KABUL: Afghan ethnic diversity has been in the center of politics and conflict in this country for more than a century, and this division is expected to play a role in the formation of the Taliban new government.
There are no single ethnic groups that have a decisive majority among the 40 million Afghans, and the gap has become a lasting challenge for political stability.
Afghanistan is the most dangerous country in the world in the world, people last year under the threat index, compiled by the international group minority rights group, which said all ethnic groups faced the risk of suppression of systematic violence and mass murder.
The following is a brief description of the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan: Pashtun is Afghan’s biggest ethnic group, making more than 42 percent of the population.
The group – mostly Sunni Muslims and speaks Pashho – has dominated Afghanistan politics since the 18th century.
Many Pashtun leaders for many years have emphasized “the right to govern” Afghanistan, which has angered another ethnic group.
The Taliban, controlled Afghanistan for the second time after their 1996-2001 regime, was a group dominated by Pashtun.
Even two presidents under the previous US-backed government – Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani – are Pashtuns.
Traditionally based in the south and east countries, the dominant position of Pashtun often causes hatred among other groups, especially because of political, economic and cultural marginalization.
Tajik is the second largest ethnic group, making more than a quarter of the Afghan population.
The main language between Tajiks is the Farsi dialect named from, also Lingua Franca from Afghanistan.
The group was mainly distributed in the north and west of the country, with a fortress in the Panjshir valley, West Herat City and several northern provinces.
Panjshir valley was famous for rejecting work not only by the Soviet military in the 1980s but also by the first Taliban regime.
Although not dominant politically, a number of leading Tajik leaders have emerged in the past few decades.
Mujahidin leader who was respected by Ahmad Shah Massoud – “Lion Panjshir” – who fought against the Red Army and the Taliban was at the top of the list among Afghans.
Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Tajik from Badakhshan Province in the North, served as President of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 before Kabul fell to the Taliban.
Abdullah Abdullah, former chief executive and major peace negotiator for the previous Afghan regime, was a mixture of mixed pashtun-tajik but widely considered the last.
Hazara, which is believed to come from Central Asian and Turkish, around 10 percent of the population and especially based in Central Afghanistan.
They speak dialects from and most of Shiite Muslims.
The group faces oppression and discrimination with violence in Afghanistan for religion and ethnicity for more than a century.
They also suffered from massacres in various Afghan governments in recent decades, but especially under the Taliban – Sunni hardline Muslims who usually gave Shias’s thus label.
Another active militant in Afghanistan such as Islamic State groups has also targeted Hazara with deadly bomb attacks, not even saving school and their hospital.
Afghanistan Uzbeks is also around 10 percent of the population, especially those based in northern countries close to the border with Uzbekistan.
Turks, they are especially Sunni Muslims.
The most famous, and famous Uzbek Afghanistan, is the warlord of Abdul Rashid Dostum, who fought the Soviets against the Mujahideen before changing sides and effectively established his own fort based in the northern city of Mazar-I-Sarif.
He was a leading figure in the northern alliance which helped end the Taliban government after the US invasion of 2001, and then joined the Ghani government as the first vice president.
He fled to Uzbekistan when Mazar-I-Sharif fell to the Taliban this month.
The 2004 Afghan constitution officially recognizes more than a dozen ethnicities.
In addition to the four largest groups, Aimanq Nomaden, Turkmen and Baloch are also registered.
Also included are Nuristan people in northeast Afghanistan, who were forcibly converted to Islam in the 19th century.
Afghan ethnic mosaics
