fghanistan is the fortieth largest country in the world by area,

making it slightly larger than France and somewhat smaller than

Texas. Administratively the country consists of 34 provinces, or

wilayats, which are divided into a number of sub-national districts, known

as wulswalis. Population estimates vary considerably, since for political

reasons Afghanistan has never had a comprehensive, nationwide census.

According to the Central Statistics Office, Afghanistan’s population in

2015/16 was 28.6 million, but other sources put the figure as high as 33

million. In addition, around 1 million Afghan refugees still live in Pakistan

and some 2 million in Iran, while several hundred thousand Afghans reside,

or are seeking asylum, in various European countries, North America and

Australasia. According to United Nations Data, Afghanistan’s population

growth rate is currently more than 4 per cent per annum, which, if correct,

means Afghanistan has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world.

More than 40 per cent of the country’s population today is under fifteen

years of age.

Ethnically Afghanistan has never been cohesive and the size and

percentage of the country’s ethnolinguistic groups has long been a source

of contention and political manipulation. According to the Polish linguistic

survey conducted in the 1970s, there are between forty and fifty languages

in Afghanistan belonging to seven separate linguistic groups.1 Pushtuns,

also known as Afghans or Pathans, the largest ethnic group in the country,

have been the dominant political power in modern Afghanistan, but even

by the most generous estimates Pushtuns make up only about one-third of

Afghanistan’s population. Indeed, there are more Pushtuns in Pakistan than

Afghanistan. The Pushtuns consist of dozens of tribes that historically lived

in the plains and mountains that straddle the modern Afghan–Pakistan

frontier. Prior to European colonial intervention, this region was the

original Afghanistan, that is, the land of the Afghan tribes. It consisted of

the regions east of the Helmand river and stretches as far east as Jalalabad,

the Kunar valley, Swat and Chitral. Southwards the Pushtun belt extended

Introduction

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