Translation of Government Notices, Forms, Websites and Voter Guides — Pashto, Dari and 22 More Afghan Languages

Yes, you need Afghanistan Dari. Dari (Afghan Persian) and Iranian Persian (Farsi) share grammar but differ in the vocabulary of public life — form, province, municipality, hospital, passport — and in calendar month names. A Farsi translation reads as foreign to many Afghan residents. Because many Afghans call their language “Farsi” in conversation, ask where a resident is from before choosing the language.

Usually both. Among Afghan immigrants in the United States, 32% speak Pashto, 26% Dari and 27% report Persian (Farsi), a name many Afghans use for Dari (Migration Policy Institute, 2022 data). Local numbers vary, so we check your service data and community partners before recommending one language or both.

Not today. The last Section 203 determinations, published December 8, 2021, cover 331 jurisdictions and three states, none of them for an Afghan language; the next round is due in late 2026. California already designates Pashto facsimile ballots in Sacramento, San Joaquin and Ventura counties for 2026–2029, and the Virginia Voting Rights Act sets its own language thresholds.

Short public-safety messages — evacuation, shelter in place, boil water, extreme heat, air quality — are translated and reviewed the same day, around the clock during an activation. Better still, we build a pre-approved Pashto and Dari message library, with audio, before the next emergency. Wireless Emergency Alerts will support 13 languages by June 2028; Pashto and Dari are not among them.

It depends on length, format, turnaround and review level. Once we have seen the files, we quote a fixed price for each deliverable, with translation, review, typesetting, testing and the certificate included. Websites and voter guides are priced as programs, and later updates cost less because they draw on your translation memory.

Yes. Every delivery includes a signed certificate of translation accuracy naming the translator and the reviewer. No U.S. certification exists for Pashto or Dari — the American Translators Association tests neither language — so we certify against our own written standard and document the review.

Yes. We translate in your content management system or from exported files (XLIFF, JSON or HTML), set right-to-left templates with correct lang and dir attributes, and test navigation, forms and search in Pashto and Dari. When your English pages change, we update only what changed, from your translation memory.

Yes. We deliver web pages to WCAG 2.1 AA — the standard in the ADA Title II rule, now due April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 or more people — and federal content to Section 508. PDFs are tagged to PDF/UA with the right reading order and language tags for right-to-left text, and tested with screen readers.

We never publish machine translation. AI supports terminology and consistency checks inside our own environment; every sentence is written or fully post-edited by a qualified translator and reviewed by a second linguist. Virginia presumes machine-only election translations insufficient, and federal health rules require human review of machine translation for critical documents.

Files move under NDA over encrypted channels and stay with named personnel. Your content is never put into public translation tools or used to train AI, and nothing is routed through Afghanistan or through channels controlled by its de facto authorities. You set the retention period; we delete on request and give you a written record.

Adult literacy in Afghanistan is about 37%, and about 23% for women (UNESCO, 2021). We record Pashto and Dari audio versions of notices and voter guides with native voice talent, add short videos for web and social channels, and provide spoken versions in languages that are mainly spoken.

No. Hazaragi is a dialect of Dari. We match Hazaragi-speaking readers with dialect reviewers and, where it helps understanding, record spoken versions in the Hazaragi dialect. Some agencies — in Australia, for example — list it separately; we work to your list and your residents.

No. The order revoked Executive Order 13166 but states that agency heads “are not required to amend, remove, or otherwise stop production of documents” in languages other than English. Statutes such as the Voting Rights Act, and state and local laws such as the D.C. Language Access Act, still apply. Your counsel decides what your agency must translate.

Yes. Ariana Nexus is registered in SAM.gov (UEI M2UDMUDFXGL9, CAGE 1Z3A3), including NAICS 541930, Translation and Interpretation Services, and teams with prime contractors as the Afghan-language partner on federal, state and local work.

Yes. We work with public bodies in Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia, between Pashto, Dari and English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Hebrew and Chinese. For European clients we work under GDPR and UK GDPR terms and to EN 301 549 accessibility requirements.

We translate what the source says — no summarizing, softening or rewording of ballot measures or candidate statements. Ballot text gets a third read, terms come from an approved election glossary, and conflicts are disclosed before work starts. Afghan community readers then check understanding — the consultation the Justice Department looks for under Section 203 (28 CFR 55.19).