Afghan Religious Minorities Victims of Negligence Hassan Ali Faiz An Introduction to Afghanistan’s Minorities Afghanistan is a mosaic of ethnic groups with diverse cultures, languages, and religions. The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan lists 14 ethnic groups in the country: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Baloch, Turkmen, Nuristani, Pamiri, Arab, Gujar, Brahui, Qizilbash, Aimaq and Pashai. Other ethnic groups are socially categorised as being part of other ethnicities. These groups not listed in the Constitution have protested ‘being annexed’ to other ethnic groups1 and have urged the government to designate them independently. Some minorities not listed are Moghols, Kyrgyzs, Sadats etc. while the Hindu-Sikh is a religious minority also not recognised in the Constitution even though Article 2 grants them freedom to exercise their faith and perform religious rites within the limits of the provision of law. Afghans2 have historically been associated with and identified by their ethnicity. Ethnic identity has played an important role in 1 ‘“Sadat” ba aqwam Afghanistan ezafa me shawad’ (‘Sadat’ is to be added to the [list] of Afghan ethnic groups), BBC, March 13, 2019, accessed November 11, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/persian/afghanistan-47551657. 2 The word ‘Afghan’ is still controversial. The ethnonym has been widely used in the past to refer to Pashtuns and is still used to refer to ethnic Pashtuns in some places. The word Afghanistan, in that sense, means ‘the land of the Pashtuns’. The use of the word ‘Afghan’ in the new electronic identity card in 2018, stirred heated debate and generated ethnic-based vitriol between Pashtuns and non-Pashtun ethnic groups. As Pashtuns insisted on the use of the word ‘Afghan’ in the ID card to designate ‘Afghan’ as the nationality for all Afghan citizens, the members of other ethnic groups protested against it. See: Hamid Shalizi, ‘Who is an Afghan? Row over ID cards fuels ethnic tension’, Reuters, February 8, 2018, accessed Feb 22, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/usafghanistan-politics/who-is-an-afghan-row-over-id-cards-fuels-ethnic-tensionidUSKBN1FS1Y0.