The People

All citizens of the country are called Afghans, but there are numerous ethnic groups. Pashtuns (the name is also spelled Pushtun, Pakhtun, Pukhtun, and Pathan) make up roughly 60 per cent of the people. Pashtuns are a Caucasian people and have lived in Afghanistan for at least 1,300 years. Usually they are considered the true Afghans. They are divided into many tribes and sub-tribes and follow an ancient code of conduct called Pashtunwali. Tajiks, also a Caucasian people, are the second most numerous group. People of Mongolian descent include Turkomans, Uzbeks, Kirghiz, and Hazaras.

According to the last official estimate before the overthrow of the government in 1992, Afghanistan had a population of 16,433,000, excluding nomads. The density was about 65 persons per square mile (25 per km2). Only about 20 per cent of the people live in cities; the rest are villagers, farmers, and nomadic herders.

The primary languages of Afghanistan are Pashto (also known as Pashtu) and a Persian dialect called Dari. Both belong to the Indo-European language family. Pashto is spoken in the east and south and is sometimes called Afghan. Dari is spoken in northeastern, western, and central Afghanistan and is the language of government, business, and literature. Some 30 other languages are spoken by various groups in Afghanistan.

Two systems of education coexist in Afghanistan. Traditional madrasas (religious schools) teach children through the study of the Koran. The secular system was created in 1935. Institutions of higher learning include Kabul University (founded 1932) at Kabul and Nangarhar Islamic University (formerly the Bayazid Roshan University of Nangarhar, founded 1962) at Jalalabad. Years of warfare, however, have destroyed most of the educational infrastructure. The outlawing of the education and employment of women in 1996 further undermined the educational system. Before the ban, women accounted for about 70 per cent of the country's teachers. The literacy rate for men is about 35 per cent; for women, it is about 20 per cent. With the fall of the Taliban, women began to return to some schools as students and as teachers.

Afghanistan has been an Islamic republic since 1992. About 85 per cent of the people belong to the Sunnite branch of Islam; the remainder are Shiites.

Afghanistan bears the traces of many civilizations, including Greek, Buddhist, and Mogul. Afghan art, architecture, literature, and music reveal the interaction of these various cultures over the centuries. However, Islam, from its introduction in the seventh century A.D. to the present, has been the predominant influence. The gracefully sculptured minarets (towers of the mosques) are considered the best surviving examples of Muslim architectural and artistic effort.

Much of the country's cultural heritage has been destroyed in recent years. Archeo-logical sites have been overrun since the Soviets invaded the area in 1979. The Kabul Museum was bombed in the early 1990's and its treasures looted. By 2001, much of the country's non-Islamic art, including two enormous Buddhas, had been destroyed under the rule of the Taliban.