An Overview of Christianity and the Dari Language

Christianity has a long but limited history in Afghanistan, where Dari, a variety of Persian, is one of the official languages. While Christianity reached the region in the early centuries AD through the Nestorian Church, it never gained a substantial following, as Zoroastrianism and later Islam became the dominant religions. Afghanistan’s small Christian presence largely vanished after the spread of Islam in the 7th century. Over the centuries, Christianity remained primarily a religion of foreign merchants, diplomats, and aid workers, with no significant local adherents.

In recent decades, interest in Christianity has grown quietly, though it remains highly restricted and almost exclusively underground due to cultural and legal constraints. A limited amount of Christian literature, including portions of the Bible in Dari, is available and accessible through digital and printed formats, supporting the small Dari-speaking Christian community.