Since the formation of the Afghan National Unity Government in 2014, Kabul has used “Pashtun Diplomacy” as an instrument to bring the bilateral Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship back on track and make ...

The idea of secularism in Afghanistan dates back to the 20 century. Historically, the Pashtun political elite in Afghanistan paid attention to secularism. Although there is no accurate survey on the ...

Mohammad Ayaz lost two family members last summer in a clash with a rival family over an irrigation channel in southeastern Afghanistan. Ayaz lives near Gardez, the capital of Afghanistan’s ...

Since 2001, Taliban militants operating in the Pashtun-dominated tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province have destroyed as many as 800 music shops, according ...

When the front line around Mazar-i-Sharif burst under relentless U.S. bombing, the retreating Taliban fighters knew there was only one option: to run fast and far. Retreating into Mazar-i-Sharif’s ...

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) plans to go ahead with its Loya Jirga grand assembly on October 11 to discuss peace and security in northwestern Pakistan despite recent violence, including the ...

A 200-year-old wooden hujra in Swat’s Dardiyal area still preserves Pashtun traditions of jirga, hospitality and community gatherings, serving as a symbol of cultural heritage.

The “mujahideen” reached Peshawar in the early 19th century, bringing with them a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and the readiness of zealots to use violence – then against the Sikhs. Their ...

If he is to succeed, Afghanistan’s president will need to come to grips with the country’s ethnic tensions. With his impressive background, which includes a stint as a senior official at the World ...

A new movement demanding security for Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun minority is transforming into a nationalist struggle with long-term consequences for the country’s politics, security, society, and ...

The following testimonies are selected from more than 150 accounts of anti-Pashtun violence in northern Afghanistan gathered by Human Rights Watch researchers during a four-week research mission in ...