RASC News Agency: Dr. Dawood Moradian, Director of the Afghanistan Strategic Studies Center, asserts that while Persian (Dari) and Pashto share linguistic roots, Pashto cannot be considered the common language of Afghanistan. Moradian argues that a common language must be one that is universally understood, and Pashto fails to meet this criterion, as not all Afghanistanis speak it. He notes that the majority of Afghanistanis communicate in Persian (Dari), and even when a Pashto speaker interacts with an Uzbek speaker, they rely on Persian as their shared language.
Expanding on his argument, he states that Turkic languages and Arabic also do not qualify as Afghanistan’s common language, as they are not spoken by the entire population. Instead, Persian (Dari) has historically and practically served as Afghanistan’s primary means of communication across ethnic and linguistic divides. Moradian’s comments align with those of Vanessa, a Polish linguist, who recently described Persian as one of the world’s most exceptional languages. Having studied Persian for over a decade, she regards it as structurally and expressively superior to many widely spoken European languages, including those in Poland. Persian has long functioned as Afghanistan’s linguistic bridge, uniting various ethnic communities.
Historically and in contemporary practice, the overwhelming majority of Afghanistanis possess at least functional proficiency in Persian, allowing them to communicate seamlessly regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. Some Afghanistani intellectuals argue that the national anthem if it is to be truly inclusive should be in Persian, ensuring that all citizens can understand and relate to it. They point out that if a Pashayi speaker and a Baloch speaker cannot communicate in each other’s native languages, they are unlikely to turn to Pashto or Turkic languages instead, they naturally default to Persian as their medium of mutual understanding.
