhtiar.app/download

The Samanids, who hailed from Balkh, were largely responsible for the restoration of New Persian following the Arab conquest of Ancient Ariana (Khorasan, Greater Iran, Ariyana, the region has many parts and names).

The Saffarids (from Zaranj), and Ghaznavids also played crucial roles in the restoration. Rudaki, Ferdawsi, and almost all early New Persian poets were only able to finish their works because of the courtship of these empires and dynasties. All three hailing from modern day Afghanistan, which itself only came into existence 300 years ago. It was Khorasan before that. Mawlana called his home Khorasan and his language Parsi, not Afghanistan or Dari.

Us Persian speakers of Afghanistan are descendants of these greats. My father is from the same town as Mawlana. My Persian is closer to what Mawlana spoke almost a thousand years ago than most other Persian speakers’ way of speaking. The same phonetics and almost all the same words.

It hurts me when Persian speakers from Afghanistan incorrectly call their language Dari and not Persian or Farsi. Or at the very least Dari Persian. That’s exactly what the goal was when the govt changed the name to Dari in 1964, to divide Persian speakers and separate us from our heritage by inventing a new fake language called Dari. We speak Farsi in its purest form, the Dari DIALECT.

Be proud of your Persian heritage, your ancestors literally restored the language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikstan, and many other corners of the world. Tajiks and Persian were used synonymously for centuries. The Qashqai tribe of Iran still calls Persian speakers Tajiki speakers, my Qashqai friend told me this. It’s also stated on Iranica Encyclopedia for those interested.

Lastly, the first ever Persian speaking poet with surviving works is Hanzala Badghisi, from Badghis of Afghanistan. Know your history, know your heritage, and be proud to speak Parsi.

Asalamualykum
I’m interested in learning uzbek specifically the dialect spoken in Afghanistan. Originally I was just gonna learn standard uzbek but I researched to find that it is a bit different.
If anyone has any resources or recommendations to where I can learn please let me know.
Thank you

Y'll PLEASE tell me I can't find much by googling (._.)

Edit- Thak you for all the answers guys!

Why does it seem like mainly the Afghan diaspora, especially those born or raised in the West; make a huge issue out of the terms “Afghan” vs “Afghani”?

People inside Afghanistan constantly refer to themselves as افغانی (Afghani) in everyday speech, especially on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. You hear it over and over from people actually living there. But for some diaspora Afghans, calling a person “Afghani” is treated almost like blasphemy, and westerners get heavily corrected for using it.

I understand that “Afghani” is also the name of the currency, but do many people not realize that the term itself existed centuries before the modern currency was introduced? Historically, “Afghani” has long been used as an adjective relating to Afghanistan and Afghans.

So why is there such a disconnect between how many people inside Afghanistan casually use the term versus how strongly some diaspora communities react to it?

I 19F have had a blonde balayage since I was 18, it’s professionally done and suits me well and my hair is quite long. But for whatever reason a lot of Afghan women in my community seem to have an issue with the fact I dyed my hair before getting married/engaged. I’ve even had a few people ask me point blank ”how did your dad LET you do that my dad would never” as if dying your hair is the same thing as leading a reckless and poor taste junkie lifestyle.

Its even more ironic because my dad paid for the service as a reward for me having acceptance offers and scholarships from all three top universities in our state and two of them are the best In the nation overall and are in the top 40 globally and I’m studying an extremely competitive bachelor’s program (the university I chose is the best in our state for my Ugrad) with great marks after completing my final year of secondary schooling, (Alhamdulillah) so suffice to say he doesn’t have an issue with it because his priorities are actually straight. It’s really annoying whenever I have random aunties who come up to me and say “dye your hair back. it’s not good you’re not married after you’re married you should do it!” Because what difference does it make if I have the “permission” of my husband vs my dad.

when I was younger my dad wouldn’t let me do my eyebrows, remove my leg hair or wear makeup which Is normal for most traditional dads but once I turned 17 he was like ”okay it’s fine now” and I know a lot of afghan parents are also this way with their children.

but my main question is, is this just a my diaspora community thing or is this actually a common sentiment across the board.

[supprimé]

Going to an afghan restaurant for the first time this evening and I am very excited. I always take a look at the menu before trying somewhere new because I am indecisive. I’ve narrowed down my options to two: Mantwo or vegetarian aushak.

Which would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance!

I’m so sick of this new wave of Gen Alpha Afghan content. It’s extremely low quality, lacks education or is entirely based on “mogging” or pitting Afghans against their neighbours. It’s even more brainrotted than the Farsi AI fruit drama our kholajans are consuming and that’s saying something. It takes an especially superficial and low IQ person to obsess over physical appearance or race to this extent. I genuinely blocked the key words “Afghan, Tajik, Pashtun, Hazara, Uzbek, Pakistani, Arab, Turkish, Kurdish, Iranian” from my Instagram just because of this brainrot.

If you genuinely care about our people and want to preserve your braincells then go and volunteer to help Afghan refugees. There are so many spread out all over the country so you have no excuse. Even the backwater I moved to recently also has Afghan refugees from the insurrection. I personally chose to work with children to teach them English because I’m a woman, but the amount of conservative Afghan fathers who can’t get taught English and work because Afghan male diaspora refuse to volunteer is staggering. Go and help your bradar jans become productive members of society and teach them English. I also urge Pashto female speakers to volunteer because a lot of Pashtun housewives also can’t get an English tutor and for some reason there is a gender imbalance between Pashto and Dari female volunteers as well. You will get a shift easily if you teach for free, but sometimes you even get paid for it if you have the right experience or if there is high demand for teachers.

Volunteering looks great on your CV, if you’re religious you get sawab and it also proves you have strong interpersonal skills to your future employer. You’re also helping these people become better versions of themselves and good representatives of our community. Unfortunately they’ve been left behind by the government compared to Ukrainians who comparatively got more investment and funding in education, but so many Afghan refugees are also missing out on going to university even though the UK government treats them like home students. Imagine how good it will feel if you tutor an Afghan woman in English and she can go on to study medicine because of you!!! Imagine how good it will feel if the Afghan teenager you tutored can now do an access course into becoming a lucrative tradesman because of you!!! Genuinely you’re missing out on so much fulfilment and instead of sitting here on the internet and being unproductive with your time you could actually help your countrymen (and women!).

I also urge those who are feeling defeatist about the Taliban to join these programmes as well. I have given up on Afghanistan because screaming on the Internet will not help our country. Instead of trying to affect politics from across the globe, help locally where you can affect change. So if you want to actually make a difference to those directly affected by the Taliban, I strongly urge you to take action by helping the refugees. At least you can make a change in their lives locally rather than feel depressed about the condition of our country like I did for years. Now that I am able to see the fruits of my labour and watch these children blossom into well spoken little British gents and ladies speaking with a proper RP accent, it really puts a tear in my eye. Nothing prepares you for when they proudly go on to show you their school work and how well they’re succeeding because you chose to devote a few hours a week to helping them. It’s a more productive and patriotic use of your time than feeling sorry about the state of our country which we cannot control, so instead go out there and make a difference in people’s lives that you can control!

On bed at 1AM watching something in English, then stopped that and started listening to a Hindi song, and I swear my brain just can’t take it anymore.

I was born in Pakistan, then went back to Afghanistan and lived there for 7 years. Then moved to India to study, did my bachelors and masters there, then moved to Germany for work, then moved to the USA for a girl.

I’ve lived in all these places, learned their languages, tried to be one of them. I never wanted to be the black sheep. But now I feel like I’ve lost my identity. My food choices, music choices, clothes, hair, values, basically everything has turned into some freaking salad with no taste and no actual personality. Like I can literally eat anything now because my mouth has lost its taste buds and just gave up.

I don’t use social media much, but even the content I watch is so mixed. Rarely Afghan stuff. It’s all soccer, basketball, cricket, random politics from those countries, their humor, their culture. I’m not funny to any of them, but all of them are funny to me.

Sometimes I remember my mom saying “sang da jay khod sangeen” a stone is heavy in its own place. And damn, I feel that. I wish I belonged somewhere. I wish all the friends I made throughout my life could at least be in the same country so we could actually see each other. Everyone is scattered everywhere and I can barely keep in touch with anyone properly.

I got married into another culture too and that didn’t work out, now I’m going through divorce.

Sometimes I feel like writing a book about my life, but then I’m like wtf man, just have some peace in your head first before you start venting to the whole world about your personal issues.

Anyways, please tell me someone relates. Come on. Don’t tell me I’m unique lol. How does this affect your life? Is your Spotify or music app also shuffled with half a dozen languages and completely random vibes?

Lately I’ve noticed many reports being based on anonymous or weak sources, and sometimes stories later turn out to be exaggerated or inaccurate. At the same time, many people still consider it one of the few major Afghan outlets outside Taliban control. Just like the news about internet cut off which has been denied by many ISP's i have contacted.

For those who follow Afghan news regularly:

• Do you trust Afghanistan International?
• Has your opinion changed over time?
• Which Afghan news sources do you find more reliable and balanced?

Interested to hear different perspectives from people inside and outside Afghanistan.

Salam all, how can I bring my inheritance money from Afghanistan to Canada?

Thanks,