(Part 24)
Ethnicity and its Effects Towards Segregation and Division
The population of Afghanistan is roughly 30 million people according to the 2019 statistics of the World Bank. It is expected that the population of Afghanistan will be accurately determined after the completion of issuance process of the electronic (ID Card); But the present statistics are based on speculation. No official and accurate census has been conducted in Afghanistan in terms of exact number of population until now, and many of those statistics have been objected by many ethnic groups. The number of displaced Afghan immigrant registered in Iran is more or less about 2.5 million registered Afghan immigrants living in Iran and Pakistan. And it is estimated that another 3 million non- documented Afghan immigrants live in those countries. The largest percentage of the population of Afghanistan are Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks.
The constitution of the Republic System period has defined the ethnic groups of Afghanistan as follows: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen, Baloch, Pesha’i, Nuristani, Imaq, Kyrgyz, Qazlbash, Gujar, Sadat, Brahavi and Mongol. 99% of the people of Afghanistan are Muslims, 80% of which are expected to be Sunnis and th rest of 20% are Shiites. It should be noted that the statistics are always based on approximate figures which is performed by institutions. The exact number of ethnic groups, Shiites and Sunnis in Afghanistan is not known and is always estimated by different people based on personal interests. If the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan can successfully spread the distribution of electronic ID cards, then there is a possibility of getting the real statistics of the number of population as well as the number of ethnic groups, religions and, sects in Afghanistan.
Sum population of Sikhs and Hindus live in Afghanistan as well. Most of the Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan have migrated to other countries, including India, Canada and Australia, due to insecurity.
In the recent estimation and survey regarding the tow official languages (Dari and Pashtun) conducted in 2017 by the US Central Intelligence Agency from the Afghan citizens, indicates that Dari was introduced as the mother tongue and it is the communication language which is used by 89% of the people. On the other hand Pashto language is used by 60%, Uzbek language is used by 3%, Turkmen language is used by11%, Peshaee Dialect is used by 1%, Nuristani Dialect is 1%, Arabic language is 1% and Balochi Dialect is 1%. It is not abnormal that the total percentages mentioned are more than 100 because many areas in Afghanistan are bilingual.
According to the above possible statistics, those who speak Dari, are not all Dari-native speakers, but they use Dari language as the mean of communication. The rough statistics of other tribes are closer to reality. The fact is that Pashto and Dari are the heavily used languages but other local dialects are not. It is hard to find someone who is not originally Uzbek, but speaks Uzbek; but regarding Persian it is vice versa. Many non-Dari speakers, take Dari as the language of everyday life, including Pashtuns, and as a result they have gotten into distance from their native Dialect. This issue also includes Pashtuns, who are affected by Dari language and culture and the reason is that some of provinces are adjacent to Iran. As an example, many people in Herat belong to Pashtun ethnic, but they speak Farsi on daily basis. A large number of Hazera people and other ethnic groups consider themselves as Tajik. However, it is very difficult to determine the exact border of ethnicity and operating language.
In the previous paragraphs, we realized that Afghan theorists, whom are influenced by western colonialists, had divided Afghanistan in two parts, North and South based on ethnicity. Southern Afghanistan generally belongs to the Pashtun people; but the North of the country, in addition to the other problems, the ethnic was composition was also added to it. Among the northern inhabitants, Pashtuns also had a prominent presence, which it was not easy to put them away from power. Muslim nation, considers and gives priority to the issue of religion and supporting the Islamic values before anything else, even ethnicity. In addition to the pious and heroic Mujahedeen of the North of the country, the Northern Pashtun tribes played a significant role in the development of the Islamic Emirate.