Pashtun, Southern

The Southern Pashtuns are the Pashto-speaking tribes of southern and western Afghanistan and Pakistani Balochistan, centred on Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Zabul, Farah and Nimruz and around Quetta. Pashtuns as a whole number some 60-70 million and are Afghanistan's largest people; they are organised into hundreds of tribes in confederacies such as the Durrani, who dominate the south, and the Ghilji. Southern Pashto (Kandahari) is the 'soft' southern dialect. Ahmad Shah Durrani founded the Durrani Empire from Kandahar in 1747, the origin of the Afghan state, and 'Afghan' was historically a name for the Pashtuns before the 1923 constitution applied it to all citizens. Large migrant and refugee communities live in Iran, Pakistan, the Gulf states and Europe.

Pashtun life is governed by Pashtunwali: melmastia (hospitality), nanawatai (sanctuary for those who ask it), badal (retribution), namus (protection of women's honour) and the jirga council of elders that settles disputes. The attan circle dance, rubab music and landay couplets sung by women are central arts. Kandahar is known for pomegranates and grapes, and dishes of rice, meat, bread and dairy dominate. Families are patrilineal and extended, marriages arranged within the tribe or lineage with a bride price, and purdah keeps women's lives largely within the home.

Southern Pashtuns are Hanafi Sunnis, and religion and Pashtunwali are intertwined. Village mullahs and madrasas, many shaped by the Deobandi movement, carry great influence, and Kandahar was the Taliban's birthplace. Shrine visitation, Sufi pirs, amulets and vows are part of folk practice, notably at the shrine of the Prophet's cloak (Kherqa Sharif) in Kandahar. In Iran, Sunni Pashtuns have few mosques of their own and live among a Shia population whose public rituals differ from theirs.

Scripture portions exist in Southern Pashto (2011-2019) and the complete Bible in Northern Pashto, which southern speakers can follow; the JESUS film and Global Recordings Network audio exist in Southern Pashto. Christian radio and satellite broadcasting in Pashto is limited compared with Persian. Southern Pashtuns are among the least reached peoples in the world, with almost no known believers.