writing essay about tajikistan

Matt Lakeman

Notes on Tajikistan

Over the summer, I spent about two weeks in Tajikistan, mostly in Dushanbe (the capital) and various points along the Pamir Highway, which borders Afghanistan and later leads into Kyrgyzstan.

This was my first time in central Asia and easily one of my most interesting trips in a while. Tajikistan is a fascinating mixture of Soviet, Islamic, Persian, steppe, and Himalayan culture, all rolled into one beautiful, weird, dysfunctional country, and I couldn’t get enough of it. So this essay will be similar to Notes on Mauritania and Notes on Guinea with more of a focus on my day-to-day travel than the history.

Population (2022) – 9.6 million

Population growth rate (2022) – 2.1%

Size – 55,251 square miles (a little bigger than Greece or New York)

GDP (nominal, 2022) – $10.5 billion

GDP growth rate (2022) – 8%

GDP per capita (nominal, 2022) – $1,050

GDP per capita (PPP, 2024) – $5,800

Inflation rate (2018-2023) – 3.8%-9%

Biggest export – Gold

Median age – 22

Life expectancy (2021) – 72

Founded (independence) – 1991

Religion (2020) – 96% Muslim (virtually all Sunni), 2% Christian (mostly Russian Orthodox)

Corruption Perceptions Index – Rank #162 (out of 180)

Heritage Index of Economic Freedom – Rank #137

Ignorant people (like myself two months ago) tend to lump all the Stan countries together because they seemingly exist in a blank impossible-to-remember nebula on maps. So here’s a quick overview of the Stans – minus Pakistan and Afghanistan because everyone knows about them and thinks of them separately – to give a reference point for Tajikistan:

Kazakhstan :

• Shaped like a large amorphous oval blob
• The wealthiest of the bunch, lots of oil and gas (low-tier petrol state)
• The most ethnically and culturally Russian but the natives are ethnically Turkic
• Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and was run by the pre-independence Soviet leader until 2019 as a quasi-dictatorship (even now he retains power from the shadows)
• Geography is mostly steppe (grassland plains), was once described to me by a person who had biked through 90% of the world as the most geographically boring country on earth
• The government and locals don’t like when you bring up Borat

Uzbekistan :

• Shaped like a fucked up parallelogram with sideways Italy sticking out of it
• Second wealthiest of the bunch but far poorer than Kazakhstan, lots of natural gas to the point where most of their cars run on it
• Culturally/linguistically Turkic
• Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and was run by the (particularly brutal) pre-independence Soviet leader until 2016 as a quasi-dictatorship, has since economically opened up to the world and is doing pretty well
• Lots of desert in the west, lots of mountains in the east, has most of the now-dead Aral Sea
• Claims to be the successor state of the empire of Timur the Lame

Kyrgyzstan :

• Shaped like a squid
• Third wealthiest of the bunch (ie. quite poor)
• Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and was run by the pre-independence Soviet leader until 2010 as a quasi-dictatorship, has been a very unstable oligarchic democracy ever since
• Geographically looks shockingly similar to Switzerland, basically all mountains with and valleys, competes with Tajikistan to be the prettiest of the Stans in terms of natural scenery

Turkmenistan :

• Shaped like a bent and somewhat rounded rectangle
• Technically the second wealthiest of the bunch due to huge natural gas exports but no one counts Turkmenistan because it’s almost completely cut off from the rest of the world politically, economically, and socially
• Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and was run by the pre-independence Soviet leader with a difficult-to-pronounce name ( Saparmurat Niyazov ) until 2006, then another leader with an unpronounceable name ( Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow ) took over until 2022, and his son with an unpronounceable name ( Serdar Berdimuhamedow ) has ruled ever since
• All three post-independence rulers were Kim Jong Un-style crazy cult of personality purveyors which lent Turkmenistan the nickname “ the North Korea of Central Asia “
• Full of weird laws like a ban on lip-synching and traditional clothing mandates and outlawing the circus
• Would love to go to it but getting a visa is supposed to be difficult and I didn’t have time

Tajikistan :

• Shaped like nonsense
• Poorest and least economically developed, much of the countryside doesn’t even have electricity
• Meager economic production from gold and coal and aluminum, most of which is mined by the Chinese for a cut of the profits
• Culturally/linguistically Persian , the Tajik language is a derivation of Farsi
• Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and had some power struggles until a Soviet guy took over in 1994 and then won a brutal civil war against a coalition of Islamic extremists and has been running the country ever since
• Geography is almost all mountains (50% of the land is above 9,800 feet)

The per capita GDP of Tajikistan lists between $1,050 and $1,200, putting it around the bottom 30 or 40 poorest countries on earth. Going off World Bank numbers , Tajikistan is in the same per capita wealth league as Ethiopia, Sudan, Myanmar, Rwanda, and Uganda, and its wealth level is about half as much as that of Mauritania , Ghana , Kenya, Cambodia, and Nicaragua.

I was aware of these figures when I stepped off the plane and was quite surprised by what I saw in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital. After leaving a very Soviet airport, I was driven through downtown Dushanbe, which looks like this:

Sure, this is the dead center of the capital so you’d expect it to be significantly wealthier than the rest of the country, but still, the scale of development in Dushanbe is striking for a $1,000-$1,200 GDP per capita nation. With the arguable exception of Nairobi in Kenya, the capitals of even the nations with 2X GDP per capitas don’t compare to Dushanbe. Here’s Nairobi:

Here’s Accra in Ghana:

Here’s Phnom Penh in Cambodia:

Here’s Nouakchott in Mauritania:

Here’s Managua in Nicaragua:

Once you get outside Dushanbe, especially into the more rural areas, it really does look like mid-to-lower-tier African poverty and the numbers start to make more sense. Here are a few random villages:

These villages only had electricity for about four-to-six hours per day, had limited running water, no sewage, and used coal stoves for heat. Virtually all local economic activity is based on livestock, but often more money comes in through remittances from migrant workers in Russia or Europe. In 2014, Tajikistan was the most-remittance based economy on earth , amounting to almost half of its GDP. The countryside is dotted with half-finished concrete homes which I was told were the long-term retirement plans of Tajiks working abroad; they build their structures for a few months each year over many years or decades using trickles of funds earned from abroad. When the structures are finished, they prepare them to be their permanent homes once they retire from migrant work.

Aside from the usual developing country trend of concentrating wealth in the capital due to corruption and asset hoarding, what explains the discrepancy between the apparent affluence of Dushanbe and the blatant poverty of the rest of the country?

As someone who has traveled through a lot of developing nations over the last few years, the by-now boring and repetitious answer is… China. A local expert described Tajikistan to me as a “Chinese colony.”

Unlike the oil and gas-rich Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, China and Tajikistan’s partnership started over geopolitics rather than economics. In 2011, Tajikistan ceded 386 square miles to China, pretty much all of which was desolate, unpopulated Himalayan mountains. In return, China agreed to give up its demands for 11,000 square miles of Tajikistani land that dates back to an 1884 claim made by the Qing Dynasty.

But China has more pressing geopolitical concerns regarding Tajikistan. To Tajikistan’s east lies the Chinese region of Xinjiang, which is dominated by Muslim Uyghurs who have historically revolted against the communist government and are still in the midst of an awful reeducation campaign; to the nation’s south lies Taliban-controlled Afghanistan; and within Tajikistan there was a brutal civil war in the 1990s which nearly resulted in radical Islamic factions taking over the government. So for all its weirdness and faults, China sees the current secular authoritarian quasi-dynastic regime of Tajikistan as a bulwark against Islamic chaos on one of its most vulnerable borders.

Thus China has been seemingly quite generous with Tajikistan despite the lack of significant economic output throughout most of its modern history. The aid/grant/loan money began to trickle into Tajikistan after the settlement of the border question in the early 2010s. In 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative was formally adopted, and Tajikistan was swept up along with the rest of Central Asia, with China becoming by far the country’s largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2016, China installed a military base in eastern Tajikistan . In 2021, China established special military units (allegedly only consisting of Tajiks) that seem to be tasked with rapidly putting down potential Islamic rebellions in the remote Pamir region. Also in 2021, Chinese investment reached $211 million, or 62% of FDI.  In 2023, China built a “ super observation station ” in Tajikistan, allegedly to monitor extreme weather patterns and climate change trends.

By 2022, China held $2 billion in Tajikistani debt, more than half its total debt at the time . What has Tajikistan been doing with all this borrowed money?

In the early 2010s, the Tajik government spent more than $210 million (more than 1/10 th of its annual budget) on developing Dushanbe, but the vast majority of this funding went toward big government palaces and monuments (more on that later). I can’t find good data on recent agreements between Tajikistan and China, but my speculation is that there has been a dramatic ramp-up in funding for the former over the last few years. According to all the locals I spoke with, Dushanbe has undergone a seismic transformation recently; all of those high rises sprang up in the last two or three years. Virtually all of old downtown Dushanbe, which consisted of two-to-three story buildings, was demolished.

I’ve traveled through inland China, and new Dushanbe looks exactly like any one of those dozens of random Chinese cities that no one has heard of but which have 5+ million people and have undergone rapid development over the last decade. I’d bet serious money that Dushanbe’s new structures are based on Chinese plans and were mostly or entirely built by Chinese workers and money.

The catalyst for this new funding is likely recent mining developments. The Tajik economy as a whole has had impressive growth over the last decade , rising from a GDP of $7 billion in 2016 to about $11 billion in 2023, mostly due to mining but also an increase in remittances prior to the Ukraine War. With some Chinese investment, Tajikistan fortuitously discovered significant gold deposits in 2011. Since then, production has steadily ramped up from 2,400 kg annually to almost 12,000 kg in 2022, which, while significant for humble Tajikistan, still leaves production at less than one third of Argentina, the 20 th largest gold producer in the world . From its Soviet days, Tajikistan also has one of the largest aluminum production facilities on earth ( which consumes 40% of Tajikistan’s electricity ).

So my guess is that sometime in the last five years, China was granted some big mining concessions in exchange for development and infrastructure funds. My understanding is that the rest of the Stans also deal with China, but far more cautiously, and retain closer economic ties with Russia, though these relations have frayed to various degrees since the start of the Ukraine War.

(Note – like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan was largely relegated to cotton production by the USSR despite cotton being extremely water-intensive and the region having very little water [thus leading to the death of the Aral Sea ]. Cotton is still a fairly significant portion of the Tajik economy, but its proportional value has been waning, and in 2023, the cotton industry was a net-loss for the country.)

Dushanbe doesn’t get a lot of love from travellers but I appreciate Tajikistan’s capital. It’s a weird little city with its own quirks and is very much worth walking around for a few days.

Most capitals of developing countries tend to have way too much sprawl and traffic as old cities try to keep up with rapid development and population growth fueled by urbanization and capital inflows, leading to filthy urban nightmares like Lagos or Conakry . Dushanbe has closer to the opposite problem where a fairly quaint city with a modest population is undergoing rapid top-down development but the economy and population are not keeping up.

The city only has a population of only about 1 million in a country of less than 10 million (the second largest city is only around 180,000). Kazakhstan’s Astana and Uzbekistan’s Tashkent also underwent rapid development recently, but both countries have far higher populations and have received some immigration from their neighbors. Meanwhile, Tajikistan has a sizeable net-emigration, and its few considerable wealth sources (basically just government-run mining companies) aren’t labor intensive enough to attract many Tajiks to the capital.

As a result, Dushanbe feels depopulated . The four-to-six-lane avenues running throughout the city in grids have almost no traffic. The brand new high-rises emanating from the city center have lots of luxury brands in their floor-level storefronts (mostly Russian and Chinese companies I think), but the middle and especially upper floors are almost all empty. There are a few moderately bustling street corners downtown and a few more when you get into the outskirts of the city where buildings rarely pass two-stories, but as a whole, Dushanbe is calm and quiet.

Which goes well with its tidiness. The sidewalks are invariably clean with almost no litter in sight until you get to the outskirts. The downtown high rises are impeccably maintained, and some peeling paint aside, even the old Soviet buildings still look good. The ample public parks are well-trimmed and a small army of landscapers patrol them for imperfections. Even the cars driving throughout Dushanbe seem oddly clean.

This is all by design. I’m not sure if it’s done for the sake of tourism or international prestige or vanity, but Dushanbe has a set of draconian tidiness laws. Anti-litter laws are strictly enforced with harsh fines. Cigarettes can only be smoked in special zones outdoors. Loud music is prohibited after 10 PM. Cars are legally required to be dirtless and mudless, which isn’t too difficult to maintain within Dushanbe, but right outside the city, the roads get dusty and filled with potholes, so a cottage industry of car washers have emerged on every road leading into the city to protect inhabitants from dirty car fines (and often bribes) eagerly handed down by the police.

The landmarks of Dushanbe lean a bit tin-pot dictatorish. Autocrats infamously love to try to outdo each other by building tall skyscrapers, but Tajikistan can’t afford to shell out billions of dollars on vanity projects, so it set its sights on humbler targets. Hence Dushanbe hosts what was once the largest flagpole in the world , constructed with a mere $3.5 million. It is 165 meters high, which I know not through Wikipedia, but because four separate Tajiks proudly quoted the figure to me without prompting.

Sadly, the Dushanbe flagpole lost its status as the world’s tallest in 2014, only three years after its construction, to the Jeddah Flagpole in Saudi Arabia, which I have already seen without knowing its illustrious status in the world flagpole standings:

I have to admit that I find it kind of funny that Tajikistan spent $3.5 million to win an extremely petty international prestige project contest, and then it lost a few years later to a country with 30X the GDP per capita and 100X the GDP. Saudi Arabia’s lead lasted for seven years until Egypt took the top spot and Russia slid into second place. But the ultimate winner in this ongoing affair is Trident Support , a San Diego-based company that has been making a killing building a lot of the largest flagpoles in the world .

A more interesting Dushanbe landmark is the Independence Monument, which looks like… I don’t know. My best description to a blind man would be “a Central Asian scepter sticking 150 meters out of the ground.”

The cool thing about the Independence Monument is that no one goes there. I went in the middle of the day on a Tuesday and I was the only visitor. Inside is a multi-floor museum with Tajik art (both old and modern), a bunch of gift shops, some maps, and fifty portraits of the president (more on that later).

Throughout my entire 30 minute visit, I was basically stalked by a security guard. At first I thought he was just doing generic patrols while I wandered around, but he always stayed about 20-30 feet away from me while I meandered. Then, whenever I got to an elevator (I had to take three separate ones), he would walk up beside me, press the buttons, and make sure I got to the next floor, at which point he would resume his 20-30 foot distance shadowing. He never spoke to me until I got to the very top where there’s an excellent view of all Dushanbe. Then he said a few broken words to me in English for five minutes which concluded with asking me how much a visa to the US costs.

From the Independence Monument vantage point, there’s a good view of the heavily White House-inspired president’s home, known as the Palace of the Nation:

Some fun trivia from Wikipedia:

“In early 2006, the Dushanbe Synagogue and the local mikveh (ritual bath), kosher butcher, as well as Jewish schools were demolished by the government without compensation to make room for the new palace. After an international outcry, the government announced a reversal and said that would allow the synagogue to be rebuilt at its current site. However, in the final stages of the palace’s construction, the government destroyed the entire synagogue, leaving Tajikistan without a synagogue as it was the only one in the country (this resulted in the majority of Tajik Bukharan Jews having negative views of the Tajik government).”

Another major Dushanbe landmark is the Tajikistan National Museum, which is impressive in scale (15,000 square meters of display halls) and design. Though, like the Independence Monument, it was nearly deserted when I visited. I saw maybe a dozen Russian tourists milling about, but otherwise it was just me and the 50 babushkas stationed throughout the museum making sure I didn’t steal any pottery shards.

One highlight was the modern history section which omits the Tajikistan Civil War that lasted five years in the 1990s and left up to 200,000 dead. The sole mention of the entire affair is on this plaque:

The other highlight is a room that displays all the diplomatic gifts given to Tajikistan over the years. This includes a cool Soviet machine gun from Putin, a copy of a letter by Muhammad from Iran, and a mace from Saudi Arabia.

Here is Dushanbe’s (Tajikistan’s?) only Western fast food restaurant, a KFC that opened in 2021. I was told by a local that it was pretty big deal when it arrived and is still a favorite spot for young Tajiks.

In the process of remodeling the city, the government has been shutting down a lot of the tradition bazaars. One big market remains and it looks really cool:

A final interesting landmark is the Dushanbe-2 power station, a coal plant that supplies much of the city’s energy. I like the colors, it’s a nice touch:

If I had a nickel for every time a man from a third world country told me about his marital infidelity with no prompting, I’d have… maybe 30-40 cents.

My latest nickel came from a talkative Tajikistani entrepreneur who spends half of every year in Moscow for business, but also to sleep around with his many mistresses. He claimed to have been faithful to his wife until he was seduced by a beautiful Russian woman who may or may not be related to a prominent Russian oligarch, and then that unleashed a flood of infidelity which he couldn’t stop now even if he wanted to. He was quite eager to take me and an Australian in my hostel out clubbing, and I got the sense that even the current proximity of his wife would not be a hindrance.

Of course, I am not going to write off the marital loyalties of an entire country based on a single testimony, especially since I have counter-testimony. I spent an enjoyable evening at a bar with an early 30-something Tajik guy who had lived in the US for the last 10 years (mostly as an Uber driver) and spent three months per year back in Dushanbe. Somehow marital infidelity came up with him, and though he wasn’t married, he was quite emphatic that it was very rare in Tajikistan, in part because men like him were openly paranoid about their wives and imposed a sort of Pence Rule on all the other men, both within and outside their social circles.

We talked at length about the US and Tajikistan and he explained that though he loved his homeland, he was quite happy living in the US where he could make a far better living. I inferred that his family was middle class or even upper-middle class by Tajik standards given that they had managed to get him to the US and owned multiple properties in Dushanbe (which were presently rapidly appreciating in value), but they weren’t politically connected and therefore couldn’t get rich at home. He confirmed that his Uber driving was pulling a lot of the family weight to take care of his now-retired parents.

The other big weight-puller was his older brother, the eldest of five siblings. This brother didn’t make much money (as some sort of police informant if I understand correctly) but he lived at home with his parents and would never move out until the parents died. My bar companion explained that this was not only a normal arrangement for an eldest Tajik son but an explicit duty for all elder sons in Tajikistan. I pointed out that such a requirement sounds extraordinarily restrictive and even repressive for first-borns, but my companion dismissed this notion (probably as American selfishness and atomism) and opined on the moral value of taking care of one’s parents. He was a stark believer in this aspect of Tajik culture and tradition.

I asked what would happen if a first-born son refused this duty. He said it would probably result in him being disgraced and disowned. I asked how his parents were ok with him moving to the other side of the world while his brother stayed home forever, and he said that having a child move to the US was too good of an opportunity for any Tajik family to pass up.

I asked my companion about Tajik government corruption. He said the military was uncorrupt and shouldn’t be fucked with, but the cops were generally assholes and will ask for bribes during many encounters. And of course, the President and his entire family are extremely corrupt and control the entire economy illicitly, but he still maintained a positive opinion of the political leadership because they didn’t take too much and recently the economy was booming so they seemed to be doing a good job. Plus, he said there was a major lower-level corruption crackdown over the last few years, and police harassment of businesses, both big and small, had been virtually eradicated, which was great for the economy and the common man, so the President and his cronies seemed to have their priorities straight.

I asked if I should be worried about the cops, and I was assured that I should be less worried than anyone else. Allegedly, for years the orders from the top have been to never fuck with foreigners in Tajikistan. The President is evidently very concerned with Tajikistan’s appearance to the outside world, hence the draconian cleanliness laws in Dushanbe and rampant construction, and hence foreigners are never to be extorted by greedy cops. I, appearing Russian to locals, would be considered a foreigner on sight.

I asked about the criminal justice system and I was told there wasn’t much of a formal one. My companion explained that most matters were handled internally by families. For instance, if a 20-something got in a fight with another 20-something and the cops got involved, the police would most likely contact the families and let the parents and brothers sort that shit out with a warning not to cause trouble again. The families would enforce order through shaming, threats of social ostracization, and possibly physical violence.

(On this particular point and some others, I wondered whether my companion had an overly rosy and maybe sanitized view of Tajik culture, which isn’t uncommon for immigrants to have toward their homeland.)

Both the guy cheating on his wife and my drinking companion were extremely friendly. Both went above and beyond in reaching out to me, offering me a place to stay, advice on where to go and what to see, connections to other people, and both wanted to hang out with me as much as possible. I got the sense that they both loved the idea of an American seeing their rarely visited and internationally neglected homeland.

I also got that sense extremely strongly from a bunch of other locals even when they spoke little-to-no-English. Most of the time, I got little attention on the streets of Dushanbe because everyone assumed I was a random Russian (tourist or Tajikistan inhabitant), but as soon as I opened my mouth to say “niet Ruski,” I became an instant micro-celebrity. They would deduce that I only spoke English, then ask where I was from, and my answer of “America” was invariably met with smiles and wide eyes and usually a handshake.

In one instance, I was in a fort museum in the countryside accompanied by three Europeans. Two tour guides asked in very broken English where we were from. The first European answered and the guides politely smiled and nodded. The second European answered and the guides politely smiled and nodded. The third European answered and the guides politely smiled and nodded. I answered and the guides said “American!” and got giant smiles on their faces and their eyes blew up and they shook my hand and they asked me a bunch of questions, and then one of them yelled across the museum to get the attention of this high school kid who was studying English and he spent the rest of the museum visit following me around and asking me questions excitedly. At the end, after they had all shaken my hand again and said goodbyes in broken English eight times, I had to apologize to the Europeans for their misfortune of coming from inferior countries that didn’t warrant such adoration.

(I am kidding of course. I spent nine days with the three Europeans and not only were they all delightful, but they got ample revenge on me by chronically spouting anti-American sentiment in a 3-on-1 gang-up. In my experience as a traveller, I have heard more unironic anti-American talk in Western Europe than anywhere else on earth.)

I wish I had talked to more Tajiks, but aside from the guy who was cheating on his wife, my drinking companion and two of his friends, and my driver on the Pamir Highway, it was difficult to find any locals that spoke English, even at a cursory level. I’m told that younger Tajiks can speak it pretty well, but I didn’t have many interactions with them.

One final note on the locals – due to an apparent combination of local fashion sensibilities and I guess fabulous Persian hair, a lot of Tajik men have a hair style that I can only describe as “Beatles.” And it’s not just the younger men either; older guys and even men who definitely work in the government have this groovy hairstyle.

Tajikistan’s population is almost entirely Muslim, as is its long-time president and entire government. And yet, it is not considered a very tolerant state for Muslims. From a 2023 US government report :

“As part of an effort to maintain complete, authoritarian control over all segments of society, the government of Tajikistan commits systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. The Tajik government has placed undue restrictions on all facets of religious practice, including prayer, celebrations, education, and rituals. Those who fail to comply with Tajikistan’s regulations can face severe penalties. While Tajikistan’s religious freedom violations negatively impact all religious groups, they especially target the Hanafi Sunni Muslim majority.”

Christianity is primarily based around the teachings of a pacifist hippy who famously preached a spiritual separation of church and state with, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” In contrast, Islam is based on the teachings of a head-of-state (ie. warlord) whose words and actions were said to be the infallible projections of god. Hence, Islam as a doctrinal belief system has a lot more to say about the workings of government than Christianity or the vast majority of religions. This has resulted in an unusually intense intertwining of state and religion throughout most of the Islamic world.

There have been exceptions: most notably the modern Turks and the Baathists in the Middle East who led the secular regimes of Iraq, Egypt, and (still) Syria. Central Asia is another exception grouping. The Islamic elements of the Stans were kept under low key suppression by the Soviet Union for 80 years, partially due to the general atheism of the USSR, and partially because local Islamic elements attempted an unsuccessful widespread revolt in Central Asia against Czarist Russia and then the USSR in the 1910s and 1920s known as the Basmachi movement .

(Random factoid – the Ottoman Empire entered World War I under the direction of the Young Turks, a group of nationalist liberal-ish modernizers led by a triumvirate of co-dictators, one of whom was Enver Pasha . At the end of WWI, Enver fled the country and ended up in Soviet Moscow where he somehow finagled his way into a military command to suppress the Basmachi movement in Central Asia. But he quickly betrayed the USSR, joined the Basmachis, and led guerrilla fighting against the Soviets until he was machine gunned to death in 1922 near Dushanbe.)

When the USSR fell, each Stan got independence under their local Soviet leadership. Without the protective umbrella of Moscow, each government had to figure out how to maintain its secular authoritarian states over more religious Islamic populations. All embraced anti-Islamic suppression to varying degrees (most harshly in Uzbekistan) while proclaiming marginal adherence to the faith to placate the masses. Despite some terrorist movements and a few terrorist attacks, the former Soviet Stan governments have largely evaded serious domestic Islamic resistance to their rules.

That is, with the exception of Tajikistan. After independence, the local Soviet leadership couldn’t get its shit together (more on that later) and the country fell into a civil war from 1992 to 1997. The details of the war are rather sparse online, but the rough high-level conflict consisted of the authoritarian secular government holding onto the Soviet state apparatus in a few cities while various Islamic groups seized the vast, mountainous, sparsely populated countryside. Numerous attempts were made to take the cities and some almost succeeded, but they could never quite pull it off. The rebels were supported by Iran, Al Qaeda, and other Islamic terrorist groups in central Asia, while the government held on for dear life with support from Russia, Belarus, and the other Stan governments. The listed death toll wildly varies from 20,000 to 200,000, but there’s more agreement on about 10% of the population being displaced and the already meager Tajik economy being wrecked.

In 1997, the United Nations brokered a peace deal that left the government in power but promised the opposition 30% of the legislature. The government signed the deal and then slowly reneged until the last prominent opposition leaders were rounded up and arrested in 2015. Since then, the government has maintained its Soviet-style secular authoritarianism with relative stability and overt-but-not-extreme suppression of Islam within its borders.

For instance , the government shut down 1,500 mosques in 2011. Since around that time, the government has required special permits to build new mosques and for individuals to join Islamic organizations, and existing groups are closely monitored by the “Committee on Religion, Regulation of Traditions, Celebrations, and Ceremonies.” At least back in 2011, mosque sermons were limited to 15 minutes.

There are legal restrictions on Islamic education, with particular limits on getting foreign religious education, and the publishing of Islamic writing. Salafism, an extremely conservative form of Sunni Islam, is outright banned. Arabic names are banned and cousin marriage (which is traditionally sanctioned in Islam) is banned. And if I’m reading the US report correctly, it seems to be illegal in Tajikistan for parents to allow their children to be involved in Islam at all unless they get a special permit from the government.

One of the few things Tajikistan is slightly known for internationally is its ban on long beards, which started in the mid-2010s, and depending on the source, is either an official law or an informal decree from the president that is nonetheless enforced by the police. I won’t claim to understand the specifics, but long beards are associated with conservative Islam while being clean shaven is associated with good old fashioned Soviet secularism. Supposedly, the Tajik government has arrested hundreds of thousands of men for beard violations and forcefully shaved at least 13,000 men in 2016 in a single region. Beard permits are available for actors and other men who have good secular reasons for needing hair on their faces.

When I talked to a few (very secular) locals at a bar about the beard ban, they told me that (even if I wasn’t currently clean shaven) I had nothing to worry about. The police would assume I was a Russian and wouldn’t mess with me anyway, but even if I grew out a beard, I don’t look Islamic enough. It so happened that one of these Tajiks at the bar actually did have a bit of a beard, so I asked if it was illegal, and he said it probably was, but that he wasn’t concerned because he also gave off un-Islamic vibes with his motorcycle, leather jacket, and because he was on his fourth beer of the night.

So maybe the beard ban isn’t heavily enforced anymore. Regardless, I did get the strong sense that religion is not a big deal in Tajikistan, or at least it isn’t openly and enthusiastically practiced compared to the dozens of Islamic countries I have visited in the Middle East, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. I literally never saw a Tajik in prayer. I never once heard the Islamic call to prayer from mosques (I’m not even sure if it’s legal). I barely saw any mosques besides the Central Mosque in Dushanbe, which is was the largest in Central Asia and was largely funded by Qatar (I guess the president’s desire for prestige projects outweighs his secularism).

Bars and liquor stores are common in Dushanbe, though alcohol seems almost non-existent in the countryside. Likewise, in Dushanbe I’d estimate that 50% of the women wore hijabs (head scarves that don’t cover the face nor the rest of the body) while in the countryside, it was more like 90%. However, I didn’t see any niqabs or burkas except for a few women walking around with their clearly Arab husbands. Many young women in Dushanbe dressed in a typically Western manner with jeans, albeit with no cleavage nor shorts.

(EDIT – A few days before I published this, the Tajikistan government outlawed the hijab .)

The US report also notes that though the government mostly targets its fellow Sunni Muslims, it also applies broad religious suppression across the board. For instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses are outlawed and “face intense harassment from authorities, including home raids, fines, surveillance, and brief detainments.” Other Christian groups, like missionary-oriented Baptists, face an uphill battle getting permits to build their churches and proselytize. However, the Russian Orthodox Church “does not experience much official repression, in large part because Orthodox Christians do not proselytize and because of the church’s connections to Russia.”

Fearless Leader

I asked a taxi driver with surprisingly good English, “is the President good”?

His verbatim response: “of course, how else could he rule for 32 years?”

One of the perks of ruling for 32 years is amassing the political capital to put pictures of yourself everywhere:

Personally, I think the President looks like a lost Leonid Brezhnev clone:

Emomali Rahmon has indeed been the president of Tajikistan since 1994, and although he wasn’t the leader of the pre-independence Soviet state, like the first presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, he is undoubtedly one of those guys in spirit.

Rahmon (originally Rakhmonov until he changed his last name in 2007 to sound less Russian) was born in 1952 in a rural region of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which consisted of almost nothing but rural regions. His father was a decorated WW2 veteran and his uncle died in the military in the late 1950s while doing god knows what in Ukraine.

Say what you want about the USSR, but it apparently allowed individuals to rise from obscurity to great power. From his humble origins, Rahmon got a decent education in economics at the Tajik State University, then “worked as an electrician at a butter factory in Kurgan-Tube,” then overcame living in one of the most land-locked places on earth to join the Soviet Navy to be stationed in sunny Primorsky Krai (which is north of North Korea), then went back to being an electrician, and then a salesman, and then he started his surprisingly successful political climb by getting involved in local Tajik union leadership. Eventually he became the head of the collective farms in his home region.

Based on his long list of political titles, Rahmon seemed to have popped into the national leadership of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic right when it was getting independence. In 1990, he was one of many “people’s deputies,” which was a legislative role, and being in his 30s, Rahmon had to have been on the younger side of the local Soviet apparatchiks.

When the USSR fell in 1991, the pre-independence leaders of all the other Stans rapidly consolidated their power under a new government with the right carrots and sticks to keep the other top party leaders in line. Not only was Rahmon not the pre-independence leader of Tajikistan, but he wasn’t even a high ranking official. So how did he outfox all the Tajik Soviet oligarchs and emerge as the undisputed head of independent Tajikistan for 32 years and counting?

Apparently, the Soviet Tajik leadership was either a lot more chaotic or incompetent than the leadership of the other Stans, because from August 1991 to November 1992, Tajikistan went through four administrations and Rahmon popped out on top by being boring and ostensibly controllable.

The first independent Tajik leader, who ran the pre-independence Tajik Soviet, backed an unsuccessful coup attempted against Gorbachev in the dying Soviet Union, and was subsequently thrown out of power ten days into independence. The second leader tried to destroy the communist party and launch a new Tajik nationalist regime, but one month into his term, he was overthrown in a coup by a hardline communist party rival who became the third leader of independent Tajikistan. He had previously run the Soviet from 1982 to 1985 (until he was removed for corruption) and seemed to have a stronger political base. He held an election to legitimatize his power, but it was so blatantly rigged that it more-or-less triggered the civil war. He still managed to last a year before he was couped by his regime cohorts for making a big mess and as a means of hopefully placating the Islamic rebels who were advancing on the capital. In his place was put another communist party stooge, but he too stepped down after a few weeks as a further act of placation.

These last two hasty resignations were announced and enacted while the Tajik government was literally falling apart. The resignations couldn’t be fully legally ratified because provinces in rebellion weren’t sending representatives to Dushanbe. AK-wielding rebel bands were so close to the capital that the Tajik leadership fled to Khujand, a loyalist stronghold with a current population of under 200,000, where it was hoped that sheer mountainous terrain would keep the rebels at bay.

It was in this auspicious moment, in late 1992, that Emomali Rahmon (again, then Emomali Rakhmonov) came to power. He was not elected, but merely appointed as acting president in a metaphorical smoke-filled backroom meeting of party apparatchiks. There is little public information about how choosing a guy with no leadership experience, no army experience, and virtually no public recognition would salvage the increasingly dire political situation.

My idle speculation – maybe he was the most ‘salt of the earth’ of whoever was left in the administration since he wasn’t obviously corrupt and had been managing farmland in his hometown a few years ago, while in contrast, the previous leader was an obvious Russian-backed USSR-era holdover. Speculation from my main source – Rahmon was put in place by a bunch of generals (ie. warlords) as a boring party stooge who would easily take orders. One of the generals referred to Rahmon as “nondescript” and assumed that he would be pushed aside when he was done being useful to the military.

In 1994, Rahmon was formally elected president in an obviously rigged vote which he nevertheless only won with 58%. To be fair, Rahmon had a tough time campaigning since he was literally unable to travel to most of his country since it was under rebel control that would shoot him on sight. Even Khujand, his one-time stronghold haven, became increasingly hostile, and Rahmon stopped visiting the region after two near-miss assassination attempts. So throughout the 1990s, he basically sat in Dushanbe and hoped the rebels wouldn’t reach him.

In 1997, Rahmon signed a UN-mediated peace treaty with the rebels and something seemed to awaken in the mid-40s party functionary. I can’t find a ton of details on his strategic maneuvering, but for the next 15+ years, Rahmon embarked on a surprisingly successful political consolidation campaign which forced the downfall of both his enemies and former allies one-after-the-other.

The break from the military shackles occurred during two unsuccessful military coups in 1997 and 1998. Rahmon then had to deal with his political opposition which he was treaty-bound to permit into the national legislature as part of the peace agreement to end the civil war. But in the 1999 election, Rahmon won 97% of the vote and his party massacred the opposition in the polls, either because Rahmon was a dazzlingly charismatic leader or because he blatantly rigged the whole thing. The opposition complained and the international press condemned Rahmon; he responded by ignoring everyone and apparently doing enough dirty work behind-the-scenes to prevent a second civil war. In 2003, Rahmon launched a national referendum to let him run for more terms, which of course was passed with an overwhelming majority. Then Rahmon won more blatantly rigged elections in 2006 and 2013.

In 2015, Rahmon finished off the last of his serious opposition. Allegedly, the deputy defense minister tried to launch a coup with the backing of the Islamic opposition party, though it’s unclear whether this actually occurred. Rahmon’s loyalists defeated the putschists and arrested 170 top military and political officials while virtually the entire rest of the Islamic leadership fled into exile. At that point, the path was clear for Rahmon to establish complete control over Tajikistan for his political dynasty. In 2016, he amended the constitution again to give himself official near-dictatorial powers, and then he won another blatantly rigged election in 2020, and before anyone knew it, this random party functionary had been running Tajikistan for over two decades.

Not much is known about Rahmon’s big political maneuvers, like the 2015 military/political purge, but there is even less information available on the mechanics of Rahmon’s corrupt dealings. Regardless, the end result is obvious to everyone both inside and outside of Tajikistan. In a masterwork of old-school clannish grifting, Rahmon has virtually complete control over the Tajik state and economy, including all government agencies and major companies, through a network of loyalists, nearly all of whom are either his direct family members or in-laws.

To his credit, Rahmon seems to mostly retain the Soviet dedication to gender equality. Rahmon’s oldest daughter is the head of his executive office and her husband is the deputy head of the National Bank of Tajikistan. His third daughter is the deputy head of the Foreign Ministry’s International Organizations Department, and her husband is the head of the National Winter Sports Association. His sixth daughter is the deputy head of Orienbank, the largest commercial bank in Tajikistan, a position she undoubtedly meritoriously earned at age 23. A son-in-law runs the country’s fuel monopoly and another son in law runs the country’s railways.

But the second highest spot on the Rahmon clan corruption hierarchy belongs to the president’s eldest son, Rustam. He is fortunate enough to currently be the mayor of Dushanbe and the head of the rubber-stamping national legislature. Rustam is also, ironically, the previous head of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, and has a major general rank in the military despite having no military experience nor training.

Rustam is fully expected to take the reins from his father whenever he retires or drops dead. His legislative post makes him the official successor and numerous online articles mark him as the unofficial successor. One local I spoke with also said that Rustam would undoubtedly be their next president, and though this individual had his doubts about Rustam’s competence compared to his father, he still supported Rustam’s ascension since the alternative would likely be a chaotic power struggle.

The elder Rahmon may lead a cult of personality, but he’s actually pretty low-key in his dictatorial antics. Rustam can’t say the same; the man is a big fan of soccer, so much so that he co-founded Dushanbe’s team and was its captain for many years. The team was generally successful and really hit its stride in the 2010s when it won five championships, most of which occurred after Rustam retired from active play in 2012.

The problem is that Rustam’s team has benefited from quite a few suspicious calls from referees, so much so that Dushanbe has had numerous riots after the team’s bullshit wins. After one particularly egregious match, brave fans of the opposing team started chucking rocks at Rustam and his teammates until the police fired their guns in the air and beat the shit out of the hooligans, injuring 16 and arresting 20. Shortly afterward, the elder Rahmon dutifully backed his son and signed a new law increasing legal penalties for sports-related mayhem.

In another instance , five of the players on one of the best Tajik teams were hit with temporary bans and fines after playing too well against Rustam’s team. Officially, they were accused of playing in a “very rude and mean” manner.

Like a greedy Crusader Kings player, Rahmon hoards as much wealth as possible in the hands of himself, his family, and his in-laws, but plenty of it also slips out to key non-familial loyalists. For instance, Qosim Rohbar is a former provincial governor and Agricultural Minister who operated as a “ mafia kingpin ” with Rahmon’s approval, and somehow managed to amass $8.5 million in a Swiss bank account on an official annual salary of $7,680. On a smaller scale, the President’s doctor’s son got into some trouble after bragging about his connections too loudly, so Rahmon dragged him in front of the national legislature and chewed him out for having four houses and three cars on a $2,400 annual salary as a customs official. Ultimately, Rahmon was pretty nice about it, merely scolding the guy with: “You will resign now! You are still young, otherwise you would be sent to prison for at least 15 years,”

Here’s Wikipedia on the current Prime Minister of Tajikistan :

“His wife, Ikhbolkhon Nazirova, owns two properties worth $1.4 million in Dubai. She also owns several properties in Tajikistan. Their daughter, Farangez Azimova, owns a villa in Dubai worth $5.4 million… The source of the couple’s wealth is unknown, as she has no known income and Rasulzoda, as a public official for 24 years, has been barred from engaging in commercial activities.”

It’s worth putting these numbers in perspective. No one knows how much the Rahmon clan is worth, but it’s nothing compared to Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has personally amassed north of $10 billion (here’s $7.8 billion in a single company). But Kazakhstan with its oil and gas is a far wealthier country and therefore there is far more to plunder. Tajikistan is probably among the top 40 poorest countries on earth, a status that Rahmon cleverly parlays in his grifting, like when he got $13 million in food aid from USAID right around the same time he spent $92 million on a private jet.

In other words, the scale of Rahmon’s corruption is nothing to write home about by global standards, but the… I guess density is. Rahmon and his family and supporters basically have complete control over the Tajik economy, at least of everything above street-level businesses and the few foreign brands in the country. As a post-Soviet state, all of Tajikistan’s productive assets – its gold, coal, aluminum manufacturing, cotton, and energy production – were already in state hands at the start. It was easy enough to appoint loyalists to run these assets, and the meager privatization efforts in the past just made the corruption more formal.

My sense from talking to locals is that the Rahmon regime is suppressive though not to a crazy extent or anywhere near totalitarian levels. But maybe I’m underselling it. From the  Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project:

“There’s a great little anecdote that we include in one of the stories, a Western researcher was in Tajikistan, and his cleaning lady was in the apartment. Suddenly on the TV, a program by Umarali Kuvvatov was talking about the authoritarianism of the president and how the president was leading the country in the wrong direction. He remembers that the cleaning lady froze and for her, it was like seeing God criticized on TV for the first time. This is the environment that has been built in Tajikistan. The leader of the Islamic Renaissance party (the now banned opposition party) told me that it was like North Korea, people only see that Tajikistan is safe, the president keeps you safe, everywhere else in the world is chaos, everywhere else with religious opposition parties, Islamic parties, is just terrorism and extremism. Here in Tajikistan, everything is different.”

The report also claimed that former opposition leader Umarali Kuvvatov may or may not have been assassinated by the Tajik government while living in exile in Istanbul. There’s no conclusive proof, but he was shot in the head under mysterious circumstances two days after a bunch of his comrades were given long prison sentences in Tajikistan.

Based on my few conversations with locals, the Rahmons have done a good job recently of placating the masses by convincing them that they are sharing enough of the wealth. It’s far more likely that the government is benefitting from a temporary windfall that translates into more wealth for the Tajik people even if the corruption stays at a steady rate. And due to such corruption, it is extremely unlikely to me that Tajikistan will emerge as anything other than an impoverished raw resource producing state and Chinese colony for the foreseeable future.

Pamir Highway

I spent nine days travelling along the Pamir Highway with a driver and the aforementioned three Europeans. The journey was easily among the most beautiful in my life, with landscapes and views rivaled only by a handful of equally stunning places in the world such as Peru and Iceland.

There’s not much point in trying to describe such beauty through writing, but I’d summarize the visuals as desolate . The highway runs along and through mountain ranges and valleys with few people and little life in general. It looks primordial, at times other worldly. Despite being completely different geographic terrains, Iceland is probably the closest comparison for any other national topography, with a bit of Tibet thrown in. And like Iceland often does, the Pamir region would do very well as a stand-in for an alien landscape in film or television.

Another analogy to describe the Pamir landscape: sometimes it looks like god started making a chunk of earth, and then got bored and stopped halfway through and just left it like that for eternity.

There are green parts too:

As you might expect, the highway is not particularly well-maintained along its 750 miles. I wasn’t actually sure if we were on the highway itself the whole time or if we ventured onto side roads, but we soon discovered that the paved roads were actually worse than the dirt roads. Sure, the dirt roads shook us around, but the paved roads had the deep and sudden potholes that really knocked our socks off. During some stretches of dead straight, perfectly flat paved roads, we traveled at an average of 20 miles per hour for hours at a time.

The roads would have been worse if it weren’t for – who else? – the Chinese. Their road crews swarmed the length of the Pamir Highway filling in cracks and paving new stretches. I presume that virtually all of the tunnels, some of which are miles long, were built by the Chinese, or maybe the old Soviets. At one point, we had to wake up at 4 AM to get through a tunnel before 6 AM when the Chinese would start working on it and blocking it entirely until noon.

However, Tajikistan’s best tunnel isn’t on the Pamir Highway at all; it’s to the north of Dushanbe. The 3.1 mile Anzob Tunnel is also known as the Tunnel of Fear or the Tunnel of Death for its faulty ventilation which has killed numerous people during traffic jams. Some choice quotes from dangerousroads.org:

“The poisonous air in the tunnel is barely shifted by one solitary fan somewhere in the middle of the tunnel, which gives some, but not sufficient, movement to the air.”

“There are no traffic lights to regulate traffic through this section, nor is there an ordered tidal flow of traffic being allowed to enter the tunnel; instead, anarchy prevails in the darkness.”

“Even in good weather conditions, the tunnel is flooded, turning the giant potholes in the unfinished road into invisible death traps. Unmarked drainage channels waiting to swamp your bike. The tunnel lacks proper lighting and ventilation, and breathing is hard and painful due to the thick mixture of exhaust gases. Most drivers go as fast as they can, as in any other Central Asian country. Avoid the potholes, particularly in the winter time here. Your whole SUV can submerge if you drive in the wrong place. There are no road markings, so driving on the left or the right are optional, with the middle being the common choice.”

Sadly, I think I was mostly spared from these conditions since improvements were made to the tunnel in 2018. I got to experience it during a day trip from Dushanbe to Iskanderkul (a resort lake), and while it was an eerily dark and long tunnel, I didn’t notice any noxious fumes or watery death traps.

One of the highlights of the Pamir Highway is seeing other countries. I caught a glimpse of a mountain peak in Pakistan, I saw long stretches of desolate wasteland ceded to China, but of course, most interestingly, I saw Afghanistan, and even some Afghans (though no Taliban).

The Afghan-Tajik border is understandably tightly guarded, at least on the Tajik side. There are periodic military outposts that stopped our vehicle and checked our passports, plus Tajikistan requires a special permit for foreigners who travel through the area (the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region Permit or GBAO Permit). Presumably this is to clamp down on any radical Islamic activity that might be encouraged by neighboring Afghanistan. Nevertheless, in at least one spot on the border, there is a weekly market day in which Afghans and Tajiks mingle freely under the guard of both the Tajik military and the Taliban. I would have loved to attend, but unfortunately the timing didn’t work out for us.

I saw an eagle, two wolves, four snow leopards (in a preserve), lots of sheep, lots of goats, lots of cows, lots of yaks, lots of dogs, a few cats, but the coolest of all were the Marco Polo Sheep. I saw two herds of these big fuckers. This is the best picture I could get:

Here’s what they really look like:

Another highlight was climbing to the base of Lenin Peak , which reaches to almost 23,000 feet at the top. It used to be one of the tallest mountains in the Soviet Union, but the tallest was Stalin Peak (also known as “Communism Peak”), which is now called Ismoil Somani Peak after the warlord who brought Islam to the region.

Like in Peru , I took seizure medication that doubles as a preventative and active treatment for altitude sickness. Actually, I idiotically took the same exact medication, as in from the very same bottle, which is now over three years old. Which is why it didn’t work this time and I was huffing and puffing up three mountains on three separate hikes while the Europeans ran laps around me.

Border Crossing

I left Tajikistan through the Kyzyl-Art Pass at the Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border. It was not an easy process and I had a bit of a border adventure, but god knows I haven’t been the only one.

The militaries of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan periodically get into surprisingly large literal battles on their border, mostly over disputed claims to resource deposits, primarily fresh water. In April 2021, a largely unknown catalyst resulted in 55 deaths and 4,000 civilian displacements. In July, another small skirmish resulted in the death of a single Kyrgyz soldier. A brief peace was made but then broken in January 2022 when another fight left two dead and dozens wounded. In March, another outbreak left a Tajik border guard dead. In June, there were two more small skirmishes, resulting in another dead Tajik border guard. On a day in September, both sides of a border crossing accused the other of violating the demarcation zones, resulting in two more deaths and more than a dozen wounded.

Two days later, the shit really hit the fan as actual armies began assembling and President Rahmon ordered the Tajik military to seize numerous airports on the Kyrgyz side of the border. The Tajik military started its assault by launching artillery shells over the border at one of the Kyrgyz airports but seemingly was never able to actually invade. 137,000 Kyrgyz people were evacuated from the region and sporadic looting broke out in border towns. Tajikistan claimed that Kyrgyzstan deployed military drones for counterattacks. The casualty reports are conflicted, but Kyrgyzstan claimed 24 dead and almost 90 wounded.

Since then, the border has been relatively quiet but completely shut down for travel for native Tajiks or Kyrgyz. Only tourists can get through.

I find the whole thing incredibly weird, and all the more so since there are so few details about the conflict online. The border itself is extremely high and mountainous, often over 9,000 feet, and the border crossings are small and isolated. How did Tajik and Kyrgyz border units keep getting into situations that resulted in shootouts? How can two countries have so many military fights that result in direct casualties, including straight-up artillery barrages over the border, and not actually declare war on one another?

I have no idea. But the general international consensus is that Tajikistan is in the wrong and the conflict fundamentally stems from Rahmon maintaining territorial claims to border resources that Tajikistan has never controlled.

For what it’s worth from my extremely amateurish perspective, it seems like the Kyrgyz military could punch back a lot harder if it wanted to. I’ve traveled through a lot of poor countries and have seen a lot of poor militaries, but Tajikistan is the first country I’ve been to where most of the soldiers I’ve seen didn’t have guns . Seriously, of the 20+ soldiers I saw along the Pamir Highway and at the border, maybe 1/3rd actually had firearms while the rest just had knives. And of the better armed one-third, I swear, most didn’t have clips in their AKs. Meaning, they either carried no ammo or only a single round in the chamber. Also, the Tajik border facility was in shambles, and seemed to consist of a few concrete husk buildings and shipping containers. Some of this could be attributed to the fighting (there were shattered windows and what appeared to be bullet holes), but unless the Kyrgyz managed to blow up their toilets, the Tajiks really did piss and shit in a shallow hole in their barracks. I’m not talking about an ordinary hole-in-the-floor bathroom in a poor country, I mean an absolutely disgusting shit-filled and covered hole that bordered on noxious.

In contrast, the Kyrgyz border guards seemed to have their shit together. Everyone was armed and appeared to have ammo, everyone was much more professional, the buildings were intact, the border-crossing processing room was clean and neat, there were real fences around the whole facility, and though I didn’t go to the bathroom on the Kyrgyz side, I couldn’t imagine theirs being worse than the Tajik’s side.

The impact of all this border warfare on me was that it made an already difficult-to-cross border substantially more annoying. My Pamir tour driver was a Tajik and therefore legally barred from crossing the border, and we had to meet a new driver on the Kyrgyz side of the border, who was a Kyrgyz and therefore also legally barred from crossing the border. But that’s ok, we should have just been able to drive up to the Tajik side of the border, get out of the car, and walk across the border to the Kyrgyz side, right?

Wrong. Because between the two borders is a 14 mile no man’s land gap.

That’s too long to walk of course, but fortunately, presumably through some finagling and possible bribery, the tour company worked out a compromise where we could cross the Tajik side by car and go to a meeting place about half a mile into the no man’s land where we would meet the Kyrgyz car. To ensure no espionage or military adventurism was at play, an armed border guard would hop into both our car and the Kyrgyz car, not because of me or my European tourist companions, but to monitor our respective drivers. Our guard on the Tajik side not only had a gun, but one with ammo (or at least a clip). So we drove to the border, picked up the armed border guard, and then met our Tajik driver in no man’s land, right?

Wrong. The problem is that the Kyzy-Art Pass is at around 13,000 feet. Even in the early summer, it’s still covered in snow and sometimes gets hit by snowstorms, such as exactly when my group tried to cross the pass. When we arrived, the visibility was maybe 15 feet in any direction. Beyond that, everything was pure white. In the checkpoint, we could see the various huts and cargo containers and were alright, but once in no man’s land, we were in a white oblivion, one which happened to have various cliff’s edges within 20+ feet.

Yet our (amazing) driver still believed we could make it to the rendezvous point. So we got our passports stamped, and then with our armed border guard bringing the car up to six passengers, we attempted to drive through about a foot of snow (and rising) in sheer whiteout conditions. This lasted thirty seconds until our driver stopped and then spent a supremely impressive thirty minutes laboring outside in the snowfall to put chains on the tires and dig holes in the snow every ten yards for about 100 yards ahead to lay a path for our progress.

Aside – I’ve been asked a few times if I’ve ever had a gun pointed at me. The answer is now technically “yes.” Through bad luck, I ended up in the middle back seat while the armed boarder guard sat in the front passenger seat. In yet another instance that made me doubt the fighting fitness of the Tajik military, the guard placed the butt of his AK on the floor near his feet so the barrel was facing up and toward the rear of the car. Which is to say, the AK was pointed at me while we were driving through a foot of snow with lots of bumps and shakes and fits and starts and jerking and revving the engine to get traction. I prayed that the ammo clip really was just for show.

Eventually, the driver got back in the car and we pushed onward for 100 yards. Then he stopped and did the same thing with the hole digging again. Then we went another hundred yards. Then we stopped and did the hole digging again. Then we went another hundred yards, and then the driver declared that the slope was too steep, but we were within theoretical walking distance of the rendezvous point. So we could just take all of our bags out of the car and power through the last few hundred yards on foot in white oblivion until we got to the other car, right?

Wrong. The problem was that we didn’t know if the other car was there. The other side of no man’s land was more than 13 miles long, and given the weather conditions, we had no idea if the other car had made it to the rendezvous point. It seemed impossible to me, but the driver assured us that “maybe he made it.” So we could just call the other car and ask if he had arrived, right?

Wrong. We had no way to contact the other car. There was no phone service here. But surely the Tajik border guards had some means of contacting the Kyrgyz border guards on the other side to ask if a vehicle had passed into no man’s land, right?

Wrong, they didn’t, or at least not at that time. The checkpoint’s communication system was based on solar power, and while I applaud their environmental consciousness, that seemed like a poor choice for a Himalayan Mountain pass.

So our driver hiked through the snow on his own to the rendezvous point to see if the other car had arrived. We watched him disappear into the white nothing while we sat in the car with the armed guard, his AK still carefully pointed at my chest. Then the driver came back and told us… nope. He wasn’t there.

So what could we do? Our driver opted to wait, which we did for an hour, then the driver hiked back up the rendezvous point and back to us, and confirmed that, again, the other car wasn’t there.

So what could we do then? We drove back to the checkpoint, let the border guard out, and waited for three hours for the theoretical backup meeting time. Our driver asked the border guard if we could wait inside one of the buildings and we were refused, so we sat in the car. As further punishment, the guards let us use their hideous hole-in-the-ground bathroom, but to their legitimate credit, they did eventually give us a bunch of biscuits and tea and candies, which was super nice.

Then the border guard got back in the car, was nice enough to point his AK away from me, and rode with us in another harrowing attempt to reach the rendezvous point, which had the same result. Across the roughly six hours we sat at the border and near the meeting point, we never had any means of communicating with the other vehicle, so at that point, we gave up and returned to the small internet-less Tajik village where he had spent the previous night, which required about an hour drive back down the pass. We were briefly concerned that we had already gotten our passports stamped out and therefore we couldn’t legally re-enter Tajikistan, but our driver somehow took care of that.

The next day, we drove an hour back to the border crossing and were thrilled to see that the snowstorm was over and we had perfect visibility with a beautiful baby blue sky and bright sun overhead. We were less thrilled to see that the snow had amassed to over two feet of fluffy powder in some places and it was therefore an open question whether either car could reach the rendezvous point. We were once again thrust into a communications blackout, but our driver assured us that yesterday had been a tragic two-time near miss, and now the meeting times were even better coordinated.

We once again picked up a border guard (this time a different guy) but now our drive through the white void was a pleasant drive through a winter wonderland. That is until we reached roughly the same point our vehicle did the day before and the slight incline made progress challenging. I don’t know how to drive through snow and frankly I’m not sure if our driver did either, but his technique of charging forward until the tires uselessly spun and then backing up 30 yards and then charging forward again to grab a few more yards of progress proved relatively effective as we traveled about 150 yards forward over the course of 30 minutes.

Eventually, we made it to the rendezvous point. The other car wasn’t there, but the driver said this was to be expected. This time, he had it on good authority that the other car was waiting for us about 1.5 miles away at the bottom of the hill (ie. closer to mountain) that we were currently at the top of. We would have to take a mild leap of faith and walk down the hill through the snow to where the driver was supposed to be. If, for some reason, the driver wasn’t there, I guess we would have to walk the remaining 12ish flat miles through the snow to the Kyrgyz checkpoint. Also, the driver couldn’t come with us because Tajiks and Kyrgyz weren’t allowed to go beyond this point in the no man’s land, so we were on our own.

It all worked out in the end. The 1.5 mile trek with my full travel pack through two feet of snow was not one of the easier hikes in my life, but it was all downhill so it wasn’t too bad. One of the Europeans had a much harder time than me, not because of the physical exertion, but because he had lost his sunglasses, and so within 15 minutes his eyes were in pain from the light bouncing off the snow.

The driver was where he was supposed to be and was accompanied by a very friendly Kyrgyz border guard who took a bunch of pictures with us and did not accidentally point a gun at me. After another 0.5 miles of walking, we made it to his vehicle and then slowly drove the remaining way on a flat but snow-covered road until we reached the Kyrgyz border.

Questionable Claims

A series of questionable claims were made to me by Tajikis. Here are my fact checks.

Claim 1 – The swastika was invented in Tajikistan .

A tour guide in a fort museum pointed to a row of swastikas in an old stone facade and then claimed that the swastika itself originated in Tajikistan.

The swastika is (or at least was) officially backed by the Tajik state in its effort to promote a unique Tajik culture and nationalism. Of all the possible angles to take, the government has seen fit to embrace its allegedly Aryan ethnic heritage and declared 2006 as “ the year of Aryan civilization ” to “study and popularize Aryan contributions to the history of the world civilization, raise a new generation (of Tajiks) with the spirit of national self-determination, and develop deeper ties with other ethnicities and cultures.”

Sounds like a true triumph of the will. One particularly brave Tajik official proclaimed:

“We all know that fascism used this symbol for its purposes. This symbol therefore carries negative connotations for many…[but] we should not limit ourselves to only one interpretation.”

Still, I can’t find any evidence that the swastika actually comes from Tajikistan. At best, the swastika was invented by Aryans, which the Tajiks arguably are via their ethnic connection to Persians. However, my quick skim through the Wikipedia entry on “Aryan” indicates that the precise boundaries, nature, and scientific reality of Aryanism is somewhere between fuzzy and fake.

Note – Despite the government’s official support for the swastika 15 years ago, I didn’t actually see any swastikas in Tajikistan outside that one museum.

Verdict: Probably False

Claim 2: The “Taj” in “Taj Mahal” refers to the Tajik people.

This claim was made by a tour guide in the Pamir region. He was unclear on the specifics.

The Taj Mahal was completed in 1653 by a Mughal Emperor for his wife. According to Wikipedia , the precise etymology of the name is unknown, but the best guess is that “taj” is derived from a mixture of Arabic and Persian to mean either “crown,” “illustrious,” or “illuminated.”

However, Tajik is a Persian language, so maybe there’s a connection? The Wikipedia article on Tajikistan says that “Tajik” probably referred to a Persian tribe but “the Library of Congress’s 1997 Country Study of Tajikistan found it difficult to definitively state the origins of the word “Tajik” because the term is ’embroiled in twentieth-century political disputes about whether Turkic or Iranian peoples were the original inhabitants of Central Asia.'”

I tried some other Googling and found a random Facebook post claiming that “The builder of the Taj Mahal was from Khojand,” a city in Tajikistan. But the Facebook page’s own source only says that Ustad Ahmad Lahori ‘s father was from Khojand. Lahori himself was unsurprisingly born in Lahore (modern-day Pakistan) and his Wikipedia page says nothing about Khojand.

Verdict: Probably Completely False

Claim 3: Tajikistan is an emerging tourist hot spot and it’s a good thing I visited when I did because soon the country will be swarmed by tourists

I heard this claim from my Pamir tour driver, at least two other random Tajiks, and two European travellers.

Tajikistan’s Wikipedia page doesn’t mention tourism, and the Tajikistan economy Wikipedia page only has a small tourism section that provides no statistics. The World Bank has figures that usually end around 2020 showing a paltry tourism industry; the “number of arrivals” chart ends in 2018 at a peak of just over 1 million. Statista provides this chart for Tajikistan’s national tourism revenue:

The World Bank’s rankings of every country by tourism revenue lists Tajikistan at $102.4 million in 2020, around the same level as Belize, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and… Bermuda? How can Bermuda possibly make less tourism money than Tajikistan? And how is Tajikistan listed at over $100 million when, according to Statista, it has yet to surpass $74 million in any year? Are all these figures messed up because of Covid? Are tourism revenue estimates just really unreliable in certain countries? I don’t know.

(Side note – dead last on the World Bank’s list of countries by tourism revenue is none other than… Guinea . Which, as I’ll never get tired of pointing out, might be one of the only countries on earth without telephone lines . Also, Mauritania is ranked seventh to last and Guinea-Bissau is 14th to last.)

Putting the numbers aside, I can definitely see the argument for Tajikistan’s impending tourist popularity. Right now, it’s firmly in the “hidden gem” category for travellers due to its beauty and remoteness. The next step is to gain popularity due to travel bloggers and YouTubers and move more into the mainstream, as is the trend for any naturally pretty place that isn’t too politically unstable.

While travelling throughout the Stans, I met few non-Russian tourists, but every single one of them was an experienced traveller: a digital nomad living in Georgia, a Swiss guy making his way to Thailand, a Spaniard who had been all over the world, an American missionary installing wells, etc. I doubt any one of them had been to fewer than 30 countries. If I go back to Tajikistan ten years from now, I doubt the traveller cohort will be the same.

Verdict: Probably True

Claim 4: Knowing me turns men into womanizers.

This claim was made by a Tajik high schooler with highly questionable English skills, who, after meeting and talking with me, an American, proclaimed that he would tell everyone in his class about his encounter, which would make him very popular, and thus he would soon become, in his own words, “a womanizer.”

I know many people, and to my knowledge, very few of them are womanizers. I cannot speculate on the causality at play.

Verdict: Mostly False

Miscellaneous

• In Dushanbe, people mostly speak Russian, while outside the capital, people mostly speak Tajik, though anyone educated speaks both. I’m told this trend between Russian and the main local language carries throughout the Stans (except maybe Turkmenistan).
• Dushanbe was previously known as “Stalinabad” from 1929 to 1960 .
• “Dushanbe,” derives from the Persian word for “Monday,” which was the traditional market day for this settlement on the Silk Road.
• Tajikistan’s currency is the Somoni, while Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan each have their own currency called the Som. The Somoni and Som are both named after Ismoil Samani, the aforementioned ninth century Samanid amir of Transoxiana and Khorasan (EDIT – “Som” means something like “pure” according to Wikipedia, I guess the name similarity is a coincidence). I’m pretty sure Samani’s veneration in the Stans is similar to that of many historical figures in the Balkans : when all these countries got independence, they looked into their histories for some local guy who did some important thing and they made him a national hero even though little is known about his life. From reading his Wikipedia page, Samani seemed like an above average regional warlord, but his only real claim to fame was bringing Islam to Central Asia. IMO, Uzbekistan was wise to latch on to the far more impressive Timur the Lame as their main historical figure.
• Another faded Tajik prestige record: the Nurek Dam was the highest man-made dam in the world after the Soviets finished building it in 1980. The damned Chinese took the top spot in 2013, but hope springs anew as the Tajik government is trying to finish construction on the Rogun Dam , a Soviet project started in 1976, abandoned in 1993, and resumed in 2016, which may end up being even higher than China’s dam.
• Buzkashi is a traditional and still moderately active sport throughout the Stans (including Afghanistan) which basically consists of two teams of 4-10 individuals on horseback attempting to move (either by hitting, kicking, or picking up) a decapitated goat or calf carcass across an enclosed field into the other team’s goal, which is usually accomplished by the rider flinging himself off the horse and into the goal with the carcass in hand. See for yourself . Sadly, I could not find a match to watch for myself, but according to Wikipedia, Tajikistan’s unique form of the game largely does away with teams in favor of a free-for-all individual play (though informal alliances can be formed).
• Tajikistan has a single ski resort complete with a Soviet-era hotel.
• There are still a bunch of Lenin statues dotted throughout the Stans. Here is one from a small town in Tajikistan:

• Tajikistan has a lot of Hollywood-style signs hanging over cities and towns. For instance:

• Spotted in the Tajikistan National Museum, the ultimate Soviet Chad:

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47 thoughts on “ notes on tajikistan ”.

I was in Belize last year and based on the number of tourists on Ambergris Caye alone they must be bringing in 50-100M+ a *month* in the high season. Besides there it’s many fewer, especially in the south. Overall, outside of the small touristy regions it’s great, highly recommend you give it a try.

I love how in the pictures meant to show him positively, the President always has an expression of mild annoyance.

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Great read!

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Great read as always.

I’d be quite interested in reading about the hostel you stayed in and in the story of arranging the trip with the three Europeans and driver. Perhaps that kind of thing feels too mundane to you to write about, or too behind the veil. But just in case you’re assuming that your readership wouldn’t be interested in that kind of thing, I’d be surprised if the audience for this sort of travel writing didn’t enjoy reading about the more personal or logistical details of trips.

I arranged the trip through a link from Caravanistan, a forum for travellers doing stuff like that.

Another day trip was organized by a hostel sign up sheet.

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Wow, this is the longest piece of writing that I ever read that came from a total stranger. I really enjoyed it, and got to know so much! Keep up the personal, no-BS tone. Loved it.

About the name of the Taj Mahal, it comes from Mumtaz Mahal, whose tomb it contains. Mumtaz Mahal was the chief consort empress to the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj.

Sounds like a great trip, can’t wait to read about Kyrgyzstan!

By the way, my uneducated guess (or maybe I heard it somewhere but forgot where) is that USSR drew ugly borders on purpose, creating exclaves and enclaves and leaving people from one ethnicity in the other republic etc just to make the individual republics less viable and more difficult to run, thus be more dependent to the central government. I might be making this up though.

by the way, I saw on the news just after reading this blog post, that Tajikistan banned headscarves and children observing religious holidays fwiw.

Just saw that too, added a line.

I also vaguely recall hearing that about the USSR’s map drawing, that there were a lot of arbitrary lines to keep the Soviets off-balance. For instance, Samarkand is in Uzbekistan but is ethnically Tajik.

This is a common belief but the Jigsaw borders and enclaves and exclaves everywhere are actually a result of the Soviets attempting to create republics based on nationality in a region that had never been divided this way before. The Soviet commission on nationalities, headed by Stalin before he became the big cheese, did the best they could but there was no way to neatly divide such an intermingled population.

Before 1924 it was only the Turkestan SSR and Kirgizistan SSR. Later, to prevent unity, Stalin et al divided them into so many republics and diverged the languages spoken. Kirgizistan became Kazakhstan; Turkistan became Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizistan and Tajikistan. Note the funny business with Kirgizistan.

Kirgizs and Kazakhs are the same nomadic people at different but neighboring locations, and Uzbeks are the same people but sedentary / agricultural. Only Turkmens and Tajiks are somewhat different since Turkmens speak a different branch of the Turkic family and Tajiks speak Persian.

Mine is a very reductionist simple and hot take but this is a blog comment section so this is all I did.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Glad you had a wonderful time there, Matt. I’m so glad you ended up visiting. I had a smile on my face reading this, reliving old memories.

Can’t believe I read 100,000 words on Tajikistan without a single mention of RC Cola! It would be like reading your Kyrgyzstan travelogue without any mention of eating at Nathan’s!

Thanks, I didn’t notice the RC Cola thing at the time, but now that you mention it… yeah. There was a weirdly lot amount of RC Cola. What’s up with that?

“At best, the swastika was invented by Aryans, which the Tajiks arguably are via their ethnic connection to Persians. However, my quick skim through the Wikipedia entry on “Aryan” indicates that the precise boundaries, nature, and scientific reality of Aryanism is somewhere between fuzzy and fake.”

What’s fuzzy or fake about the Aryans? They were a real people and the Tajiks are descendants of them. Like countless other peoples. They also have little to no Persian heritage. They speak a Persian dialect because they adopted the Persian language when they were converted to Islam, by Samani. Something you reference but didn’t make the connection to. Before they were just Sogdians, Bactrians and Khwarazmians. This is all in the Wikipedia articles you link to.

Gripping travelogue, thank you! My 5 cents:

It seems that Emomali Rahmon[ov] was put in charge and nurtured by Russia. 15th GRU regiment was involved in the civil war and operated undercover as the Popular Front of Tajikistan . One of the operatives, Vladimir Kvachkov , is famous for Anatoly Chubais ‘ assassination attempt.

KGB/GRU helped Rahmonov’s clan immensely in the past but the relations have cooled when Tajikistan aligned with PRC and fostered dependence on Chinese FDI. IS activity in Russia made everything even more tense. Also, Rahmon seems to be not happy with Taliban embrace in Russia. There is a crackdown on “pocket opposition” proceeding for their alleged pro-Moscow coup plans https://www.rferl.org/a/tajik-lawmaker-detained-coup-government/32992858.html In Russian: https://knews.kg/2024/06/18/eto-svyazano-s-vizitom-generala-fsb-v-dushanbe-lider-oppozitsionnogo-dvizheniya-tadzhikistana-ob-areste-tadzhikskogo-deputata/ https://knews.kg/2024/06/21/v-tadzhikistane-zaderzhany-ryad-izvestnyh-byvshih-politikov-ih-obvinyayut-v-popytke-gosudarstvennogo-perevorota/

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One of the most well known myth that people believe is that Tajiki (they mostly refer to the word tadzhiki) is a reference for some Persian elite (basically royals). This myth doesn’t really stand a chance against critics, bc it has no base. But people still want to believe some relation to Royal families of ancient Iran. Another interesting incarnation of a similar myth is that people believe some relation to Aryans (in not the most healthy context). Btw thank you very much for the write up, I enjoyed it as someone who grew up in Tajikistan (and having a lot of context on *stans) – I found a lot of your observations hilarious and actually very correct.

Great post as usual!

If I could offer one unsolicited suggestion, it would be to look up some basics of photography, especially rule of 3rds. Your blog doesn’t need to have gorgeous photos, as the ones you post get your points across any the posts are more about the text than the pictures, but I feel like paying a little more attention to framing and lighting in your pictures would be a low-effort way to get a 20/80-style improvement, especially as you travel through beautiful places like Central Asia.

I’m by no means a great photographer, but my skills vastly improved after I did a minimal amount of research and it’s paid a ton of dividends by means of collecting travel memories.

Either way, I love these posts and can’t wait for the next one.

Very good write up. Nice to see someone get out to Tajikistan. I used to live there and it’s a very underrated place.

One thing I think you may have missed is that while statistically the vast majority of Tajiks are Sunni. The half of the country which is he Pamir mountains. Is dominated by the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. Their pretty heterodox don’t worship in mosques, and have a lot of pre-Islamic practices like animal bone shrines and fire rituals.

Awesome read! typo: the hairstyle should be Beatles

Here to say the same thing!

Easy to forget the pun; they were looking for a name that’s witty at first, but that seems less funny each time you hear it 😀

That was a nice read! But one correction: Uzbek and Kyrgyz “Som” does not come from Somoni. It comes from the Turkic word “som” which have meanings like pure and solid.

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When i was based in Moscow 2004-2006 I visited Tajikistan for 10 days, including the Pamir Highway. Fabulous trip, though I did chuckle at the toilet comment – i think the most disgusting toilet I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting was in Tajikistan. Floor covered in (mostly dried) feces. Dushanbe seems like it has changed substantionally in the last 20 years.

Would really recommend go house back riding for a few days in Kyrgyzstan, staying in yurts in the mountains.

Great writing as always!

Hi Matt, Thanks for great write-up!

If it’s not a bother, please consider including some details on the food consumed in very remote regions (like the remote village stay during border crossing), and other interesting places – maybe as a part of notes in the end).

Safe travels!

Interesting writeup.

First thing I think about when I think about Kazakhstan is Baikonur – and I’m not even that much of a space nerd.

I didn’t know the central stans are all run by soviet dictators, that’s super interesting. Does that mean their independence was mostly a case of the Russians kicking them out of the union or were there strong nationalist movements under the late USSR? Also was there much nostalgia for the old Soviet days, it didn’t sound like they’d found much economic success since.

I can only talk about Kazakhstan where I live. There’s lots of nostalgia among older generations (think 50 and up) and more generally in small cities and rural areas which have seen barely any development over the last 30 years.

USSR, for all its faults, had been pouring massive amounts of money in infrastructure development in more remote areas. Hardly anything has been done since then: we’re still using power plants, hydro dams, water pipes, etc. built by the Soviets, and they’re close to the limits of their endurance after decades of low maintenance.

I spent many months of each year in my youth in a rural area and have seen this process myself. One village where I had been to the most had a large bread-making plant, a decently sized cinema, and a dozen of other 4-6 story buildings. They all stopped functioning in the beginning of the 1990s.

I really wish I had before and after photos so you could compare, but most buildings were dismantled for building materials by the middle of 2000s, long before digital cameras have become widely available here.

This is something that Western commentators never talk about. They all focus on Moscow and how much better people have it there now compared to the end of the Soviet era, and forget about the other 99% of the Union.

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at first i was pretty surprised that you went to tajikistan but some of those trips in africa were pretty gnarly so i guess whytf not.

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Great as always.

Nit: “In 2003, Rahman launched a national referendum …”

Fixed, thanks.

So how’s the Kyrgyzstan posti writing going? Been pretty eagerly waiting for it for few weeks so just asking :3

Sorry, no other Stan posts, but probably eventually something in South America.

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Tajikistan: Progress and Problems at the Heart of Central Asia

Subscribe to global connection, johannes f. linn johannes f. linn nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development , center for sustainable development.

July 9, 2008

• 11 min read

Editor’s Note: Ask most Americans whether they know where Tajikistan is and you are likely to get a blank stare, even though this former Soviet Republic and now independent country of seven million inhabitants occupies a geopolitically sensitive location at the core of Greater Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan, China, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In a recent visit, Senior Fellow Johannes Linn assisted nine of Tajikistan’s main international donor agencies in the preparation of a joint country assistance strategy, a key step in improved coordination among the Tajik government and the country’s international partners. In this note he reflects on the country’s ten years of transition from civil war to peace, from deep economic recession to sustained growth, and most recently from facing good prospects to confronting serious risks. Tajikistan’s success or failure in working through its current crisis may well be a barometer of Central Asia’s long term prospects.

Dushanbe , Tajikistan , June 1, 2008 – A foreign visitor arriving now for the first time in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan – a country with a per capita income in 2006 of $390, ranked 187 th in the world out of 209 countries, just ahead of Tanzania, according to the World Bank–, may well marvel at the pleasant look of the city, with its stately boulevards flanked by lush tall trees and by rows of graceful buildings with inviting overhanging roofs carried by Persian-style colonnades. Little reminds the visitor of the dire past winter, when weeks of deep freeze brought the city to a near stand still as the country’s electricity supply failed. The majority of the inhabitants could not heat their homes, businesses had to close down, and schools and hospitals could barely function. Even less could one imagine the way the city greeted the visitor ten years ago, when I arrived for my first visit to Tajikistan as the World Bank’s Vice President for the Europe and Central Asia Region.

In 1998 Tajikistan was in the early stages of a very fragile peace after years of a deadly civil war. There was still fighting in the outskirts of Dushanbe and parts of the country were inaccessible to the government and to most foreigners. The future of the government of President Rakhmon (then Rakhmonov) seemed at best uncertain. The country’s economy was in a severe recession, Tajik GDP having dropped by about 60% from the level of 1990, the year before the breakup of the Soviet Union. 80-90% of the population lived in poverty. The administrative capacity of the government was in shambles, incomparably worse than today. There were virtually no active foreign aid donors, except for those who provided humanitarian assistance. To make matters worse, Russia’s financial crisis in August 1998 hit the prospects for the countries of the Former Soviet Union. So no end of Tajikistan’s economic decline seemed in sight.

As one now looks back on Tajikistan’s development since 1998, it turns out that the unexpected happened. President Rakhmon and his government established political stability. Rapid economic recovery began in 1999 and was sustained since then with average economic growth at levels between 7-9 percent per year. This helped to reduce the poverty rate significantly, even as it remains at a high level today (estimated at over 60%). There is now a significant donor presence and aid levels have increased. Economic management capacity, while still severely limited, has improved. In fact, Tajikistan has been rightly hailed as a rare success story of post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction, especially when compared with its immediate neighbor to the south, Afghanistan. [1]

However, over the last 12-18 months, difficulties started to emerge. These are likely to shape the immediate future of the country in three key areas: in the political arena, in the economy, and in the regional context.

In the political arena, the success of pacification contained the seeds of long-term troubles. It is now clear that two elements were critical for successful peace making in Tajikistan [2] : first, the wide distribution of “spoils” to the main combatant leaders and the opposition – this involved the allocation of privatized assets and of government positions; and second, the gradual centralization of power and control by the President. These two steps created the essential prerequisites for post-conflict stability, by assuring the buy-in of most major players and central government’s control over the country’s geographically, ethnically and politically fragmented territory.

While helpful for peace and stability in the aftermath of conflict, this combination of factors also created troublesome political dynamics that are not unusual for countries with autocratic governments. The virtual absence of political participation and competition, the lack of transparency and accountability in the political system, and an increasing concentration of political and economic power in a limited group of individuals closely associated with or related to the President in the longer term may well lead to dissatisfaction and disenchantment at the base as people lose faith in the one-time popular leadership. These factors also create the potential for intra-elite conflict over the distribution of power. The resulting tensions present threats to long-term political stability as the examples of Indonesia under President Suharto and of neighboring Kyrgyzstan under President Akaev have demonstrated.

In the economic sphere, parallel and related dynamics are at work. The concentration of key national economic assets (the giant aluminum company TALCO, the national airline and other state-owned enterprises, cotton production, etc.), of governmental posts and of the regulation of the economy in the hands of a limited elite has slowed Tajikistan’s progress with establishing an effectively functioning market economy and has resulted in poor economic management. It also has limited foreign investment and created great difficulties for effective management of external assistance. Rapidly growing remittances from hundreds of thousands of migrants to (mostly) Russia propped up the Tajik economy in recent years, but now the economic stresses are becoming increasingly apparent.

In the regional context, too, positive trends are undermined by negative developments. On the positive side, the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001 brought a dramatic reduction in security threats and permitted the establishment of a relatively open border between Tajikistan and its southern neighbor, even as Tajikistan’s access to the Pakistani ports on the Indian Ocean remains limited by continuing insecurity in Afghanistan and by problems with infrastructure and transit. Another positive regional factor has been the strong economic growth during recent years among Tajikistan’s Central Asian neighbors and of China and Russia. Central Asia is at the hub of a highly dynamic and rapidly integrating Eurasian supercontinent. This is a significant driver of growth for the region as a whole and also for Tajikistan. Finally, among the positives is the emergence of an increasingly active and effective regional economic coordination mechanism, the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Forum (CAREC), which consists of eight countries in the broader Central Asia region and of six multinational institutions. CAREC supports regional economic integration by implementing regional trade, trade facilitation, transport and energy strategies. [3]

However, two regional factors limit progress and create potential risks for Tajikistan. First, lack of agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan about how to manage the highly integrated cross-border regional transport and energy infrastructure imposes many constraints on Tajikistan’s ability to trade, and specifically limits it access to gas imports and its ability to market electricity exports. This forces Tajikistan to seek costly infrastructure and trading routes by- passing Uzbekistan. Second, there is the increasing threat of a regional water shortage, which may significantly raise the risks of regional tensions over the allocation of scarce water resources between upstream and downstream countries in the Aral Sea basin. (Read Water-Energy Links in Central Asia: A Long-Term Opportunity and Challenge .)

As a result of the interplay of these political, economic and regional forces Tajikistan now faces the threat of three actual or impending crises at once: First, there is the immediate and highly visible economic crisis caused by the closely interrelated threats to energy, water and food security that were so painfully brought to light during the last winter (read The Impending Water Crisis in Central Asia: An Immediate Threat ) and that recently have been compounded by the country’s macroeconomic difficulties. At the root of this crisis is a combination of poor economic management, regional factors (barriers to trade and transit) and worldwide trends (food prices and global warming).

Second, and less visible so far, there is a potential crisis of domestic political stability. Popular frustration about the economic hardships and about deterioration of public services has so far been kept in bounds by the safety valve of outmigration and by the fact that Tajikistanis remember the suffering caused by the civil war and eschew violence to solve their problems. But these factors may not hold back a sense of anger and betrayal forever, unless the economic crisis is quickly and effectively resolved. A further risk to domestic political stability may come from tensions among key power centers in the country, although the opaque political process and the absence of free and strong media in Tajikistan make it difficult to judge this risk.

Third, there is a crisis in the external perception of Tajikistan, reversing what had been an improvement in its reputation and credibility. The news from Tajikistan reported to the world in the international press and electronic media today is generally bad. And some diplomats even talk about Tajikistan as a “failed state”. This turns off foreign investors, undermines donor support and makes it difficult to attract good staff and consultants for externally funded projects.

In the face if this triple crisis there are some positive signs: First, the government has begun to address its macroeconomic and structural issues in connection with a new IMF program. Second, traditional aid donors are pulling together in the face of the emerging crises, as witnessed by the immediate joint response to the food and energy problems since last winter, and by the preparation of a joint donor assistance strategy, an important coordination process that is now starting. The willingness shown by President Rakhmon and his economic team to engage in this process is encouraging. Third, new aid donors (including China, Iran and Russia) appear to be developing a realistic assessment of government capacities to administer inflows of aid and appear ready to engage with the traditional donors in seeking common approaches for an effective support of Tajikistan.

What can be done if Tajikistan is to work its way out of the triple crises that it faces. Foremost, the government will have to grasp the seriousness of the situation and work on all fronts – political, economic and regional – to address the challenges it faces. It will have to contain the immediate macro-economic, food and energy risks, while also signaling a clear commitment to reform its economic structure and management. It will have to introduce greater transparency and accountability, achieve greater market-driven efficiency, and create more favorable conditions for private investors from outside the traditional elite. This means a major reversal of political and economic directions of President Rakhmon and his cabinet and will not be easy. But for someone who has created peace out of the ashes of war, who has forged progress out of disaster, and who has conveyed a sense of smart realism when confronted with great challenges in the past, this should not be an insurmountable task. It does require the recognition that the long term prosperity and stability of the country, and hence also of its elite, is possible only with fundamental change.

Tajikistan’s external partners can help bring about this change in direction. First, they should not write-off Tajikistan as a “failed state”. The country is a “fragile state” in the sense that it’s public and private capacities, institutions and policies are weak and under pressure. However, there is no inevitability to the country’s failure or its government’s inability of managing a transition to a better future. Tajikistan is a regionally and geopolitically important country where principled, clear-sighted and constructive engagement is necessary and appropriate.

Second, the donor community, including China, Iran and Russia, needs to pull together in engaging the President and his government and in supporting the country at this critical stage. It appears that the government is open to a serious engagement and indeed most of the internal critics of the current political establishment look to the outside partners for strong engagement.

Third, the external partners should focus on a limited number of key steps that will signal the government’s commitment to serious change: (a) effective implementation of the agreed IMF program (with its welcome emphasis on state-owned enterprise reforms in addition to the traditional macro economic stabilization measures); (b) reform of agricultural policies and institutions, especially in the critical cotton sector; (c) improvements in the investment climate, guided by a newly set-up Investment Council supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; and (d) effective engagement in the management of the immediate food and energy crisis.

Fourth, the international community should engage in helping improve the regional context which Tajikistan faces. This relates to the preparedness of the short term water and energy crisis , to cooperation on the long-term development of the region’s water and energy resources , and to improvements in its transport and trade links with the rest of the world. [4]

In sum, Tajikistan faces three mutually reinforcing crises, each presenting severe challenges to the government and to the donor community on the ground. However, every crisis contains the seeds of opportunity. In the case of Tajikistan, the biggest opportunity now is that the current challenges will energize the government to move forward with urgently needed actions and reforms and will call attention to the need for effective and well coordinated support of the international community. Tajikistan’s success in overcoming its current challenges will be critical for the long-term prosperity and stability of Central Asia.

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[1] Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, “International Peacemaking in Tajikistan and Afghanistan Compared: Lessons Learned and Unlearbed.” Les Etudes du CERI , No. 143, April 2008. Centre d’etudes et d recherches internationals, Sciences Po, Paris.

[2] Stina Torjesen and S. Neil MacFarlane, “R before D: the case of post conflict reintegration in Tajikistan”, Conflict, Security & Development, Vol. 7 (2), June 2007

[3] See the official website of CAREC for more information: www.adb.org/carec

[4] See UNDP, Central Asia Human Development Report , New York, 2005 http://europeandcis.undp.org/archive/?wspc=CAHDR2005

Global Economy and Development

Central Asia

Ian Seyal, Greg Wright

September 20, 2024

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September 18, 2024

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• Globaledge - Tajikistan: Introduction
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The area now called Tajikistan has an ancient culture , and many popular traditions and customs have been retained.

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Tajik cuisine has noticeable similarities to others in the region, including rice, bread, and meat as staples and the use of subtle spices. Meals begin with drinks, usually green tea, and a spread of fruits, nuts, and sweets. Traditional dishes include osh , seasoned rice with meat and carrots or turnips, and qurutob , which is made by pouring cheese over fatir bread and topping it with onions or other vegetables. Non bread accompanies meals and is treated with significant respect—it cannot be dropped, turned upside down, or have anything placed on top of it.

Tajikistanis celebrate both cultural and religious holidays. The New Year celebration, known as Navrūz (Nōrūz), begins on March 21, during the period of the vernal equinox . Smaller festivals are celebrated upon the first flowering of snowdrops and tulips in the spring. Religious celebrations include Idi Ramazon ( see Eid al-Fitr ) and Idi Qurbon ( see Eid al-Adha ). International Women’s Day is a national holiday in Tajikistan.

Writers from this region have made notable contributions to literature since the 10th century ce , and a vigorous folk literature continues. Tajik literature stems from a broader Persian literary tradition that can be traced back to the poet Rūdakī . Tajiks consider the Shāh-nāmeh to be the national epic and cherish the work of Rūmī . A number of Tajik poets and novelists achieved fame during the 20th century. They included Abdalrauf Fitrat , whose dialogues Munazärä (1909; The Dispute ) and Qiyamät (1923; Last Judgment ) have been reprinted many times in Tajik, Russian, and Uzbek , and Sadriddin Ayni , known for his novel Dokhunda (1930; The Mountain Villager ) and for his autobiography, Yoddoshtho (1949–54; published in English as Bukhara ). Both Fitrat and Ayni were bilingual, writing in Uzbek and Tajik. Abū al-Qāsim Lāhūtī’s poem Taj va bayraq (1935; Crown and Banner ) and Mirzo Tursunzade’s Hasani arobakash (1954; Hasan the Cart Driver ) responded to the changes of the Soviet era. The latter’s lyric cycle Sadoyi Osiyo (1956; The Voice of Asia ) won major communist awards. A number of female writers, notably the popular poet Gulrukhsor Safieva, circulated their work in newspapers, magazines, and Tajik-language collections.

The Tajik National Theatre, which was established in 1929, long presented opera , ballet, musical comedy , and puppetry. Regional theatres and troupes later appeared in towns such as Nau. Tajik studios have produced feature films and documentaries and have dubbed films from elsewhere. Radio and television services expanded during the later decades of Soviet rule, and Dushanbe has had a television centre since 1960. Broadcasting and the performing arts suffered deep cutbacks after 1985, however, when Soviet subsidies diminished and then ceased entirely. The Tajik National Library, constructed to look like an open book, demonstrates the pride Tajiks place in their literary heritage. Housing about six million items and providing about 484,000 square feet (45,000 square metres) of space, it is the largest library in Central Asia. It overlooks the magnificent Rūdakī Park, at the opposite end of which sits the National Museum of Tajikistan, featuring both historical and archaeological exhibits.

National sports, with centuries of rich cultural underpinnings, include gushtingiri (traditional Tajik wrestling) and chavgonbozi (a form of polo ). Another popular traditional sport is buzkashī —a sport similar to polo that involves seizing and retaining control of a goat carcass instead of hitting a ball. Dilshod Nazarov won the country’s first Olympic gold medal after competing in the men’s hammer throw in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games .

The Tajiks are the direct descendants of the Iranian peoples whose continuous presence in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan is attested from the middle of the 1st millennium bce . The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm (Khorezm) and Bactria , which formed part of Transoxania (Sogdiana). They were included in the empires of Persia and Alexander the Great , and they intermingled with such later invaders as the Kushāns and Hepthalites in the 1st–6th centuries ce . Over the course of time, the eastern Iranian dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to Farsi, a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan.

The Arab conquest of Central Asia that began in the mid-7th century brought Islam to the region. But tribal feuds weakened the Arabs, and, with the rise of the Sāmānids (819–999), the Tajiks came under the rule of an Iranian dynasty . The first Turkic invaders (from the northeast) seized this area of Transoxania in 999, and, because both conquered and conquerors were Muslim, in time many Tajiks—especially those in the valleys of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya—became Turkicized. This resulted in the transformation of a formerly purely Iranian land into “Turkistan.” The name Tajik, originally given to the Arabs by the local population, came to be applied by Turkic invaders and overlords to those elements of the sedentary population that continued to speak Iranian languages .

Until the mid-18th century the Tajiks were part of the emirate of Bukhara , but then the Afghans conquered lands south and southwest of the Amu Darya with their Tajik population, including the city of Balkh , an ancient Tajik cultural centre.

Russian conquests in Central Asia in the 1860s and ’70s brought a number of Tajiks in the Zeravshan and Fergana valleys under the direct government of Russia , while the emirate of Bukhara in effect became a Russian protectorate in 1868.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917 , a considerable proportion of the Tajik people was included in the Turkestan A.S.S.R. established in April 1918. In August 1920 the Revolution was extended to the khanate of Bukhara, which embraced most of the territory occupied by modern Tajikistan; the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic was declared in October 1920, and early in 1921 the Soviet army captured Dushanbe and Kŭlob ( Kulyab ). Tajikistan was the scene of the Basmachi revolt in 1922–23, and rebel bands under Ibrahim Bek operated in eastern Bukhara until 1931. The Tajik A.S.S.R. was created as part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (S.S.R.) in 1925; in January 1925 a Special Pamirs region was created out of the Kyrgyz and Tajik parts of the Pamirs, and in December 1925 this region was renamed the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region. In 1929 the status of the Tajik A.S.S.R. was raised to that of a Soviet socialist republic . The change in status marked the first time that the Tajik people had their own state, albeit not a fully independent one, as it was still part of the Soviet Union.

As a full-fledged member of the Soviet Union , the underdeveloped, mountainous Tajik S.S.R. underwent a spectacular social and economic transformation. A sense of nationhood was instilled in the Tajik people—particularly by B.G. Gafurov, the leader of Tajikistan’s Communist Party from 1946 to 1956 and a historian respected in the West. Dams were constructed for electric power generation and irrigation, and industry was developed in the Vakhsh River valley. Soviet health care and education were gradually introduced in the republic. The village of Dushanbe (known as Stalinabad from 1929 to 1961) was transformed into a modern capital city boasting the Tajik State University (1951) and the Tajik Academy of Sciences (1948). Such progress notwithstanding , Tajikistan remained the poorest republic of the Soviet Union.

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Smallest and the most mountainous of all the Central Asian nations, Tajikistan is bordered by Afghanistan on the south, by China on the east, by Kyrgyzstan on the north, and by Uzbekistan on the north and west. Culturally, its national identity is complicated by its ethnic ties and outside influences.

Despite the political, economic and cultural links with other nations of Central Asia, the Tajiks share close ethnic relationship with the Iranian people and other Tajik groups living in northeastern Afghanistan. The Tajik and Persian lan­guages are closely related and are mutually intelligible.

Farming is the major economic activ­ity, with cotton growing as the leading crop produced. Raising of livestock—in­cluding long-horned cattle, Gissar sheep and goats—and the cultivation of fruits, grains (primarily wheat, rice, and barley) and vegetables are important. Horticulture has been traditionally important, and apri­cots, pears, apples, cherries, grapes, pomegranates, figs and nuts are widely grown.

Almonds and dried apricots are the country’s important exports. Only 7 per­cent of the land is arable, three-fourths of which is under irrigation. Agriculture in Tajikistan depends to a large extent on irri­gation, developed during the 1930s by the Soviet government and extended after World War II. Modern agriculture has relied on the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the rivers descending from the Tajikistan have been carrying large amounts of pollutants into and through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Tajikistan is rich in mineral wealth, such as coal, iron, lead, antimony, zinc, gold, tin, and tungsten. Large reserves of natural gas and petroleum also exist, fair amounts of which are produced. Natural gas is exported after meeting meager do­mestic needs whereas most of the petroleum produced is consumed domesti­cally.

Besides gas and petroleum, other energy resources include sizable coal de­posits and hydroelectric power, but most of the electric power produced in the country is hydroelectric, obtained by the utilization of waters of the fast-flowing mountain streams.

Major power stations operate on the Syr Darya and the Vaksh River. A new hydroelectric power station was built in 1994 with assistance from Rus­sia and Pakistan. The chief mining areas are in the north. Coal mining and oil ex­traction began earlier than the extraction of natural gas which was started in the mid 1960s.

Tajikistan’s industry is based mainly on its agricultural production and consists of a dozen cotton mills and a few silk fac­tories, and on the extraction and processing of the country’s mineral re­sources (predominantly natural gas and petroleum). The biggest cotton-milling center is at the capital, Dushanbe.

Other light industries include the manufacture of knitted goods, leather tanning, and food- processing industries (including the processing of fruits, vegetable oils and to­bacco). Metalworking consists of the manufacture of power equipment, cables, agricultural and household implements.

As most of Tajikistan is mountainous, nearly two-thirds of its surface is covered with bare rock, sand, permanent snow and trees. It is the least urbanized state in Central Asia. Settlements are mostly strung in the irrigated farming areas along the foothill regions which are turned into oases, with cotton plantations, gardens and vineyards.

The capital city of Dushanbe (592,400) is in the Gissar Valley in the southwestern part of the republic, on the medieval caravan route from China to the fabled cities of Samarkand and Bukhara (Uzbekistan). It is an important regional railroad junction. A leading cotton textile center of the state, it also produces silk, textile machinery, clothing, leather goods, tractor parts, and foodstuffs.

On account of the predominant moun­tainous terrain of the country, railroads are limited to only 554 miles (891 km) of track that carries nearly half of the coun­try’s freight. The Soviet government had constructed several roadways, most of which contain paved surfaces. Air connec­tions to the outside world include flights to Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and other Cen­tral Asian republics via Dushanbe. The principal imports are machinery, and in­dustrial products, and exports cotton yarn, natural gas and petroleum.

After the collapse of the USSR, Tajik­istan suffered seriously resulting from the disruptions of the trading system that de­pended heavily on the Soviet Union. Civil war broke out in 1992, and high inflation caused large-scale disaffection. Although the country joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1993, Russia continued to assist heavily.

Foreign aid by Iran and Pakistan, and in­ternal restructuring of the economy continued in 1994 and 1995, but the pace of “privatization” and movement toward market economy remained cautiously slow. The future economic development appeared to depend mostly on the coun­try’s as yet largely unexploited mineral reserves, as well as the established cotton industry.

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Tajikistan as a Nondemocratic State

Tajikistan is a country with limited democracy and political stability. Countries such as Japan and the UK are democratic, making them better positioned to advance in most aspects than Tajikistan. Tajikistan has a distinct political system with a strong central authority, little political pluralism, and restrictions on civil freedoms, distinct from countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. The system is shaped by geography, economy, culture, population, social identity, and interactions.

Tajikistan’s difficult administration and development have resulted from physically hostile geography, including high mountain ranges and deep valleys. The country’s mountains encompass more than 90% of its land, which impedes infrastructural development and economic integration. Inaccessible and remote places may have difficulties receiving basic services and participating in the larger economy, resulting in disparities in development and governance throughout the nation. Also, Tajikistan’s great position in Central Asia greatly affects its foreign policy goals and security, especially concerning its neighbors and important groups. Thus, both infrastructural and political advancements tend to be a challenge to the country.

Tajikistan’s economy relies on remittances from migrant workers abroad, mainly in Russia and other Commonwealth Independent States, making it vulnerable. Remittances supporting many individuals and local economies greatly affect Tajikistan’s GDP (Hamed, 2022). Tajikistan’s dependence on foreign funding makes it sensitive to global economic shifts and migration policy changes in destination nations. The country’s weak industrialization and inadequate infrastructure hinder its diversification and long-term development, worsening its financial problems. Islamic practices and Soviet legacies define Tajikistan’s culture. Islam, a basic part of society’s rules, beliefs, and practices, affects family dynamics, relationships, and community celebrations. The history of the Soviet Union has also had an impact on Tajikistan’s language, educational system, and administrative structure. Therefore, the overreliance on foreign aid makes it difficult to promote Tajik culture and language since, for example, the Russian language and culture influence certain Tajiks.

Tajikistan has a diversified ethnic mix and a young population. Although Tajiks are the majority, Uzbeks, Russians, and Pamiris comprise the nation’s demographics. Tajik ethnic diversity affects social dynamics, political representation, and identity formation. A centralized political system attempts to reconcile majority and minority rights. Tajikistan’s youthful population presents opportunities and challenges for economic progress and social stability (Marat, 2021). Youth unemployment and political unhappiness are concerns. Historical narratives, cultural symbols, and political ideas in Tajikistan constitute its national identity, making it hard to describe. After Tajikistan’s independence from the USSR, Tajik nationalism has been a major focus in its state-building. Maintaining Tajik culture, language, and traditions fosters national identification and belonging in Tajikistan. Focusing on Tajik nationalism may lead to minority exclusion and ethnic clashes. Authoritarian governance and civil liberties also shape national identity and state relations. It promotes national unity under ruling class leadership.

Tajikistan’s connections with other countries are shaped by its authoritarian leaders and ties to other countries in the area. Along with Russia, China, and other CIS members, it has close relations with neighboring countries that share similar political views and governing styles (Shadrina, 2020). Tajikistan’s foreign policy is shaped by this agreement, which includes economic links, regional unity, and working together on national security. As little as possible, Tajikistan works with Western states and other groups outside of the West to protect human rights. Stability, safety, and economic growth are more important to Tajikistan than democracy changes and politics opening up.

In conclusion, Tajikistan is not a democratic state because of its unique political system, which differs from the democratic standards used by countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. Tajikistan’s government model is based on centralized power, limited political diversity, and limits on civil freedoms. These factors include geography, economy, society, demographics, national identity, and foreign relations. By understanding these differences, one may be well-versed with different types of political systems and how they affect society, government, and foreign ties on a global scale.

Hamed, A. M. (2022).  Remittance: A New Instrument for Change–Understanding the Impact of Remittances on Home Countries Development  (Doctoral dissertation, Old Dominion University). https://shorturl.at/lmQS3

Marat, U. (2021). China’s Emerging Political and Economic Dominance in the OSCE Region.  Between Peace and Conflict in the East and the West: Studies on Transformation and Development in the OSCE Region , 95-116. https://shorturl.at/emHU2

Shadrina, E. (2020). Post-Soviet Integration: Case of Eurasian Economic Union. In  WASEDA GLOBAL FORUM  (Vol. 16, pp. 103-132). Waseda University.

https://shorturl.at/ivDHK

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20 Years Later, Tajikistan Rewrites Civil War History

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“So much has gone awry that most… produce little more than puzzled expressions when asked who is to blame.”

On June 28, 1997 the New York Times ran a few sentences from the Associated Press on page two about the formal end of the Tajik Civil War:

Tajikistan’s president and a rebel leader signed a pact in Moscow formally ending the five years of civil war that ravaged the newly independent country. President Boris N. Yeltsin presided over the signing by President Emomali Rakhmonov and the rebel leader, Said Abdullo Nuri, at a Kremlin ceremony.

Twenty years later, both Yeltsin and Nuri are dead and Rahmon (having dropped the -ov from his name) stands alone claiming the title “ The Founder of Peace and National Unity — Leader of the Nation .”

The peace agreement that ended the war is also dead. Core features — such as the incorporation of opposition representatives into the government, meeting a 30 percent quota and drawback of media restrictions — either never were implemented in full or have been eroded over time. The United Tajik Opposition is no more, and its major component, the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT), has been hounded from government after nearly 20 years of trying to participate in the system. The supposed guarantors of the peace accord — regional states like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as well as the United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) — have sat relatively idle as Rahmon consolidated his position.

There’s no doubting that the war was horrible. Bruce Pannier noted as much recently , writing about atrocities committed on both sides. (Also check out the Majlis podcast on this topic ). Estimates vary wildly, but somewhere between 25,000 and 100,000 people died over the course of the five-year civil war.

In January 1997, a foreign correspondent by the name of Steve LeVine filed a story from Tursunzade, Tajikistan. The article, titled “Tajiks Talk of Peace Between Battles” explains some of the chaos present as the country lurched toward a peace settlement. W hile Rahmon now claims the mantle of a peacemaking unifier, LeVine outlined a more dismissive view back in 1997:

One problem is that Mr. Rakhmanov does not command much respect among the faction leaders he must impress. The former director of a collective farm, Mr. Rakhmanov rose to power in 1992 when Tajikistan’s strongest faction leader — who has since died in a shootout — anointed him as someone who should be president. Mr. Rakhmonov has hung on to power with the support of those who count — Russia and Tajikistan’s other conciliatory faction chiefs, who prop him up and are unlikely to accept any settlement with the rebels short of capitulation. With such a weak president, the nation is flush not only with rebel commanders who do as they please, but also with ostensible government officers who ignore the central government, which lacks the power to discipline the wayward.

Rahmon has cleverly crafted strength from weakness, outfoxing his opponents, clinging to power and rewriting his own place in history. The 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda’s holing up in Afghanistan, and the ensuing Global War on Terror provided an opportunity for Rahmon to reorient how the outside world (and the Tajik public, too) thought about the civil war. What was a complex and messy mix of post-Soviet politics, post-communist religious revival, and a scramble for power with ethnic and communal facets has since been simplified.

In the June issue of The Diplomat Magazine , Christian Bleuer reviewed the civil war and its legacy in present-day Tajikistan, noting how the government frames the civil war issue in modern discourse:

Whenever anybody advocates mobilizing for democratic change or the guarantee of human rights in Tajikistan, the Tajik government answers in the same way, arguing that reckless actions like protests, meetings, or the formation of new social movements or political parties would only create dangerous divisions and could even throw Tajikistan into a civil conflict just like Syria, for example (the country that serves as a warning changes occasionally, depending on what warzone is most prominent in the news).

Celebrating the anniversary of the peace accord in Vahdat on June 27, Rahmon never quite mentioned who the peace was settled with. He stressed the need for unity without acknowledging the causes of division.

Tajik journalist Bakhtiyor Sobiri wrote recently in an article for Open Democracy , that visitors to Dushanbe’s new Chinese-built Tajik national museum “may find it strange that the exhibition on ‘modern and contemporary history of Tajikistan’ makes no mention of the civil war. At Rahmon’s decree, these bloody years have no place in the national museum. The only acceptable way to speak about the war publicly is when attacking the opposition.”

Twenty years after the war ended, many of the major players are in their graves or behind bars. But as Bleuer, and many other regional scholars, have pointed out, the war may be over, the peace mostly in place, but the future of Tajikistan remains bleak.

LeVine’s January 1997 article included this evergreen sentence, which is as good a place to leave this discussion as any other:

So much has gone awry that most diplomats and local scholars produce little more than puzzled expressions when asked who is to blame.

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U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan

Social / search, between the lines (btl): peace and the writing experience.

Dates: July 10 – July 24, 2021 (online)

The U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan announces an open competition for the 2021 “Between the Lines: Peace and the Writing Experience (BTL)” Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. BTL: Peace and the Writing Experience will bring together 40 international and 10 U.S.-based students, ages 15-18, for two weeks of intensive BTL summer programming hosted online by the International Writing Program (IWP) and the University of Iowa (UI). All programming is conducted in English and includes creative writing workshops, world literature seminars, literary readings and Q&As with visiting authors, youth and mentor conversation sessions, social opportunities for cultural exchange, as well as group and individual writing assignments outside of class. The virtual program is free of cost for all selected participants.

Eligibility for the Between the Lines: Peace and the Writing Experience Program:

• Applicants must be a citizen of the country in which they apply for the BTL Program.
• Applicants must be between the ages of 15 and 18 as of July 10, 2021.
• Applicants must be proficient in English (reading, writing, and speaking); and able to participate effectively in online intercultural exchange.

To apply, submit the following materials to [email protected] no later than March 24, 2021 . Incomplete applications will not be considered.

a) An International Student Application Form (PDF 245 KB).

b) A writing sample of 6–8 pages of prose (creative fiction/nonfiction) and/or poetry in English. Critical essays (book reports, academic reports, and so forth) will not be accepted. Document types accepted: PDF, DOC, DOCX. All writing samples must be sent in 12-point font, double-spaced, and have one-inch margins.

c) An essay, in English, of no more than three pages in response to the following prompt: “In our daily lives, we navigate many different roles—student, sibling, daughter, son, peer. We negotiate family, friends, religious groups, as well as class, gender, race, country, and so many other groups, adjusting the way we speak or behave to fit the demands of each encounter. As we move through the day, we work through how and why we occupy each particular role. What do you consider to be the strongest, most central aspects of your identity? What does it mean to you to be a member of (or seen as a member of) a particular group? In what way does your identity influence you as a creative writer and reader?”

d) A brief response (no longer than 300 words) to the following: “An essential component of Between the Lines is encouraging participants to explore the unfamiliar and unknown in a safe and supportive setting. Please describe a time in your past when you had to engage with a new situation, person, or idea that initially felt uncomfortable or strange. How did you proceed? If you had the chance, what would you do the same, and what would you do differently?”

e) A brief statement of purpose (no more than 250 words), in English, describing why writing is important to the applicant’s life, and what he/she hopes to learn at BTL.

Language Skills: All participants must have the ability to read, write, and converse in English. During the two-week program, students will take a writing-focused literature seminar—in English—with their American and international counterparts. They will also participate in a writing workshop with BTL faculty. Active discussion is an essential element of instruction.  

By U.S. Embassy Dushanbe | 17 February, 2021 | Topics: Education

Fulbright Specialist Program

2025-2026 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program

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• Current affairs

• Contemporary art

The history of modern Tajik art history rarely mentions the existence of a naive trend in the country’s fine arts.

However, in her introduction to the publication Essays on the Artists of Tajikistan , one of the most famous art historians of Tajikistan, the late Lutfiya Aini (1934–2015)—the youngest daughter of the founder of Soviet Tajik literature and prominent public figure Sadriddin Aini (1878–1954)—casually mentions the work of painter A. Kamelin displayed at a 1961 exhibition of Tajik fine arts, writing that “his works combine the academic solution of composition in a painting, understood as an expanded three-dimensional space of stage action …. with a touch of primitivism as a style, as an immediacy of world perception.”

Despite the official statement that naive artists are not prevalent in the country, they still exist. The objective of this work is to define naivety in the visual arts of Tajikistan as a form of self-expression by artists with a high level of artistic education.

Almost all Tajik artists of the Soviet period were educated in the key art universities of the former Soviet Union: Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Vilnius, etc. Since then, all active visual artists have been educated at the National Art University named after Mirzo Tursunzade. Despite their premier education, they consciously use primitivistic approaches in their artistry. This may be considered inevitable in the sense that the social order forces artists to apply naivety in their work in order to indicate their reflection on reality and document the current state of society.

Lolisanam Ulugova, pictured with visual artist Murod Sharifov’s (b. 1984) canvases “Cow,” 110х110, c/o, 2010. and “Bull,” 110х110, c/o, 2010

Lolisanam Ulugova

Lolisanam has been an art manager in Tajikistan since 2000. She has contributed to writing and producing the nation’s first 3-D animation film, a short designed to promote awareness of environmental issues among children. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Turin, Italy and an undergraduate degree in Russian Language and Literature. She was a Global Cultural Fellow at the Institute for International Cultural Relations at the University of Edinburgh and participated in the Central Asian-Azerbaijan (CAAFP) fellowship program at the George Washington University at Elliott School of International Affairs for Fall 2019.

Art critic Rauf Muradov (1939–2015), in his preface to the album of the visual arts of Tajikistan, writes that “After the Arab invasion, rock paintings, monumental murals of Penjikent, Shahristane and Ajinateppe historic sites gradually began to disappear and subsequently almost completely ceased to exist. This was due to the spread of Islam, in particular its denial of the possibility of perceiving a deity in the form of a visual image, which served as the basis for the persecution of idolatry and icon painting. Later, zealous adherents of Islam extended this ban to depictions of people and animals.”

In spite of these prohibitions, the creative energy of people cannot be stopped, so all thoughts or reflections on reality have turned into ornaments of decorative art that metaphorically describe the life around them.

Nature remains the main theme of visual art. Muradov mentions “the special passion of artists for depicting nature, the multifaceted use of landscape motifs that help to reveal the ideological content of the work. This passion for landscape has its own historical and social roots. This was influenced to a certain extent by the traditions laid down in the first years of the development of Soviet fine arts in Tajikistan. Constant and deep communication with nature has developed among Tajik artists a certain structure of the plein air language of painting, which distinguishes their works.”

Besides a craving to display nature, there was and continues to be a desire to use elements and patterns of traditional Tajik culture. In addition to natural landscapes, almost all the works of modern Tajik artists are filled with elements of decorative and applied art: whistles in the shape of dragons, clay and rag toys, earthenware and glazed national dishes of various shapes, decorated bowls and vases, metal jugs… Looking at the country’s decorative art, one can learn about the soul of the people, their ideas about beauty and goodness, their fantasies and dreams.

An important type of visual art that developed under the Islamic prohibition on depicting the human image was Kundal , an ornamental painting technique. Here, each image becomes an element of an ornamental composition that focuses on geometric motifs. Kundal involves the application of gilt and silver paint to a relief clay base and was widely used in architecture as well as in panels/paintings. The cross and the swastika were of particular importance in Tajik culture, expressing harmony and health. The swastika had a special significance in the culture of the ancient Tajiks, denoting the four elements of nature (water, soil, air, and fire). The triangle was the symbol of a woman, hence why applied arts feature many triangle-shaped amulets.

One must also mention woodcarving as a significant form of folk applied art. Woodcarving attained a high level thanks to the skills of amateur artist Sirojiddin Nuriddinov (1919-1995). Ideologically, his panels reflected the Soviet reality, but he made portraits of the poets and heroes of Persian literature. In his works, he employed traditional forms of oriental architecture and ornamental art. The main achievements of the artist’s work were elevating the craft of woodcarving to the status of fine art and giving it the grace of sculpture.

Naive techniques are used by many artists in Tajikistan, including Farrukh Negmatzade, Akmal Mirshakar, Vladimir Glukhov, and Maksud Mirmukhamedov.

Farrukh Negmatzade (born 1959) is one of the brightest representatives of the country’s fine arts. The artist has experimented with all genres and styles of fine art: abstract (early works), nude (Green and Orange, Blue and White exhibition in 2004), and monumental (Red and Gray series reflecting the Soviet past and present of the country). Since 2005, he has painted rural landscapes, depicting rural life through the eyes of a city dweller. Significantly, this series of works—seasonal landscapes featuring individuals who look similar to cartoon characters—has become popular and enjoyed commercial success.

The naive element of childish or cartoony characters has made his signature style recognizable among the country’s art community. Looking at his paintings, one can understand how the country lives now. The artist often goes to bazaars, mosques, and kishlaks (villages) to collect material for his work. Reflecting the social situation on the ground, he rarely mixes female characters with male characters.

Akmal Mirshakar (born 1961) is the youngest son of Mirsaid Mirshakar (1912–1993), a famous poet and public figure of Soviet Tajikistan. The artist is a colorist, applying a sense of humor to the decorativeness that reflects the reality of his country. His people have similar faces to those in medieval frescoes, as if they have descended from those canvases to visit his country. Female figures wear dry expressions, likely reflecting the worries and hardships of life. In his few (mostly early) works depicting men, their faces are full of anxiety. His female images are resonant with a sense of perseverance and vitality: they are in a constant hurry, whether on their way to visit someone or to shop. Mirshakar may have been the first in Tajikistan to use Warhol’s portrait of actress Marilyn Monroe on his canvases.

Despite the traditional way in which he depicts his characters, he is extremely modern. His work keeps its finger on the pulse, focusing on the synthesis of modernity and archaism as a defining characteristic of his society.

Maksud Mirmukhamedov (born 1986) quickly moved away from the canons of academicism and became serious about decorativeness, boldly using elements of traditional culture and primitivism. The artist deploys the whole range of signs and symbols that abound in Tajik culture, including the pomegranate, a symbol of family—and fertility, without which a family in the traditional sense is not possible; the bird, a poetic symbol of love or the soul of a beloved who has flown in to talk with his beloved; and the cage, which represents a trap or obstacles to freedom.

All Mirmukhamedov’s works are about himself, his family, and the people that surround him. Thinking about children as a continuation of himself and the family is the fundamental theme of his work.

Vladimir Glukhov (1961–2018) was a Russian-Tajik artist who absorbed all the colors and shades of the nature and culture of Tajikistan. His characters are fantastic, unrealistic, and funny, full of the grotesque and humor. The artist purposely indicates an exaggeration of reality, a reflection of his invented reality. It has been said that “The features of European Fauvism are manifested in the works of Vladimir Glukhov. The color symbolism inherent in his work, combined with elements of folklore, gives contemporaries a reason to call the artist ‘Russian Gauguin.’” Although I personally do not see Gauguin in this artist, I do see him as a bright representative of naive art.

Summing up, I would like to emphasize that the term naivety has a negative connotation and should be replaced, on the recommendation of Tajik artists, with a more accurate description of artists’ works. In fact, it is the norm for highly skilled artists to use techniques of primitivism and move between academism and primitivism. Naivety is not only a direction of primitivism, but also a state of mind in which an artist sometimes allegorically, sometimes realistically, softly, exaltedly conveys the reality he has seen. The artist uses a different metaphor, employing the rich traditional culture of a people whose semiotics is full of various signs, symbols, and hints.

Artists in Tajikistan are well aware of the importance of the visual naivety of artistic expression. They may even naively believe that the allegorical nature of their works will be understood among the younger generation. The most important thing is to recognize that naivety is not superficial, frivolous or sugary, but an equal direction for artistic self-expression in the country. With this vital recognition, Tajik artists can take their place among the global naive art community.

Acknowledgments :

i. Artist Karim Nazhmiddinov (born 1958)

ii. Art critic Larisa Dodkhudoeva (born 1947)

iii. Public figure Ilkhom Abdulloev (born 1977)

iv. People’s artist of the Republic of Tajikistan Savzali Sharipov (born 1946) and his son,

v. Artist Murod Sharipov (born 1984)

References :

1) Lutfiya Aini, ed., Essays on the Artists of Tajikistan (Dushanbe: Donish, 1975), 21.

2) Law of the Republic of Tajikistan on Public Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan No. 946, March 19, 2013.

3) UNESCO and IFES, “Art and Aesthetic Education in the Republic of Tajikistan: Issues and Prospects for the Development of Creative Abilities in the XXI Century” (Dushanbe, 2010).

4) Rauf Muradov, foreword, Landscape of the Mountainous Region (Dushanbe: Irfon, 1986).

5) A.A. Tikhonova, “The Symbol of the Swastika: Archetypal Meaning, History and Modernity,” Vestnik MGUKI 6 (68) (November-December 2015).

6) Larisa Dodkhudoeva, Tajik Graphic Art and Sculpture of the 20th Century (Dushanbe, 2006).

7) Firuz Ulmasov, ed., Tajik Art (Dushanbe: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2002), 22.

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Preparing to Write an Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide

Oluwadara Adetula

In this article, share article.

So you’ve been given an assignment to write an essay, or you just want to flex the muscles of your writing skills. You may be unsure where to start at first, but with the right approach, you will soon get the hang of it. Writing an essay can be an engaging and rewarding process.

Whether you’re preparing for an assignment or an exam, following a few simple steps will help you feel confident and organised. Let’s explore how to prepare yourself before putting pen to paper.

6 Steps to Write Your Essay

1. understand the topic.

Before you write an essay, take a moment to understand what the topic is asking. What is the main question or task? Are you supposed to explain, argue, or describe something? Take your time to break down the topic and make sure you know exactly what’s expected.

2. Do Your Research

Once you understand the topic, gather information. Use your textbook, class notes, and trusted online sources to get facts and ideas. Remember, the better your research, the more interesting your essay will be. Keep track of the key points you find, as these will guide your writing.

3. Create an Outline

A great essay needs a plan. Before diving into writing, outline your ideas. Start with your introduction, where you’ll present the main idea. Then, plan your body paragraphs, each focusing on one idea with supporting evidence. Finally, think about how you’ll wrap up your essay in the conclusion.

4. Organise Your Thoughts

While outlining, make sure your ideas are well-organised. Each paragraph should flow logically into the next. This structure will make your essay easier to follow. When you write an essay with clear connections, your reader will find it easier to understand your points.

5. Think About Your Voice

Your essay should sound like *you*, not someone else. Use the language you’re most comfortable with and keep it clear and simple. Don’t worry about trying to sound too fancy. What’s most important is expressing your ideas in a way that’s easy to follow and understand.

6. Stay Relaxed

Writing doesn’t have to be stressful. Pause when you need to, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re stuck. The more relaxed you are, the more creative and focused your essay will be.

Preparing to write an essay is all about planning. Understand the topic, research thoroughly, create an outline, stay organised, and write. Writing becomes easier when you have a clear plan and stay true to your voice. Remember, essays are just a way to share your thoughts and ideas—so have fun with it!

In case you did not know, we have many amazing video lessons on the uLesson app that will help you improve your English skills, including writing, speaking, and reading. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, download it now , or use the web version . Enjoy 5 days of premium access when you register. But don’t let the fun stop; choose a learning plan so you have unlimited access for as long as you need!

Good luck, and happy writing!

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Letter from Dushanbe: can Tajik artists rebuild their capital in the aftermath of civil war?

With an upswell of authoritarianism and cultural conservatism, many of tajikistan's best and brightest have been forced outside of its borders. but this hasn't stopped a group of artists from trying to get tajik culture back on its feet. katherine long reports.

On the fifth floor of an iconic Soviet-era building now occupied largely by wedding dress parlours, overlooking the site of the first stirrings of unrest which eventually metastasised into Tajikistan’s five year-long civil war, Jamshed Kholikov flips through a glossy magazine of Central Asian art. Kholikov is one of the founders and directors of Dushanbe ArtGround, an arts centre with the goal of elevating digital media techniques and modern art practices. This is ArtGround’s studio and it is suffused with tenacious early-spring sunlight and the odour of instant coffee.

“He’s left… He’s left… She’s still here… He’s left but comes back to visit often.” The litany is of Tajik artists who no longer reside in Tajikistan. Lack of economic opportunity, an upswell of authoritarianism and cultural conservatism and Tajikistan’s virtual isolation from the global artistic community have forced the majority of the country’s best and brightest outside of its borders.

Jamshed Kholikov and students in Dushanbe ArtGround

Farrukh negmatzade, farrukh negmatzade’s studio, padida dance group at an abandoned summer theater in dushanbe.

It’s likely that many of those who’ve left Dushanbe wouldn’t recognise the city if they came back. Over the course of 25 years of Tajik independence, but especially in the past decade, Dushanbe has transformed radically. Long-term residents – prone, perhaps, to idealising the past – decry that what was once a cosmopolitan Soviet oasis known for its trees and fountains has become a polarised city of opulent high-rises and hardscrabble shanty-towns. They point to Tajikistan’s bitter 1992-97 Civil War, and the concurrent exodus of the majority of the city’s intelligentsia, who took with them decades of cultural memory and praxis, as the main factor in the city’s decline. Those who are left are cursed to exist in a living palimpsest, eternally comparing the city as it once was to post-war realities.

The war, despite having ended almost 20 years ago, continues to resonate at almost every level of society

The war, despite having ended almost 20 years ago, continues to resonate at almost every level of society. It is perhaps the single most important influence on cultural and artistic production, at least in Dushanbe. Yet like a black hole, it is most visible in the distorting effect its monolithic absence has on everything around it.

Don’t rock the boat: that’s the prevailing spirit here. “All of us are afraid of the country splintering again, and dissolving into chaos, the way it did during the war,” says Farrukh Negmatzade, perhaps Tajikistan’s best-known contemporary painter, bundled up against the early-April snow falling outside the stark white walls of his studio. “It’s not our job [as artists] to start a landslide, to start a movement. If we can refrain from criticism, perhaps it’s all the better.” Or, in the words of local heavy metal guitarist Jack Rock (a pseudonym): “No politics, no religion, no cursing. It’s what I say before every show and I mean it. There’s no need to create problems.”

Don’t rock the boat: that’s the prevailing spirit here

The Civil War haunts people here, with good reason. Well over 50,000 Tajiks lost their lives during the five year-long conflict between government forces and a coalition of Islamist democrats. Kholikov recalls the eight months Dushanbe was occupied by opposition forces as some of the worst in his life. “I remember the opposition fighters throwing bread out of the back of trucks to the starving populace. The fighters laughed and laughed as people dove and fought for the bread.”

Bahrom Ismatov, an up-and-coming artist, attended Dushanbe’s College of Painting during the war. “We didn’t have paper, we didn’t have pens. There was shooting in the street – we could hear it as we walked to class. We were terrified. Nothing could be worse than that experience,” he says. “And yet we studied. We worked.”

Bahrom Ismatov

Given the scale and collective trauma of the war, it’s surprising that Tajik visual artists inside the country choose not to exorcise their demons, instead sticking to a style Lola Ulugova, a local art collector, describes as “mountains, fields and corners of villages”; what British Ambassador Hugh Philpott, one of the most prominent boosters of Tajikistan’s art scene, called, not unkindly, “pretty pretty Tajik”.

Self-censorship and the looming weight of state control are also present in the Tajik music and theatre scenes, which have historically been home to some of the most perceptive voices of dissent and alarm. In the mid-noughties, after the crushing brutality of the civil war, Dushanbe’s music and theatre scenes began once again to flourish. Local musicians began experimenting with rap to express disappointment with the regime’s broken promises. A hard rock and heavy metal scene emerged. In theatre, internationally renowned directors Barzu Abdurazzakov and Sulton Usmonov, among others, put on plays including The Throne of Sultan Mahmud , about the corrupting influence of power, and Madness ‘93 , about the civil war.

Local freestyler Anton Rodin

View onto a construction site from within the courtyard of a stalinist apartment block, a child holds up a string of photo negatives from his childhood in a stalinist apartment block slated for demolition.

But around the turn of the decade, the state began restricting space for free expression. The Ministries of Culture and Education took a stand against rap music, declaring it to be antithetical to Tajik morality, and banning it in taxis and minibuses. The premier of Madness ‘93 was subject to considerable pressure and resulted in Abdurazzakov’s departure from Tajikistan. And after ShTAB, a Kyrgyzstan-based art collective, gave a surprise premiere of a work advocating radical political inclusivity in the Dushanbe ArtGround space, ArtGround leaders were hauled in front of the state security services for questioning, despite the fact they’d had no prior knowledge of ShTAB’s intentions.

More so than oppression, the role of the Tajik state with regard to cultural production is to exert an almost insurmountable force towards homogenisation

Yet the events comprising this quasi-crackdown seem out of proportion to the response from the artistic community, which has bent over backwards to impose restrictions on its own speech in line with the Ministries’ direction. Tajik rap is now infamously patriotic. Theatre is so tentative that even the President, in his latest Navruz address, called for bolder scripts. More so than oppression, the role of the Tajik state with regard to cultural production is to exert an almost insurmountable force towards homogenisation, a single set of approved themes and forms, much in the way that Dushanbe is rapidly being colonised by skyscrapers as indistinguishable and prolific as mushrooms.

Dushanbe used to be the Mecca of Soviet theatre, or so the phrase went, but today “Tajik theatre is dead” – according to Khurshed Mustafaev, an actor and director in the Mayakovsky theatre group. Audience numbers are down, the country’s best directors have left for greener pastures, and dramaturgy is a lost art in Tajikistan’s resource-strained universities.

Dushanbe used to be the Mecca of Soviet theatre, or so the phrase went

Theatre was struck a fatal blow last year when the city government proceeded in the face of intense public criticism with the demolition of Dushanbe’s Mayakovsky Theatre, a 1924 Constructivist building which had originally served as the House of Agricultural Workers and in which Tajikistan’s formal accession to the Soviet Union was declared in 1929. To add insult to injury, nothing has been done with the site of the theatre, which remains an empty lot, roped off, carpeted in rich green lawn, in the centre of the city.

The theatre was a home for many of the city’s countercultural elements, or what Jack Rock calls the “cultural ghetto” of Russian- and English-speaking intelligentsia. During the civil war, the Mayakovsky group toured the front to entertain government forces, but it also hosted rock concerts in its theatre.

Preparations for performance of Confessions of Omar Khayyam by Mayakovsky Theatre Group in their temporary space

Daler mihtojov, daler mihtojov’s studio.

“The building was more than just a building: it was a web, a system of human relationships. It was a piece of clockwork: you turned on the lights and all the parts would come to life. The costume makers in their room, the administrators in their room, the actors…” says Mustafaev. “Now, when I travel in that direction, I don’t look outside the window of the taxi; I take a different street to avoid passing it on foot. It was our home, and now it’s gone. The field where the theatre once was is the cemetery of Tajik culture.”

Many members of Dushanbe’s remaining cultural elite decry the rising tide of religion. Yet some artists have turned to Islam for inspiration in a way they would never have been able to do during the Soviet Union

The Mayakovsky group’s temporary home, the powder-blue Lohuti Theatre, faces one of the largest mosques in the city. On a recent Friday afternoon, Lohuti’s broad steps were thronged with groups of men chatting on their way back from prayer. As theatre attendance has declined over the past decade, mosque attendance has skyrocketed, fueled by rising Islamic conservatism. “[During the Soviet Union] when we put on productions at Lohuti, tickets were sold out a week before,” says Habibullo Abdurazzakov, one of the founders of Tajik theater (Barzu is his son). “No one went to mosques, they went to the theatre. The theatre was our religion!”

Many members of Dushanbe’s remaining cultural elite decry the rising tide of religion. Yet some artists have turned to Islam for inspiration in a way they would never have been able to do during the Soviet Union. The statue of Lenin which used to dominate Dushanbe’s main square now rests ignominiously among broken electric teakettles and the sound of lathes in the weedy backyard of the Artist’s Union. On an unseasonably cold Wednesday, artists gather in Daler Mihtojov’s second-floor studio to drink tea. In one corner of the quaintly cluttered room rests a stack of canvases freshly returned from an exhibit at the French Embassy. A practicing Muslim – he prays inside his studio – Mihtojov refrains from depicting the human form in his work; his exhibited series was inspired by the poetry of Omar Khayyam and featured motifs of vessels and windows. “Life’s good for us,” he says gently.

“If no one becomes interested in contemporary art in 10 or 15 years, I’ll close ArtGround,” Kholikov says. Kholikov is not alone in his pessimism about the future of Tajik art. “It’s important for collectors like me to buy Tajik art now,” says Ulugova, “because I don’t see any new artists coming up in the future.”

Escapism is almost a national obsession

Faced with bleak prospects, it’s no wonder so many Tajik artists have chosen to leave the country. Escapism is almost a national obsession. Border-hopping is one route, but if the crowds in the new western-style cafes dotting Dushanbe are any judge, the quietist residents of Tajikistan’s dusty capital are also happy succumbing to pacification by cappuccino.

Some argue that the city is bathed in apathy as much as in the blistering sunlight that is its hallmark, beating down on suppurating streets now bereft of the shade of trees. To many, it seems impossible that Dushanbe will regain even a shadow of the multiculturalism and vibrancy that they remember as its Soviet legacy . That’s likely true. For now, the city is dormant, licking its wounds, still trying to reckon with a past that creeps unasked into the present.

Text: Katherine Long Image: Katherine Long and Malika Khashimova

Letter from Abkhazia: a former jewel in the Soviet crown hoping to sparkle once more

Letter from Bishkek: Soviet utopia meets postmodern charm in Kyrgyzstan’s garden city capital

Letter from Nizhny Arkhyz: under the starry skies of the Caucasus, where art and science coalesce

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Country Profile of Tajikistan

• Word count: 5814
• Category: Country

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About The Country

• Origins and History

The name of the country is Tajikistan and it was ruled by Russians in the year 1860s as well as 1870s.[1] There was a serious contest as to the control of the Bolsheviks in the country and such control was later on established again in the year 1929. In the year1991, Tajikistan became independent as Soviet Union was disbanded.[2] Within the year 1992-1997, a civil war took place in Tajikistan and after its end there was a constant struggle to achieve a peaceful and democratic government. At present, there were opportunities of the country which led to existence of jobs and long-term stability conditions. Seeking World Trade Organization membership, the country is trying to change its status as the poorest in the former sphere in Soviet.

• Demographics

The ethnic groups of Tajikistan is composed of the Tajik which comprises 79.9 per cent, Uzbek having 15.3 per cent, Russian which is only 1.1 in percentage, Kyrgyz having 1.1 per cent and others comprising 2.6 per cent as of the year 2000 census.[3] With respect to its religious groups, Tajikistan is composed of 85 per cent Sunni Muslim, 5 per cent Shi’a Muslim, and others for about 10 per cent as of the year 2003 estimate.[4] For the age demographic or structure, there are about 1, 270, 289 males and 1, 226, 954 females of persons having the age of 0-14 years old or an equivalent to 34.6 per cent of the whole population.[5] For the age of 15-64 years old, about 61.7 per cent of them comprises the whole population and for 65 years old above comprises 3. 7 per cent or is equivalent to 113, 156 males and 153, 105 females in all. The languages of the people in Tajikistan are Tajik which is the official language and Russian which is widely used in government and business transactions.[6] The population of the country as of the year 2008 estimate is about 7, 211, 884 and most of them are living in cities.

Pertaining to the geography of Tajikistan, the place is landlocked and considered as the smallest in Central Asia in terms of area.[7] The country was covered by lakes and it was about 10 per cent in approximation. The environment of the country has insufficient sanitation facilities that it appears untidy. There is also an increasing level of salinity in its soil. Aside from that, one of the environmental problems in Tajikistan is the industrial pollution as well as massive and continuous use of pesticides. Since some of its natural hazards are earthquakes and floods, it follows that the unorganized environment of Tajikistan severed floods and other calamites. There is a necessity for the people of the country to faithfully implement environmental laws to save its devastated environmental conditions. Hence, Tajikistan is one of those countries that deserve guidance in terms of welfare matters.

Social Development Indicators

            The recent trends in human development as of the years 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 are as follows:

Table1. Comparison of Social Development Indicators[8]

            Poverty is extreme in Tajikistan as it was considered as the poorest among the past Soviet Union Blocks. Of all the people in the country, women are the most affected by wars and other calamities. Personal security of women is not established after the civil war such that many of them suffered in the country. After the civil war, women who worked in major industries were affected since these industries lost its business opportunity to operate. Hence, women were the first to lose their jobs after the civil war. There was a loss of the social safety net and that families find it hard to combat existing poverty. There was a low level of gross domestic product then. However, despite that situation, Human Development Index (HDI) for the country was 0.629 which is comparable to the 0. 649 averaged by nations classified by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as “medium” income countries.[9]

Government is an instrumentality to which the needs of the people are formulated, expressed and realized. It is also the body politic having the power of governing the constituents.[10] Applying this principle to the country of Tajikistan, there will be a realization of how the country struggled to gain economic, social and political strength after going through so many problems.

            2.1 Form of government

            Within the first years of independence, there was a chaotic politics in Tajikistan since there are people who wanted to lead the country in the guise of Soviet-style ruling. There was also a collection of politicians that belongs to the opposition group who wanted to establish a new administration. As such, a civil war ensued in the year 1992 wherein struggles between factions exist. Later on, a faction that favours the neo-Soviet system and the group that one the civil war due to the aid of Russian and Uzbekistani forces took over the reign of governance in the year 1992.[11]

            It is worthy to note that the highest-ranking Islamic figure of the country in the year 1991 was named Hajji Akbar Turajonzoda. In the 1991 elections in Tajikistan, Khudonarov received the highest number of votes despite the fact that his opponent named Nabiyev is very influential and popular. From all these events up to the time when the issues are brought before the international scene, the politics of the country has never become stable. There initiatives applied by the government and that were when peace talks was processed between the power-seekers. The most notable success on these peace talks was when ceasefire was recommended and accepted by the contesting parties in the month of October 2004.[12]

2.2 Government’s Organizational Chart

The initial independent government of Tajikistan conforms to parliamentary-ministerial governance. By then, there was a Constitution adopted by the country of Tajikistan of which its governmental structure is as follows:

Executive Department

            -the President is chosen by the people through election

            -the President appoints a Prime Minister

-under this department is the Council of Ministers which is composed of the fifteen members in addition to six deputy prime ministers, the chairmen of five state committees, the presidential adviser on national economic affairs, the secretary of the National Security Council, and the Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan.[13]

The Legislature

            -named as the Supreme Assembly

            -elected directly fro a term of 5 years

The Judiciary

-composed of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Economic Court, and the military court

-the procurator general is elected to a 5-year term in Tajikistan

The Local Government

-comprises of the republic level, the provinces, the districts, and then the cities having their own elected assemblies

-the chief executive is considered as the Chairman of each political unit or subdivision

2.3 List of Official Government Websites

            The list of official government websites in Tajikistan are as follows:

• Office of the President- http://www.prezident.tj/[14]
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs – http://www.mid.tj/[15]
• Ministry of Transportation-

http://www.mincom.tj/ru_mincom/asnod_ru.html[16]

• Ministry of Health- http://www.health.tj/[17]
• Drug Control Agency- http://www.akn.tj/law_akt.htm
• Ministry of Economic Development and Trade-http://www.met.tj/acts.htm[18]

            2.4 Other important Organizations in the Country

                        There are also important organizations in Tajikistan and these include United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Health Organization, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, International Labour Organization and Amnesty International.[19]

Institutions and the Rule of Law

The rule of law in Tajikistan is affected by its two most dominant problems: poverty and lack of civic consciousness and education as inherited from the past experience of communist kind of governance. In order to answer these problems, there should be a development of democratic governance in the country wherein the people become active participants in policy-making and implementation.[20] It is said that economic growth can only be attained in Tajikistan through participation of the people in deciding as to what policies that best suits the country. Besides, democratic governance that has institutions that practice accountability and transparency, pluralism, participation, justice and equity, rule of law as well as efficiency is the best things that Tajikistan needs.[21]

It is worthy to note the roadmap of development for Tajikistan. Land reform and educational improvements must be done together with solving human development concerns. However, we must be aware of the neighbouring countries that caused too much problems to Tajikistan such as the war in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.[22] The effects of the dilemmas of its neighbouring countries are fatal such that it should be resolved as soon as possible. Corruption in the government led to slow food production and extreme poverty infused by high unemployment rate. The difficult political trajectory of Tajikistan since self-government has shaped an often dysfunctional state sector, with insufficient governance mechanisms, high levels of corruption, limited rule of law, and unsatisfactorily qualified and knowledgeable personnel.[23] With that, the interest of the international political key players in helping Tajikistan rise above its neighbouring countries is obvious and necessary.

According to Transparency International, Tajikistan is proven to be as the 124 th most corrupt public sector based on several surveys.[24] It means to say that corruption in Tajikistan is common and that public officials are abusing public office in exchange for private interest and gain. The Tajik government failed to solve corruption and it affects the economic progress of the country.

In addition, Tajikistan’s membership with the World Bank started on the year 1993. Since Tajikistan is a poor country, having a per capita income of US$ 437 Gross Domestic Product, it was a recipient of a highly concessional financing from the World Bank through loans, funding and grants.[25] Latest reports mentioned that in the year 2008, the World Bank grant financing to Tajikistan was altered to 100 % because of high risk to debt distress.

As reflection, the situation of the country can still be corrected as the people will uphold the law and corruption must be taken away from the political system. Problems in the neighbouring countries must not be allowed to prevent continuous economic progress of Tajikistan. Besides, democratic governance must be seriously applied to the country along with increasing the civic consciousness of the constituents.

Economic Development

            It is reported that Tajikistan has the lowest per capita gross domestic product among those that formerly belong to the Soviet republics. What dominates the economy is the production of cotton which is the most relevant crop. The reason why the economy of Tajikistan became weak is because of such time that Moscow no longer supported the country in terms of trading.[26] As such, major economic and political problems were faced by Tajikistan wherein humanitarian aid and services are needed.

In line with that, the economic profile of Tajikistan is reported as follows:

            Table 2. Economy of Tajikistan[27]

5.1 Informal Sector

The microfinance sector in Tajikistan involves some issues of development in rural lending services. In taking loans, loan agreements that are transparent and equitable must be present. Finding a guarantor and preparing collateral for loan engagement are the things that hindered rural villagers in Tajikistan.[28] However, for the present years, developments in the microfinance sector are increasing and farmers can now access to loans without procedural hindrance.

The said developments include the idea that access to loan facilities is the most important way of helping the people to become productive and self-reliant by means of handling their own business and trading activities. Later on, in the year 2005, international financial organizations tied up with local public organizations to extend loan opportunities to the people in rural areas.[29] In analysis, the first thing discovered is that people who belong to the most vulnerable groups in the society were able to access the loan facilities since collateral is the last thing considered in the process. Second, women were able to repay their loans including the most vulnerable members of the society until such time that they were able to access banking privileges. [30] Third, microfinance sector is following the international standards in terms of credit practices.[31]

All these facts prove that there is a new economic development in Tajikistan. People who live in the countryside are also capable of developing their business due to the microfinance sector of the economy. Women improved their well-being as they can also work at home through self-employment while being house wives due to the accessibility of loan agreements.

Foreign Investment

            At present time, Tajikistan is still in the process of recovering from the 1992-1997 civil wars that resulted in its devastated economy and national dilemmas. With that, the country has attracted relevant investment only from government-spearheaded bodies in China, Iran and Russia at present time.[32] However, despite that development there are still problems that prevented the attraction of investments at Tajikistan and these are corruption, red tape, and lack of free media as well as independent court.[33] What is needed in attracting foreign investments is to create and provide apparent and conventional conditions.

            In line with that, there is a specific major foreign investment project in Tajikistan and that is the Tajik Aluminum Plant. There are also developments with respect to hydro-power sector as well as boosting aluminum production.[34] This endeavour of Tajikistan however caused so much tension in its neighbouring countries especially Uzbekistan. It conducted measures in order to prevent economic policies in Tajikistan to be implemented such as preventing the supply of electricity from Kyrgyz to support Tajik Aluminum Plant.[35] The main purpose why the neighbouring country staged that action is to prevent the modernization of the said plant in Tajikistan.

            On the other hand, Iran is also planning to have major investments in Tajikistan especially on hydro-energy sector. But the problem is that there were restrictions of oil in Iran and the same will surely affect its positive plans towards Tajikistan.[36] Since Iran has become a current major foreign investor in Tajikistan, its problem regarding oil ration might hamper planned economic development for Tajikistan. Therefore, such problem in Iran must be solved since Iranian investments are relevant for rebuilding the economy of Tajikistan. In addition, Tajikistan attracted $224 million in foreign investments which is direct within the year 1997-2004.[37] Annually, the country’s flow of direct foreign investment ranges from $30 to $36 million.

            Essentially, Tajikistan’s trade route actually passes along Uzbekistan. Yet, knowing the political tensions between the two neighbouring countries, the flow of trade is hampered to the disadvantage of Tajikistan. Basically, the country adopted a law concerning free trade which could attract foreign capital, direct investments and technical resources. There are also efforts in setting favourable conditions in the country to attract investors such as lowering tariff taxes, decrease the cost for land leasing transactions as well as special rules for visa services.[38] Aside from that, the government is building a bridge to link two countries like Afghanistan and Tajikistan in order to improve trade relations in the south. Road system and infrastructure projects are also developed to further the plans and economic policies of the country.

Donor Projects

            There are also international organizations that provided funding as donor projects for Tajikistan. These organizations include World Bank, International Monetary Fund, USAID, European Union and the Africa Development Bank.

            There are seven strategies that were applied by USAID for Tajikistan. These strategic objectives for the country is for the promotion of reforms and training that the will result to the growth of small and medium business organizations, information extension to the general public, improvement of primary health care as well as education. There is also a promotion of efficient use of energy as well as clean and sufficient water supply. Essentially, the USAID is doing its best to strengthen the linkage of the communities of Tajikistan and its local government.[39] This work is important for the USAID since it was found out that the different organizations in Tajikistan’s society are not accustomed to practice cooperation in working for economic development.

 7.2 World Bank

            The World Bank has presented some activities for Tajikistan. One of these activities include the competition held under the auspices of the Civil Society Fund Program involving an amount of USD 35, 000 intended for non-profit, non-governmental groups or associations in Tajikistan.[40] The focus of the program is engagement for environmental protection in Tajikistan. The project was materialized by means of dissemination of information and enhancing partnerships with other organizations that supports protection of the environment in the country.

 7.3 International Monetary Fund

            The International Monetary Fund has given technical help or aid for Tajikistan in terms of customs administration. The International Monetary Fund tried to solve this issue in Tajikistan since there may be tax policies development but taxation on agriculture, small entrepreneurship, and refunds of value-added taxes as well as social contributions are not in order and the system is defective.[41]

 7.4 European Union

            The European Union has a project for Central Asia that includes development for Tajikistan and it is called Border Management Programme. The Central Asia Border Security Initiative or CABSI has a specific project and it involves institutional reforms in Tajikistan.  Since France is the present Chairman of the EU, Tajikistan will be benefited since it has developed a close relationship with France. As a proof, French jet planes usually use the airport in Dushanbe which is the centre of the country.[42] The French Defence Minister visited the country Tajikistan twice and the visit is intended to promote wider military and economic cooperation with France.

7.5 Africa Development Bank

            Africa Development Bank or ADB has provided substantial aid for Tajikistan. The bank grants credits to the country to extend support in terms of social development. It also facilitates technical assistance to the country for the implementation of development projects. The priority areas of the ADB in helping Tajikistan are on supply of water, health of the people, education and infrastructure.[43]

International Finance

            Tajikistan accepts support from different organizations like International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Africa Development Bank, and European Union and it follows that it has debts from those financial organizations. In line with that, a table that shows its macroeconomic indicators will be shown to analyze its situation. After such presentation, a careful analysis and review shall be given.

Table 3. Selected Macroeconomic Indicators from 2001-2004

                        Source is http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/

WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/10/27/000012009_20051027083915/Rendered/INDEX/322940corr0rev0pdf.txt.

            With respect to public external debt, Tajikistan faced the highest amount in the year 2001 with US $98.4 and it dramatically lowered in the year 2004 having an amount of US $39.7.[44] Its annual average for CPI inflation in the year 2001 is too high having 38. 6 % of the GDP but has only 7.1 % in the year 2004. Thus, there is improvement of its records in macroeconomic state.

Summary Comment

            The name of the country is simply Tajikistan wherein the people are called Tajiks. The first country that colonized the same is Russia and it happened in the year1860’s up to 1870’s. It was only in the year 1991 when the country gained independence as the Soviet bloc was disbanded. However, within the year 1992-1997, a civil war took place due to confusion as to what kind of governance to be applied after such a long colonization by the Russians. After that long struggle, there was a continuous fight to attain a democratic state of government.

            The ethnic groups of Tajikistan are Tajik, Uzbek, Russian and Kyrgyz. The religions of the country are Sunni Muslim and Shi’a Muslim. It can be said that there are more females in the population compared to males. The languages of the country are Tajik which is official and Russian. The present population is about 7, 211, 884 in number. The area of Tajikistan was tagged as the smallest among Central Asia countries. It is also a landlocked country and the country is covered by lakes. The place is also untidy since sanitation facilities are not fully developed. Industrial pollution is also a problem in the country due to massive use of pesticides. The untidiness of the environment augmented the risks of floods in Tajikistan. Hence, faithful compliance in environmental policies is asserted in the country by its political leaders and international organizations.

            Table 1 presented the social development indicators of the country. It can be gleaned from the records that in the year 1997, there was a low life expectancy. There is also a uniform adult literacy ratio in the year 1996, 1997 and 1998. For the knowledge index, it was in the year 1995 that the record was in the highest within the year 1995 up to 1998.

            There is one problem that can be highly associated with Tajikistan and that is poverty. It was even tagged as the poorest among the countries that has been under Soviet Union. This problem worsened due to wars and calamities. Of all the people in the country, women are most affected by it. Personal security of women in terms of safety and job are affected such that they suffered the consequences of the war especially the civil war in the year 1992 up to 1997. Women are also considered as the workers of the country such that when the civil war broke up, they lost their jobs and have to suffer extreme poverty.

            After the succeeding war in Tajikistan and it already enjoyed independence, there was turmoil in the area of politics in the country. There was confusion as to the application of Soviet style ruling or in some way applying democratic principles. The oppositions wanted to lead a new form of government while other groups wanted to retain the status quo. In addition to that, elections in the country are full of irregularities such that unstable government remained to be unresolved.

            The initial independent government of Tajikistan conforms to parliamentary-ministerial governance. It has three departments of government: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The president is chosen by the people through casting of votes during election time. The president also appoints a prime minister to run the affairs of the country that belongs to its power and authority. On the other hand, the legislature is named as the Supreme Assembly. Its members are elected by direct election for a term of five (5) years. The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Economic Court as well as the military court. It has also a local government that runs the grassroots level of political units and subdivisions like cities, municipalities and provinces.

The list of the official government websites of Tajikistan include Office of the President which is http://www.prezident.tj/, Ministry of Foreign Affairs  which is http://www.mid.tj/, Ministry of Transportation which is http://www.mincom.tj/ru_mincom/asnod_ru.html,  Ministry of Health which is http://www.health.tj/, Drug Control Agency which is http://www.akn.tj/law_akt.htm

and Ministry of Economic Development and Trade having http://www.met.tj/acts.htm as websites. The important organizations of the country include United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Health Organization, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, International Labour Organization and Amnesty International.

            In addition, the most notable problems in Tajikistan are failure to implement the rule of law. The development of democratic governance is slow and that there is a need to let the people participate in policy-making and implementation. Accountability, transparency, pluralism, justice and equity are the things that should be implemented in the country in order to achieve development of democratic principles. Problems on unemployment must be resolved including land reforms. Since illiteracy of children is a dominant social problem, reforms in educational policies are the primary solutions. There is also a high level of corruption in the country since red tape or under the table transactions are common. The mechanisms of governance are not also sufficient such that limited rule of law is rampant. Hence, different international organizations like the World Bank, USAID, European Union, Africa Development Bank and International Monetary Fund extended financial support in the country though loans and implementation of projects. Non-governmental sector in Tajikistan are also helping in the economic, social and political development of the country.

            It is not denied that Tajikistan is one of those countries that experienced poverty after having passed a devastating war. The people are the victims of selfish motives of other countries especially the women who need personal security. But, despite the frailties of the women in Tajikistan, they serve as the workers in the country. One of the reasons why Tajikistan experienced extreme poverty is its defective political system and practices. Corruption by government employees through practice of red tape is a stumbling block for economic and political progress. In addition, the problems between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan referring to its strained relations due to the latter are will to topple down the former, contributed to the dilemma. It is not proper for Uzbekistan to prevent the supply of electricity intended for Tajikistan since the latter was left with no options at all for Uzbekistan is the only entry for goods and services to the country. Thus, this situation must be resolved as soon as possible if economic and social development is to be managed.

Finally, there is a continuing effort on the part of Tajikistan in order to achieve economic development. The support of international organizations in the development of its policies on health care, environmental protection, water supply, educational enrichment, microfinance facilities and many others is a primary factor on its will to succeed. There may be current problems like oil ration in Iran which is its primary investors but the election of France as Chairman of the European Union is a good news since Tajikistan has a close relationship with the same.

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L23369496.htm.

[33] Kozhevnikov, R. Alertnet Website. (2007 April 23). Interview- Graft limits investment in Tajikistan- US envoy. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/

[34] Sadikov, A. Eurasia Net. (2006 April 10). Tajikistan’s Ambitious Energy Projects Cause Tension with Uzbekistan. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.eurasianet.org

/departments/insight/articles/eav100406.shtml.

[35] Sadikov, A. Eurasia Net. (2006 April 10). Tajikistan’s Ambitious Energy Projects Cause Tension with Uzbekistan. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.eurasianet.org

[36] Neweurasia Website. (2007). Oil Restrictions in Iran may hurt Tajikistan. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://tajikistan.neweurasia.net/2007/06/28/oil-restrictions-in-iran-may-hurt-tajikistan/.

[37] State Government Website. (2008). Tajikistan. Retrieved October22, 2008, from http://

www.state.gov/e/eeb/ifd/2006/62038.htm.

[38] [38] State Government Website. (2008). Tajikistan. Retrieved October22, 2008, from http://

[39] USAID Website. (2008). Tajikistan. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.usaid.gov/

      policy/budget/cbj2006/ee/tj.html.

[40] USAID Website. (2008). Tajikistan. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.usaid.gov/

[41] ADB Website. (2008). Report on Progress Under CIS-7 Initiative. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from

      http://www.adb.org/documents/reports/cis7_initiative/cis7_initiative.pdf.

[42] Ferghana News Website. (2008). Tajikistan: Emomali Rakhmon expands interaction with the European Union. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2331.

[43] Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. (2008). African Development Bank. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.sdc.admin.ch/en/Home/Activities/Multilateral_Cooperation/

International_Institutions/African_Development_Bank_AfDB.

[44] World Bank Document. (2005 October 3). International Development Association and International Finance Corporation Country Partnership Strategy for the Republic of Tajikistan. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/10/27/000012009_20051027083915/Rendered/INDEX/322940corr0rev0pdf.txt.  

Sound system

Tajiki has 33 phonemes, i.e., sounds that make a difference in word meaning. The description below is based on Standard Tajiki.

Tajik has six vowel phonemes which are given below.

• /ə/ = a in about

Tajik has 27 consonant phonemes.

• /q, ɢ / have no equivalents in English
• /ʔ/ sound between syllables in oh-oh
• /ʃ/ = sh in shape
• / ʒ / = s in measure
• /x, ɣ/ have no equivalents in English
• /h/ = in hat
• /X, ʁ/ have no equivalents in English
• /tʃ / = ch in chat
• / dʒ / = j in jet
• /j/ = y in yet

Stress in Tajiki typically falls on the last syllable of the root .

The grammatical system of Tajiki does not differ significantly from that of Persian and Dari. Like the latter, Tajiki is an inflected language with some elements of agglutination. As such, it adds suffixes to roots to express grammatical relations and to form words.

National Argumentative Essay Writing Competition for Young Scholars

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Topic: Simultaneous Elections in India: One Nation, One Election

The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) is committed to promoting social science research in the country. The research schemes and initiatives of the ICSSR have played a key role in enlarging the country’s social science research base.

The National Education Policy 2020 asserts that nurturing a culture of outstanding research is fundamental to the development of a robust education system in the country. The policy envisions overhauling the higher education system by bringing in frameworks to “actively seed research in universities and colleges”. The ICSSR, in its consistent efforts to develop and re-energize the higher education system in the country, aims to inspire critical thinking, methodological and composition skills among young scholars and students.

In consideration of that the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) invites entries for the National Argumentative Essay Writing Competition for Young Scholars on “Simultaneous Elections in India: One Nation, One Election” in three categories:

• Undergraduate Student
• Postgraduate Student
• PhD Scholar

The competition serves as a capacity-building measure for the development of the process of doing research among young scholars and future researchers. It institutionalizes research skills and strengthens their aptitude in undertaking high- quality research. It also seeks to promote social science research and its utilization in the country.

Important Dates

Opening date:  24 September 2024

Closing date:  8 October 2024

Evaluation by the 3rd/4th Week of October 2024 Result by the 4th Week of October 2024

Entries must be submitted via the online entry form only.

No entries will be considered if submitted after this date.

Prizes for Each Category

First prize - Rs 15, 000

Second prize - Rs 10, 000

Third prize - Rs 7, 500

The top 50 entries from each of the categories will be compiled in a book format and published by the ICSSR.

Eligibility and Entry Rules

Please read the eligibility and entry rules before making the submission.

• The participant must be a full-time bona fide student at the affiliating university/ institution on the day of submission.
• The affiliating institution in which the participant is enrolled must be an Institute of National Importance as defined by the Ministry of Education (MoE) or a UGC Recognized Indian University/Deemed University/Institution/College under (2) F / 12(B).
• Entries for argumentative essays will be accepted in English with a 1,500- word limit.
• Submissions will undergo three stages of blind evaluation.
• Participants must not mention their names on the write-up or in the file. Any revelation of participants’ identity will warrant disqualification.
• Entries must be submitted in PDF formats. Please use MLA 9 formatting, standard margins, 12-point font, and double spacing.
• The entry must be an original work of the author and should not have been published in part or full anywhere. In case, any use of AI, ChatGPT, or plagiarised material is found, the entry will be summarily disqualified.
• Only one entry per participant may be submitted for the National Essay Writing Competition. Co-authored entries will not be allowed.
• The deadline for submission is 8 October 2024.
• No queries regarding the prizes will be entertained by the ICSSR secretariat until the final declaration of results, which will be placed on the ICSSR website.
• The final authority for the interpretation of the guidelines or any such issue is vested with the ICSSR.

Submission of Entry

Online form is available at https://aap.icssr.org/   [Form given under Grant category]

• National Essay Writing Competition 2024
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Principal Accountant General (Audit-I) Maharashtra, Mumbai

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Centers for National Essay Writing Competition 2024 and Walk-in Participation

1) O/o The Principal Accountant General (Audit)-I, Maharashtra, Mumbai 

     1st Floor, Pratishtha Bhavan, 101, Maharishi Karve Road, New Marine Lines, Mumbai-400020

2) O/o The Principal Accountant General (A & E)-I, Maharashtra, Mumbai

     2nd Floor, Pratishtha Bhavan, 101, M.K. Road, New Marine Lines, Mumbai-400020

3) O/o The Principal Accountant General (Audit)-II, Nagpur, Branch office, Mumbai.

     Ground Floor, Pratishtha Bhavan, 101. M.K. Road, New Marine Lines, Mumbai- 400020

4) O/o The Principal Director of Audit (Central)

     C-25, Audit Bhavan, behind Income Tax Department, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai-400051

5) O/o The Director General Regional Capacity Building and knowledge Institute. G.N Block,

     Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai-400051

6) O/o The Director General of Audit (Western Railway)

    5th Floor, New Station Building, Churchgate, Mumbai-400020

Registration Link for Essay Writing Competition

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