How to Use Pashtun in a Sentence

Pashtun

noun
  • Many powerful Pashtun tribes, such as the Ghilzais, the Ishaqzais, and the Noorzais, felt cut out.
    — Christina Lamb, Foreign Affairs, 2021-06-22
  • For one, Pashtun nationalists will always have problems with a border that slices their heartland in two.
    — Mihir Sharma, Twin Cities, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Soldiers from Tajik tribes were sent into Pashtun provinces to fight Pashtun Taliban.
    — Bing West, WSJ, 2021-04-22
  • Afghanistan has never formally recognised the border, drawn in 1893 through ethnic Pashtun areas.
    — Harriet Marsden, TheWeek, 24 Mar. 2026
  • As a result, many rural Pashtun women actually saw their lives improve following the imposition of Sharia law.
    — Ross McDonnell, The New Yorker, 2023-09-06
  • Rural Pashtun, the ethnic group that provides the Taliban with most of its manpower, were among those who suffered the most during the war because the bulk of the fighting took place in their areas.
    — Abdulkader Sinno, The Conversation, 2021-08-16
  • Sustained military pressure on militants is undermined by limited political engagement with Baloch and Pashtun groups and continued safe havens across Afghanistan.
    — Amir Daftari, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Afghans are ethnically and culturally plural — Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Pashtun; Sunni and Shia — many rejecting gender exclusion.
    — Nargis Habib, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Nov. 2025
  • Named after British diplomat Mortimer Durand and established in 1893, the line cuts through the heartland of the tribal areas of the Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and also the group from which the Afghan Taliban stem.
    — ABC News, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Recently, the same law has been invoked against Pashtun rights advocates in Pakistan and celebrated Indian author Arundhati Roy, who now also faces terrorism charges under India's draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
    — Stephen Townley, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Pashtun.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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