The Pashtun of United Arab Emirates

The Pashtun of United Arab Emirates, numbering approximately 456,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an Eastern Iranian ethnolinguistic group indigenous to southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They are an Diaspora people, in the Pashtun people cluster of the Persian-Median Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Islam - Sunni. They primarily speak Pashto, Northern.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Pashtun

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Central Asian Peoples
Country: United Arab Emirates
People Cluster: Pashtun
Primary Language(s): Pashto, Northern (pbu)
Primary Religion(s): Islam - Sunni
Population: 456,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012231
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Pashtun of United Arab Emirates

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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Islam - Sunni
Religious Affiliation: Islam

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Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Pashto, Northern
Language Family: Indo-European

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Media Resources in Pashto, Northern:

Films:

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Bible Resources in Pashto, Northern:

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Or check out the Pashto, Northern bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Next steps for the Pashtun

The Pashtun are Unengaged and Unreached, 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.

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

Next steps for the Pashtun

The Pashtun 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.

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

Next steps for the Pashtun

The Pashtun 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.

Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Pashtun of United Arab Emirates

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
readMatthew 28:16-20

Pray that those who don't yet know Him will encounter the risen Savior and be transformed by the power of His resurrection, becoming disciples who make disciples.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
readRomans 10:14

Pray that the gospel will advance among those who don’t know the good news of salvation in Jesus so that they might believe and trust in Jesus.

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of host.
readJeremiah 15:16

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will find joy and delight in the Word of the Lord.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
readLuke 10:1

Ask God to raise up, send out, and sustain Christians who can go together to share the good news of Jesus with those who need it.

Pashtun, Northern (ROP3 - 107909) 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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