In what world is Afghanistan Central or South Asian?

[Forreigner]

Afghanistan and even Iran are more Central Asian than West Asian. Afghanistan is more similar to India than to Iraq (that doesn't make it South Asian ofc). You seem to have an agenda of trying to associate Afghanistan with the Middle East.

I think Islam and having Iran in the western borders pushes Afghanistan towards a "greater Middle Eastern" region and compared with eastern neighbor Pakistan, which has somewhat Indic culture despite Islam, effectively makes Afghanistan the eastern borders of a "greater cultural Middle East" with Pakistan serving as a bufferzone between Middle East (Islam) and South Asia (Hinduism)

[Forreigner]

Afghanistan is not more similar to India then Iraq now, over the last 800-1000 years, the Indian influence on Afghanistan has been lost, due to the huge West Asian influence. Today Afghanistan is much much more similar to Middle East, then to India.

True there were significant minority of Afghans who practised Hinduism (during Arab/Islamic conquest era, most fled towards India), but culturalwise Afghanistan harbored many cultures, though the cultural exchange between subcontinent and iranian plataeu was a two ways exchange...overall though a pan Iranian culture was dominant in the region...an evidence of this is noted in how strongly Persian cultural influence reached further into South Asia than vice versa.

[mungojerry]

True there were significant minority of Afghans who practised Hinduism (during Arab/Islamic conquest era, most fled towards India), but culturalwise Afghanistan harbored many cultures, though the cultural exchange between subcontinent and iranian plataeu was a two ways exchange...overall though a pan Iranian culture was dominant in the region...an evidence of this is noted in how strongly Persian cultural influence reached further into South Asia than vice versa.

persian culture influance only came from islamic period when moguls ruling south asia.

[mungojerry]

Again, 10-15% of dna will not show up on the faces in most cases. If Afghans had like 30-40% Indian genes, then it would show up. This is even true for some Americans, for example some pure White looking Americans are actually sometime 10-20% Black or native Indian, but it doesn't show up on their faces


Akshay Kumar probably actually has a lot of outside dna in him

brothar, from where this Akshay Kumar get outside dna? do you know when he got this dna? what his ancestor looks like before he get this dna? is dna same as genes? i dont know this things.

[Forreigner]

persian culture influance only came from islamic period when moguls ruling south asia.

It came before Islam...many places in India have Persian names....most notably Punjab is much older name than even Islam....

[jahan2]

Afghanistan and even Iran are more Central Asian than West Asian. Afghanistan is more similar to India than to Iraq (that doesn't make it South Asian ofc). You seem to have an agenda of trying to associate Afghanistan with the Middle East.

Middle East is not just Arab. It includes plenty non-Arabs, for example Turkey.

Afghanistan is culturally, historically, etc. closer to its western neighbor Iran and some of its Central Asian neighboring nations (pre-Soviet Empirialism/Russification, they were even closer to Afghanistan culturally) than to South Asians.

[adibitar69]

Yes Forreigner, what you said is correct......

[GuruZai]

we fall in two different divisions.

1) South central Asia

2) Greater Mideast

[Nertj]

I honestly don't know why some group Afghanistan with South Asia. it's like two different continents, climatic, historical, cultural wise, language wise, race wise, etc.

there has been some historical exchanges, so what. every country has exchanged. lol

The only reason Afghnistan is even linked with Subcontinent is because western half of Pakistan used to be Afghanistan's territory.

[ذو الفقار]

Afghanistan isn't South Asia but it isn't Central Asia either. Afghanistan should be considered part of West Asia in the same category as Iran and broader Middle East.

[salman47]

I honestly don't know why some group Afghanistan with South Asia. it's like two different continents, climatic, historical, cultural wise, language wise, race wise, etc.

there has been some historical exchanges, so what. every country has exchanged. lol

The only reason Afghnistan is even linked with Subcontinent is because western half of Pakistan used to be Afghanistan's territory.

something to do with British politics.

[HindustanTimes]

The OP is a inferiority complexed white wanna be western born pathan. lol. this guy wanna fit in with white people. lol

There is definitely some Indian in AFghans/Pathans. Only some rural mountain tajiks lack Indian genes in the Hindu Kush and Pamir north mountains.

[ShahofShah]

South Asia is better economically and politically.

It's also good because most pashtuns are from Pakistan, so it will unite the pashtuns in afghan.

Also I think Afghanistan is the crossroads of central asia, south asia, and west asia, so there is really no true place to organize. Depends on your ethnicity too, hazaras more central asian along with tajiks.

[salman47]

South Asia is better economically and politically.

It's also good because most pashtuns are from Pakistan, so it will unite the pashtuns in afghan.

Also I think Afghanistan is the crossroads of central asia, south asia, and west asia, so there is really no true place to organize. Depends on your ethnicity too, hazaras more central asian along with tajiks.

Oh please Turkish Culture is not equal to Central Asian culture.
Go read some History before commenting.

[UnknownUser]

South Asia is better economically and politically.

It's also good because most pashtuns are from Pakistan, so it will unite the pashtuns in afghan.

Also I think Afghanistan is the crossroads of central asia, south asia, and west asia, so there is really no true place to organize. Depends on your ethnicity too, hazaras more central asian along with tajiks.

The OP is a inferiority complexed white wanna be western born pathan. lol. this guy wanna fit in with white people. lol

There is definitely some Indian in AFghans/Pathans. Only some rural mountain tajiks lack Indian genes in the Hindu Kush and Pamir north mountains.

Bs. No one cares about genetics. Even Euros have % SSA admix. Only Phenotype matters. no one is gonna mistake someone from Afghanistan for Indian or even Pakistani. The boundries of "Indianness" end with Desi Pakistanis.

Anyway I dont know why its important that we be classified part of any region. Most Afghans will probably feel closer to the Middle East or Central Asia than South Asia though. As far in West they are classed "Middle Eastern" along with Turks, Iranis, etc. Not South Asian. South Asia is its own different world.