BBC name change stirs language row in Afghanistan

The BBC is facing an angry reaction in Afghanistan after it changed the name of one of its local language Facebook pages to BBC Dari, the official name of the Afghan version of Persian or Farsi but one rejected by many local Persian speakers. The Facebook page and other social media sites were bombarded by criticisms of the change. Many Persian speakers say the name Dari has been imposed historically by the traditionally dominant Pashto ethnic group as an implicit denial of Afghanistan's place in the wider Persian-speaking world.
The reaction highlighted the sensitivity of linguistic issues in Afghanistan, a country with a mix of over 35 languages spoken by ethnic groups including Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras as well as Uzbeks and Turkmen.
It also echoed some of the tensions around the government led by President Ashraf Ghani, which was formed after the disputed 2014 election and which is seen by many Persian-speaking Tajiks and Hazaras as favouring his own Pashtun ethnicity. While the Persian spoken in Afghanistan and neighbouring Iran have distinct accents and numerous variations in vocabulary and usage, other essentials are the same, with the gap between the two sometimes compared to the differences between the French spoken in France and Canada.
"My language is Farsi," said Mujib Rahman Rahimi, spokesman for Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, whose Jamiat-e-Islami party draws its support mainly from Tajiks. "The time of betrayal of our language and culture is past. We will not allow anyone else to choose a name for our language," he wrote on his personal Facebook page. However not all reaction was negative and some other users supported the move, saying it reinforced Afghanistan's national identity: "I am from Afghanistan, not Persia or the Persian race," wrote one.
There was also no sign the reaction would harm the BBC's ability to report or have major political repercussions in Afghanistan. Combined BBC services are estimated to reach about 6.6 million Afghans out of a total population of some 35 million, according to figures last year from the BBC Trust. The head of the BBC's Afghan service, Meena Baktash defended the use of the term Dari, noting that it was the official name of the language in Afghanistan. She said the change was intended to link the Facebook page to the BBC Dari radio service, which was launched in 2003 and which, together with the BBC Pashto service, occupies an important place in the crowded local media landscape.