  the nuristani people are an indo-iranian-speaking ethnic group native to the nuristan region of eastern afghanistan. the nuristanis are a people whose ancestors practised an indo-iranian polytheistic vedic religion until they were conquered and converted to islam in the late 19th century by emir abdur rahman khan.kalash religion in the mid-1890s, he conducted a campaign in kafiristan and followed up his conquest with religious conversions,with camera to india, iran and afghanistan: access to multimedia sources of the explorer, professor dr. morgenstierne (1892â1975)persÃ©e : a kafir goddess the region thenceforth being known as nuristan, the "land of light".martin ewans, afghanistan: a short history of its people and politics, harper perennial, 2002, p.103a former kafir tells his 'tragic story'. notes on the kati kafirs of northern bashgal (afghanistan) / max klimburg, eat and west, vol. 58&nbsp;â nos. 1â4 (december 2008), pp. 391â402reflections of the islamisation of kafiristan in oral tradition / georg buddruss journal of asian civilizations&nbsp;â volume xxxi&nbsp;â number 1-2&nbsp;â 2008, special tribute edition, pp. 16â35'the pacification of the country was completed by the wholly gratuitous conquest of a remote mountain people in the north-east, the non-muslim kalash of kafiristan (land of the unbelievers), who were forcibly converted to islam by the army. their habitat was renamed nuristan (land of light).' angelo rasanayagam, afghanistan: a modern history, i.b. tauris, 2005, p.11 non-muslim religious practices endure today to some degree as folk customs. they are now heavily influenced by wahhabi mullahs of the new religion educated in pakistani madrassas. there are heavy taliban actions also. in their native rural areas, which was referred to by the local muslims as kafiristan before the 19th century, they are often
Nuristani_people