r/Pashtun

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?

Hello/Assalamualaikum,

I'm not pashtun (I'm Arab), but my pashtun friend keeps calling people he dislikes 'begheirat'. What exactly does this word mean ?

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?

a friend of mine keeps telling me that the Peshawari dialect of Pashto is the purest and most authentic form of Pashto and she claimed that the Kandahari Pashto is too Farsi influenced . is this true ?

This is a question for lar pashtuns but bar pashtuns can also contribute.

How many of you are expected to learn/know urdu (if you don't already)?

Me personally, I don't know a lick of urdu and I wanna keep it that way. I'd rather learn more pashto dialects for the fun of it or arabic for religious/tourism reasons. I speak the afridi pashto dialect but can adapt my pashto depending on the person I'm speaking to (sometimes I speak the sha dialect to my southern friends).

My parents are trying to pressure me to learn urdu saying it's the country language but I just don't want to/ dont care to 😭. When I visit Pashtunkhwa, all my time is spent in rural village regions where urdu has no use.

Thoughts?

I’m Mangal from Paktia I just want to ask what does the Mangal dialect sound like to you guys? Is it good or bad? Some Pashtuns don’t understand us when we speak in our dialect because they don’t recognize some of our words

Many people ask, what's famous in Swabi? but every time I fail to answer him, So tell me if anyone is from Swabi and know the famous things of Swabi.