is afghanistan pronounced AF-ghanistan or af-ghani-STAN?

I suspect it's US vs British English pronunciations. Similar to how in the US they pronounce Iraq as "eye-rak" quite commonly

ohh ok thanks! which way do you pronounce it, just out of curiosity? and if you live in england which way do you hear the people around you pronounce it more often??

Honestly these days it's not a place I hear mentioned as often. So however people would say it on the BBC I guess.

Iraq (and Iran) I would pronounce "ih-rahk/ih-rahn" rather than "eye-rak/eye-ran".

So probably the British English pronunciation.

thanks, i'll go see if there's any bbc videos or podcasts online! yeah i say iraq and iran the same way as you, i had no doubts about afghanistan until i heard someone pronounce it differently and now i can't get it out of my head haha