The Nuristani people are an
ethnic group in
Nurestan Province of
Afghanistan. They are sometimes called Kalasha people, though they are not directly related to the
Kalash of neighbouring
Chitral Province in Pakistan. The Nuristanis practiced what was apparently an ancient
Indo-European polytheistic religion, until they were forcibly converted to Islam around the year
1895. Non-Muslim religious practices endure today to some degree as folk customs. Like certain other groups in the region, they sometimes exhibit European-like physical characteristic of light hair, eyes, and skin. These physical features may be a preservation of characteristics from the initial migration of
Indo-Iranian peoples into the region (likely in the 2nd Millenium B.C.), or characteristics introduced or reinforced by later migrations into the region such as the Greek-Macedonian armies of
Alexander the Great (3rd Century B.C.) and the
Kushan people (1st Century A.D.).
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