Afghan Canadians are

Canadians Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

with ancestry from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. They form the second largest Afghan community in North America after

Afghan Americans Afghan Americans ( prs, آمریکایی‌های افغان‌تبار ''Amrikāyi-hāye Afghān tabar'', ps, د امريکا افغانان ''Da Amrīka Afghanan'') are Americans of Afghan descent or Americans who originated from Afghanistan. ...

. Their ethnic origin may come from any of the ethnic groups of Afghanistan, which include

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara, Turkmen, etc. In the

Canada 2016 Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...

about 83,995 Canadians were from Afghanistan. They are mostly concentrated in the southwestern region of Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area, with significant communities mostly in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Ottawa, and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. In addition to the official languages of Canada, Afghan Canadians are also fluent in their native languages such as

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

, Uzbek, Turkmen, etc. In the Canadian Census, Canadians with descent from Afghanistan are classified as being West

Central Asian Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former S ...

Media

The diaspora also have media outlets for the Afghan community, including private TV channels such as Watan E Maa, AfghanJavan TV and Afghan Nobel TV.

Afghan Canadians by Canadian province or territory (
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
)

Notable individuals

Kawa Ada Kawa Ada (born June 12, 1982) is an Afghan-Canadian actor, writer and producer. He distinguished himself as a stage actor on Broadway and in Toronto before pursuing a career as a film and television actor and a writer. He is also a dancer, a ch ...

— actor and playwright * Fardaws Aimaq — basketball player * Layla Alizada — actress *

Hangama Hangama (Dari/Pashto: ) is a singer from Afghanistan. Originally born as Zuhra, her mother chose the name of Hangama for her when she became a singer. She currently lives in Toronto, Canada where she continues her music career. Before her emigr ...

— singer * Donnie Keshawarz – actor * Sadi Jalali — soccer player *

Nasser Jamal Nasser Jamal (born February 25, 1988, in Kandahar, Afghanistan and raised in Queensborough, British Columbia, and the Downtown Eastside) is a professional Canadian football offensive lineman who is currently a free agent. He most recently played f ...

— football player *

Mozhdah Jamalzadah Mozhdah Jamalzadah (Dari/Pashto: ) (born December 27, 1982 in Kabul, Afghanistan) is an Afghan singer, actress, and talk show host. Referred to as 'The Oprah of Afghanistan', Jamalzadah hosts The Mozhdah Show, which often touches on issues such ...

– singer *

Maryam Monsef Maryam Monsef ( fa, مریم منصف) (born Monsefzadeh; November 7, 1984) is an Afghan Canadian former politician. She first was elected to represent the riding of Peterborough—Kawartha as a Liberal member the House of Commons of Canad ...

– member of Parliament for Peterborough-Kawartha; first Afghan-Canadian elected to Canada's House of Commons, former Minister of Status of Women *

Ariel Nasr Ariel Nasr is a Canadian documentary film director.

- documentary filmmaker "Halifax-born producer gets Oscar nod for short film"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

Nova Scotia, January 10, 2013. * Nelofer Pazira – filmmaker and author * Parween Pazhwak – Persian artist and poet *

Humira Saqib Humira Saqib (born 1980) is an Afghan journalist and women's human rights activist. Through her writings in the magazine ''Negah-e-Zan'' (A Vision of Women) and in ''Afghan Women's News Agency'', she has been protesting against extreme forms of h ...

– Journalist * Massih Wassey – soccer player *

Hamid Zaher Hamid Zaher (born 1974) is a Canada-based Afghan writer and gay rights activist. Zaher was born 1974 in the Parwan Province. He studied pharmacy at Kabul University and graduated in 1998. In 2001, he had to flee Afghanistan when his family start ...

– writer and gay rights activist

References

External links

Rebuilding Afghanistan

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

Afghan Canadian Asian Canadian Canadian people of Afghan descent West Asian Canadians {{NorthAm-ethno-group-stub

Media

Notable individuals

See also

References

External links