Tajikistan's hijab ban latest in decades-long religious freedom violations

When Muslim-majority Tajikistan enacted a controversial law banning the hijab and other religious attire recently, 33-year-old Shahnaz was hardly surprised.

Hailing from the Tajik city of Khujand, Shahnaz left her country to escape the oppressive rule of President Emomali Rahmon, who has aggressively pursued an agenda of “secularism”, encouraging its citizens to adopt more Westernised” looks and lifestyle.

Shahnaz fled to Russia 23 years ago after she was denied a Tajik passport simply because she refused to take off her hijab for an official photo.

President Rahmon – who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over 30 years – also banned some Islamic religious traditions, such as children visiting homes to collect pocket money on Eid holidays.

The official decree said the ban was aimed at “safeguarding national cultural values and combating superstition and extremism”.

“For several years, almost every year, our government has been introducing bills related to the hijab and in which forms we are allowed to wear it,” she tells TRT World.

Tajikistan has a history of restricting Islamic practices, including a previous ban on hijabs in schools since 2007 and in public institutions from 2009.

Prohibiting youngsters from attending mosques, banning women from wearing hijabs in universities, subjecting men with beards to police stops, and outlawing the sale of Islamic clothing deemed "insufficiently Tajik" by authorities, are some of the stringent restrictions imposed on the population, 98 percent of whom identify as Muslim.

The Rahmon government has been framing these authoritarian measures as safeguards against perceived radical threats within the nation.

In reality, any expression of Islamic lifestyles and Muslim identities among the population is viewed as a challenge to the secular authoritarian regime he has established over the past three decades.

Authorities cite national security concerns and the emergence of terror groups in the region as reasons for these harsh rules.

The new legislation imposes fines of up to 7,920 somonis (approximately $700) on individuals wearing banned garments. Companies could face penalties of 39,500 somonis ($3,500), while government officials risk fines ranging from 54,000 to 57,600 somonis ($4,800 to $5,100).

However, there has been no public criticism of the law in Tajikistan's media landscape, as media outlets and human rights groups that have tried to voice concerns about similar rules under anti-terrorism laws have been forcibly closed down.

Increased control with vague laws

Tajik law on extremism, which ban non-traditional clothing but do not describe what traditional clothing is, have faced criticism before for being too vague and random.

Nazila Ghanea, the OHCHR’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, published a report following her visit to Tajikistan in March 2023, detailing her observations on the state of religious freedom in the country.

Both Tajikistan's Law on Combating Terrorism, adopted in 2021, and the country's Criminal Code provide an overly broad and ambiguous definition of “terrorist actions”, “terrorist crimes”, and “terrorist organisations”, Ghanea wrote in the report.

As the law specifically mandates increased surveillance and control over religious activities, the definitions “do not meet the threshold of seriousness required for such acts,” she added.

Her report addressed strict regulations concerning weddings, funerals, and celebrations of childbirth and detected that thousands of mosques have been rejected and closed during the approval process overseen by the State Committee for Religious Affairs and Regulation of Traditions, Ceremonies, and Rituals.

It added that civil servants are prohibited from wearing head and face coverings, while women often encountered restrictions on such attire when entering kindergartens, schools, universities, hospitals, or other government buildings.

Other experts have documented similar observations.

Recounting his Tajikistan visit in 2018, regional expert Emrah Kaya tells TRT World how little people's religious identities are visible in their daily lives.

“Generally, young men were clean-shaven. Older men, likely over 65, seemed exempt from the beard restrictions. On the other hand, it was rare to see women wearing headscarves, except those wearing colourful scarves that allowed their hair to be seen. In rural areas, however, I occasionally saw women with headscarves,” Kaya says.

While travelling through Dushanbe and Khujand cities, he was stopped by the police several times because of his beard.

“During my visit, it was illegal for young men to grow beards, although there was no written law about this.”

Shahnaz, who still has many friends and family members in Tajikistan, recalls how the authorities implemented the harsh laws.

“There were times when government employees or women working in marketplaces were forced to adjust their hijab. Specifically, authorities check and ask them to uncover their necks. And some do so to avoid any punishment," she says.

In July 2022, Tajikistan ironically enacted its first-ever anti-discrimination law while the government continued to pursue the highly discriminatory religious policy.

Human rights groups believe that discrimination remains prevalent and religious accommodations are largely absent in many instances.

Tajikistan’s terrorism problem

The country's chronic radicalism problems date back to the end of the Soviet Union when Tajikistan, along with 14 other countries, gained independence in 1991.

Concerned about pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic movements during the Soviet era, the then USSR established regional administrations, deepened linguistic differences, and aimed to hinder Islam with an aim to Christianise or secularise the population.

Consequently, radical religious groups from the Middle East targeted Central Asia, especially in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after their independence.

The USSR period shaped Central Asian states' approaches to religious groups, Kaya writes in his paper.

“While other countries in the region started the nation-building process and tried to develop after gaining their independence, Tajikistan suffered significant damage due to the civil war,” he tells TRT World.

Post-1991, Central Asia experienced the beginning of the Tajik Civil War, “primarily a clan war with religious arguments”.

The newly-founded Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) was aimed at challenging the communist administration.

After forming an armed faction in 1992, the IRPT was banned in 1993. The civil war, lasting until 1997, ended with Russian support for the Dushanbe regime. It is also known that Iran and Afghanistan supported the religious groups during the civil war.

In recent years, Tajik nationals have been notably linked to Daesh. The attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall in March of this year, which resulted in over 140 deaths and 360 injuries, was believed to have been carried out by terrorists holding Tajik passports.

The attack is believed to have heightened concerns within the Dushanbe administration, leading it to take more stringent counterterrorism measures in response, Kaya believes.

“The Dushanbe administration may actually be trying to eliminate possible pressure on itself from states in the region, such as Russia and China, with the decisions it has taken.”

Two months after the attack, Emomali Rahmon said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that “the attack caused very serious damage to the image, history, culture, and traditions” of the Tajik nation and that they will continue to work closely with Russia.

The return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2021 has also unsettled Rahmon's government due to its potential impact on the Tajik people.

Gulmurad Halimov, who joined Daesh in 2015 while serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Tajikistan special forces, was later appointed as the terrorist organisation's so-called defence minister.

His son Bekruz Gulmurad was also involved in a 2019 riot at a high-security prison in eastern Dushanbe, resulting in the death of five prisoners and three guards. The facility housed inmates from terror groups, including the Daesh.

Counter-effects

OHCHR's special rapporteur Ghanea also mentioned the counterproductive effects of stringent restrictions on the population, noting their role in exacerbating radicalism within society.

She pointed out that the ban on religious education outside the home is particularly problematic, as it pushes youngsters towards the internet, where they may inadvertently become more susceptible to radicalisation due to their curiosity being left unchecked.

According to her report, the Law on Parental Responsibility prohibits boys under 18 from entering mosques, participating in any religious events other than funerals, and receiving religious education outside the home and apart from their parents.

While authorities express concerns about Tajiks being drawn to extremism or terrorism while working abroad, they overlook the fact that these individuals may have become more susceptible to such influences due to their restricted educational upbringing, Ghanea wrote.

While the number of Tajiks who left Tajikistan and joined radical organisations in 2014 was 200, this number increased to 1000 in 2015. Data from 2018 said that the number of Tajiks who went to Syria and Iraq to join Daesh is approximately 1,000.