Yaghnobi Erotic

Yaghnobi Tajikistanis comprise approximately 0.1% of the Tajikistan population — approximately 13,000. The Yaghnobi are an Eastern Iranian-language-speaking community concentrated historically in the Yaghnob Valley (Sughd Province, in the upper Zarafshan basin), with substantial post-1970 forced resettlement to the Zafarabad area of southwestern Tajikistan. The Yaghnobi language is the only living direct descendant of medieval Sogdian, the major Iranian language of the Silk Road era (Sogdian was the lingua franca of the Silk Road during the 6th-10th centuries and is documented in extensive Manichaean, Buddhist, Christian, and secular documents from the Mogao Caves and other Silk Road sites). The community has maintained Yaghnobi-language continuity through Soviet-era and post-Soviet pressures despite very small population size. UNESCO classifies Yaghnobi as critically endangered.