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| Capital | Kabul | ||||||
| Other cities | Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif | ||||||
| Language official |
Dari and Pashto | ||||||
| others | Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek | ||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||||
| Demonym | Afghan | ||||||
| Government | Unitary constitutional monarchy | ||||||
| Legislature | Loya jirga | ||||||
| King | Ahmad Shah Khan | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Abdul Rashid Dostum | ||||||
| Area | 652,230 km² | ||||||
| Population | 31,108,077 | ||||||
| Established | 1994 | ||||||
| Currency | Afghani (AFA)
| ||||||
| Time Zone | (UTC+4:30) | ||||||
| Calling Code | +93 | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .af | ||||||
| Organizations | UN | ||||||
The Kingdom of Afghanistan (Dari: پادشاهي افغانستان, Pādešāhī-ye Afġānistān; Pashto: د افغانستان واکمنان, Dǝ Afġānistān wākmanān), colloquially known as Afghanistan (افغانستان, Afġānistān), is a landlocked country located in Southern Asia. Afghanistan played an important role during human migration and the Silk Road, as well as acting as a buffer state between the regional powers. The Cold War played a key point in Afghanistan during the 1980s, following the invasion by the Soviet Union. Backing by the United States and the international community eventually forced the USSR to leave the country in the late 1980s.
The Soviet Union continued to fund the pro-Moscow government throughout the 1990s and helped broker a peace deal. The monarchy was restored in 1994 and moves to help rebuild the nation began. While most of the anti-Soviet Mujaheddin leaders supported the new government, the more radical Islamist factions eventually began fighting once more. A Pakistani-backed government was established in the south by the late 1990s, culminating in an Indo-Soviet response. Major fighting has gradually come to an end, though much of the southern regions of Afghanistan continue to operate under the Islamic Republic of Pashtunistan.
Since the 2000s, Afghanistan has witnessed a period of calm that hasn't been seen since the 1960s. The Soviet Union continues to be a major economic and trading partner for Afghanistan, continuing to give aid to the country. The Afghan economy and infrastructure has improved following the civil wars, with mining becoming a major contributor to this growth.
Afghanistan is an ethnically diverse nation, dominated by Iranian and Turkic peoples. Pashto and Persian (known as Dari) are the two official languages of Afghanistan. Sunni Islam is both the state religion and the dominant belief in Afghanistan, though a noticeable Shia population does exist within the nation. Due to the nations mountainous nature, tribalism is strong within the nation, with some recognition to these tribal leaders being recognized.
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