By Abdullah Qazi
June 23, 2018
The metric system is used in Afghanistan, however, there are traditional units that are also used for area and weight.
Area
The units of measure for area are biswaasa, biswa, and jireeb.
1 biswaasa = 5 square meters or approximately 6 square yards
20 biswaasa (see note 1) = 1 biswa = 100 square meters
20 biswa = 1 jireeb = 2000 square meters or 1/2 (.5) acre
Weight
The units of weight are nakhud, misqaal, toolee, khurd, paaw, chaarak, sayr, man, and kharwaar.
1 nakhud =192 milligrams (.1916 grams)
1 misqaal (see note 2) = approximately 4.6 grams
24 nakhud = 1 misqaal = approximately 4.6 grams
4 misqaal = 1 toolee = 18.4 grams
24 misqaal = 1 khurd = 110 grams
4 khurd = 1 paaw = 440 grams
4 paaw = 1 chaarak = 1760 grams = 1.76 kilograms = 3.88 pound (US)
4 chaarak = 1 sayr = 7040 grams = 7.04 kilograms = 15.52 pounds (US)
8 sayr = 1 man = 56.32 kilograms = 124.16 pounds (US)
80 sayr = 1 kharwaar = 4506 kilograms = 4.506 metric tons or 9934.03 pounds (US)
Notes
1: In Dari, the noun after the number is not pluralized, therefore, no “s” is added to units greater than 1.
2: Misqaal is a unit of measurement used for weight in other countries as well, such as India and Saudi Arabia. The equivalence value of 4.6 grams presented here is the value in Afghanistan only.