Aimaq

Aimaq, also known as Amick and Char Aimak, is a name for the Hazara people living in the west of Hazarajat in the provinces of Ghor, Farah, Herat, Badghis, Faryab, Jozjan and Sar-i-Pul in Afghanistan.

There are four tribes of Hazaras:

• Feroz Kohi,
• Taimani,
• Jamsedi
• and Temuri.

These four tribes together are called by the other Hazaras as "Char Aimaq" which means "four western tribes". They speak Hazaragi, and have the same ethnic traditions, including dress, food and names, as the other Hazaras. The only difference is that they are all Sunni Muslims, while the majority of Hazaras are Shia Muslims. Only Timuris have some Shias among them.

Playing on this sectarian divide the Afghan government (dominated by the ethnic Pushtuns) divided them politically also. The Afghan government listed them as a separate nationality in the list of the ethnic groups of Afghanistan, thereby reducing the Hazara population in the national percentage. Despite all this, even then, the aimaqs are racially discriminated against, because of their ethnicity.