'''پشتونها'''، '''پختونها''' یا '''افغانها''' (به [[زبان پشتو|پشتو]]: ''پښتانه'') (به [[زبان اردو|اردو]]: ''پٹهان'')، گروهی از مردمان [[ایرانیتبار]]<ref name="Minahan">{{Cite book|last=Minahan|first=James B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOQkpcVcd9AC&pg=PT318|title=Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia|date=30 August 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598846607|via=Google Books}}</ref> و از [[اقوام افغانستان]] و پاکستان هستند،<ref name="Minahan2">{{Cite book|last=Minahan|first=James B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOQkpcVcd9AC&pg=PT318|title=Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia|date=30 August 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-660-7|via=Google Books}}</ref> که عمدتاً در شمال غربی [[پاکستان]] و جنوب و شرق [[افغانستان]] سکونت دارند.<ref name="Caldwell2011">{{cite book|author=Dan Caldwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wSvp3VTGRecC&pg=PA36|title=Vortex of Conflict: U.S. Policy Toward Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq|date=17 February 2011|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-7666-0|pages=36|quote=A majority of Pashtuns live south of the Hindu Kush (the 500-mile mountain range that covers northwestern Pakistan to central and eastern Pakistan) and with some Persian speaking ethnic groups.}}</ref><ref name="Brit-Pashtun">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445546/Pashtun|title=Pashtun|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=10 September 2010}}</ref> آنها از نظر تاریخی تا دهه ۱۹۷۰ با نام [[افغان (نام قومی)|افغان]] نیز خطاب میشدند،<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Tyler|first=John A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_hLEAAAQBAJ&dq=term+afghan+other+ethnic+groups&pg=PT110|title=Afghanistan Graveyard of Empires: Why the Most Powerful Armies of Their Time Found Only Defeat or Shame in This Land Of Endless Wars|date=10 October 2021|publisher=Aries Consolidated LLC|isbn=978-1-387-68356-7|language=en|quote=The largest ethnic group in Afghanistan is that of Pashtuns, who were historically known as the Afghans. The term Afghan is now intended to indicate people of other ethnic groups as well.}}</ref> بعدتر این اصطلاح به عنوان نامی برای همه اقوام افغانستان تبدیل شد.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Huang|first=Guiyou|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5RxDwAAQBAJ&dq=term+afghan+other+ethnic+groups&pg=PA5|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature [3 volumes]|date=30 December 2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-56720-736-1|language=en|quote=In Afghanistan, up until the 1970s, the common reference to Afghan meant Pashtun. . . . The term Afghan as an inclusive term for all ethnic groups was an effort begun by the "modernizing" King Amanullah (1909-1921). . . .}}</ref><ref name=":1"/> آنها به [[زبان پشتو]] سخن میگویند و بیشتر پیرو [[سنی|اسلام سنی]]، و [[حنفی|مذهب حنفی]] هستند.<ref>{{یادکرد وب|عنوان=پشتون|نشانی=https://rch.ac.ir/article/Details/13143?پشتون|وبگاه=[[دانشنامه جهان اسلام]]|بازبینی=2023-09-17|کد زبان=fa}}</ref>
در شاهنامه فردوسی از بزرگ کابل ، مهراب به عنوان نوه ضحاک تازی نام برده شده است .
{{Infobox ethnic group
| image = Tribal and religious leaders in southern Afghanistan.jpg