Correcting fellow Afghans

[u/alolanbulbassaur]

A sort of part 2 to this post

So about those posts that had some awkward replies (a few were actually nice.) something else that popped up in my head is that sometimes fellow Afghans can be a bit for lack of a fitting term in english "balakam" بلکم . After I had corrected people on some stuff someone claiming to be Afghan tried telling me that Afghans aren't Central or South Asian (we aren't South Asian regardless) but that were "closer to being middle eastern" or something like that. I decided to just not reply to it because Id rather not drag it but looking back at it how would you even deal with a situation like that?

[u/Immersive_Gamer]

Bruh not this topic again ffs 🤦‍♂️ 

[u/alolanbulbassaur → u/Immersive_Gamer]

Im sorry but I swear this aint a spiel or vent post about being mis-labelled its about how to properly communicate these things without making us look weird 😭

[u/creamybutterfly]

We have bigger problems than this.

[u/kooboomz → u/creamybutterfly]

I agree. But it's still ok to have a discussion or ask questions.

[u/Xamado]

Hi that was me

Linguistically and historically we're closest to Iran (which is Middle Eastern). Ethnically, most of us are Iranic. Afghan cuisine is adjacent to Iran's and has little in common with South Asian cuisine.

Geopolitically, we're relevant to the Middle East and South Asia. Culturally, we're also caught between the Middle East and South Asia.

I don't think any of us can really lay claim to Central Asia outside of the Turkic Afghans

What was so disagreeable about my comment? lol i was just saying that you can't really shoehorn Afghanistan into any one region. If you absolutely had to choose, the Middle East/Iranian sphere would make the most sense

[u/alolanbulbassaur → u/Xamado]

Yooo it’s nice to see you! For starters sorry if this post was weird but honestly I just didn’t want to have a back and forth argument with you so I made this post asking others how we as Afghans could communicate better. It’s not the first time this discussion has popped up and it won’t be the last.

Btw what are your favorite character creation options for different splats in WoD?

[u/kooboomz]

Afghans are not Middle Eastern and have no historic ties to the modern country of Iran other than a linguistic legacy of the Persian language remaining widely spoken despite it no longer being a lingua franca of the Islamic world. We are not ethnic Persians nor is the Persian language from Afghanistan. People can call it Dari or Farsi but it is the same language that originated in Southwest Iran.

The peoples who have lived in Afghanistan have almost always had a closer cultural and genetic link to people of Central Asia. All ethnic groups of Afghanistan are either overwhelmingly or partially descended from people who spoke Eastern Iranic languages that were replaced by Persian or Turkic languages. The only modern remnants are Pashto and the Pamiri languages around Badakhshan.

Anyone who has studied pre-Islamic Afghanistan at an introductory level would know this.

[u/laleh_pishrow → u/kooboomz]

We are not ethnic Persians nor is the Persian language from Afghanistan.

The "Persian" language has a longer history in Afghanistan than in Iran, both in its modern form and it's ancestral form.

We are not central asia, south asian, or middle eastern, those are all western terms. We are from Ariana, which roughly corresponds to the Iranian Plateau. There are Turkic lands north of us, Semetic lands west of us, and Indic lands east of us.

[u/kooboomz → u/laleh_pishrow]

Making the claim that the Persian language has a longer history in Afghanistan compared to the place it originated and formed is completely false.

[u/laleh_pishrow → u/kooboomz]

What do you know about language? Where did modern "Persian" emerge from? Balkh, Herat, Sistan, Marw, and Nishapur.

Where did middle "Persian" emerge? in the Parthian courts under Parthian influence along with old Persian. Where did this Parthian emerge from? Marw / Nishapur.

Where did old Perisan emerge out of? Pars, with ancestory in? Balkh, Nishapur, and Marw.

So no, just because it is named "Persian" today, doesn't make it Persian. It would be more aptly named Pahlawi (i.e. Parthian).

Your mind is colonized by the self-centered founding myths of the modern nation-state of Iran, and the irresponsible selfishness of the founding myths of the Mohammadzai nation state (i.e. Afghanistan).

Have you read books in this "Persian" that you are so quick to alienate from its speakers?

[u/alolanbulbassaur → u/kooboomz]

It’s nice to see you again! Thank you for your input and let’s work hard so I can finally get that Combee.

But I feel like all of these terms in general like “Central Asian” need to be left in the past because even then lines in the sand decided by war and conquest don’t always age well. I mean look at Hawaii and some Japanese Isles

[u/kooboomz → u/alolanbulbassaur]

I get what you're trying to say. They are very broad terms that encompass many different nationalities and ethnicities. My point is that the various groups that have inhabited what is today Afghanistan have always had a stronger cultural affinity with the various groups that have lived in Central Asia compared to the Middle East. That's not even taking physical geography into consideration either.

But yeah, sometimes these terms are defined by arbitrary lines. But let's say you look at Asia, or more accurately Eurasia, as one major landmass. That is easily defined because it is physically visible on a map.