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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Afshari of Afghanistan

The Afshari of Afghanistan, numbering approximately 13,500 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Afghanistan; a dialect subgroup of South Azerbaijani (azb). They are an Diaspora people in the Azerbaijani people cluster of the Turkic Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary language is Dari and their primary religion is Sunni Islam.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Frontiers

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: Afghanistan
People Cluster: Azerbaijani
Primary Language(s): Dari (prs)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 13,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG023947
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Pray for the Afshari of Afghanistan

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Dari
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Dari Speakers

Media Resources in Dari:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Dari:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Dari bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Afshari:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Afshari are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Afshari:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Afshari are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Afshari:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Afshari of Afghanistan

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
readPsalm 19:1

Pray that those who are lost will look to the heavens and see the glory of God displayed, leading them to seek Him and know Him as their Creator and Savior.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!
readPsalm 96:8

Pray for people here to humbly give God the glory due His name.

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.
readRomans 4:20

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will not waver but will grow strong in their belief, knowing that the Lord rewards those who seek Him.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
readPsalm 57:9

Pray that God will raise up believers among them who will boldly go and share the gospel with people nearby and with those far away.

Afshari Across Countries (ROP3 - 100096) reported in the following countries:

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Definitions page.

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