DUSHANBE, October 16, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, but some legislation and governmental decrees contradict this right. The Government, including President Emomali Rahmon, continued to promote secularism and allowed religious practice only under tight controls, International Religious Freedom Report 2008, released by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor said. The report covers the period from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
According to the report, respect for religious freedom continued to decline during the period covered by this report. The Government expanded its efforts to control virtually all aspects of religious life, and government officials actively monitored religious groups, institutions, and figures. Government policies reflected a concern about Islamic extremism, and government officials used these concerns to justify imposing restrictions and engaging in surveillance. The Government closed many unregistered mosques and prayer rooms but subsequently allowed most of them to reopen. The Government demolished three unregistered mosques in Dushanbe, as well as the only synagogue in the country. The Government sought to influence Islamic practice by controlling the operation of mosques through the registration process and indirectly controlling the selection of imams. The Ministry of Education imposed measures that hindered students” religious expression, including an unevenly enforced ban on girls wearing hijabs, a Muslim head covering, at public schools and universities. The Government used the registration process to hinder some religious organizations and banned three others, and members of other religious organizations faced harassment by government authorities.
Society is generally tolerant of, and open to, religious diversity. Government restrictions disproportionately affected Muslims, although the Government also targeted religious organizations that it deemed to have “foreign influences.” Some government officials occasionally expressed their opinions in the press that minority religious groups undermine national unity.
There are 85 non-Muslim groups registered with the Department of Religious Affairs (DRA) at the Ministry of Culture. Approximately 150,000 Christians, mostly ethnic Russians and other Soviet-era immigrant groups, reside in the country.
The country has approximately 2,842 registered mosques for daily prayers. So-called Friday mosques (larger facilities built for weekly Friday prayers) must be registered with the DRA. There are approximately 260 such mosques registered, not including Ismaili places of worship. Only one such mosque is authorized per 15,000 residents in a given geographic area. Many observers contend that this is discriminatory because no such rule exists for other religious groups.
There are 19 madrassahs at the college level and one Islamic institute in Tajikistan.
