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 borde ...
. They form the second largest
Afghan community in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
after
Afghan Americans. 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 r ...
,
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
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater ...
, 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 most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...
,
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...
, 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 form ...
.
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)
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
Layla Alizada ( fa, لیلا علیزاده; born August 10, 1977) is a Canadian actress, who is best known for appearing in guest roles in some well-known American television shows, including ''The Muppets'' and ''Jane the Virgin,'' as well as r ...
— actress
*
Hangama — singer
*
Donnie Keshawarz – actor
*
Sadi Jalali
Sadi Jalali (born 6 June 1995) is a former Canadian professional soccer player who last played as a forward for FC Edmonton in the North American Soccer League.
Career
Early career
Born in New Delhi, India to Afghan parents. Jalali moved to Q ...
— soccer player
*
Nasser Jamal — football player
*
Mozhdah Jamalzadah – singer
*
Maryam Monsef – 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
Nilofar Pazira ( fa, نیلوفر پذیرا) is an Afghan-Canadian director, actress, journalist and author.
Biography
Nelofer Pazira was born in 1973 in Hyderabad, India, where her Afghan father was then working with the World Health Organ ...
– filmmaker and author
*
Parween Pazhwak – Persian artist and poet
*
Humira Saqib – Journalist
*
Massih Wassey – soccer player
*
Hamid Zaher – writer and gay rights activist
See also
*
Afghan diaspora
*
West Asian Canadians
West Asian Canadians, officially known as West Central Asian and Middle Eastern Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to West Asia and Central Asia. The term West Asian Canadian is a subgroup of Asian Canadi ...
*
Pashtun diaspora
The Pashtun diaspora comprises all ethnic Pashtuns and their descendants who are living outside of their traditional homeland of Pashtunistan, a historic region that is today situated over parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. While Pashtunista ...
*
Hazara diaspora
*
List of Afghans
The following is a list of notable Afghan people, which includes all the ethnic groups of the modern state of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has gone through territorial changes. This list generally excludes Ethnic Pashtuns who originate from regions t ...
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 Pash ...
Afghan Canadian
Asian Canadian
Canadian people of Afghan descent
West Asian Canadians
{{NorthAm-ethno-group-stub