DUSHANBE, February 3, 2014, Asia-Plus – A group of women, who disrupted a press conference of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) in Dushanbe on December 9, has tried to burst into the party’s office again today, a SDP activist told Asia-Plus on February 1.
“A group of women numbering seven or eight people attempted to burst into SDP’s headquarters but the door was locked because no one was in the office at that time,” a person who leaves next door to SDP’s headquarters told Asia-Plus in an interview. According to him, the women demonstrated belligerency.
Asia-Plus’s reporter got in touch by telephone with SDP leader Rahmatillo Zoyirov, who is currently outside Tajikistan, and he said that a meeting of the SDP Political Council was supposed to take place on Saturday at 10:00 am but they had to postpone it because of his health problems.
“We were going to review the concept of renewal of the party, its strategy and the party’s tactics for 2014,” Zoyirov said, noting that nobody knew about the meeting except the party members.
We will recall that the SDP in December accused authorities of using a group of “rent-a-crowd” women to put pressure on it. The claim followed an incident that took place on December 9, when some two dozen female protesters noisily disrupted the SDP press conference to criticize its leader and heap praise on President Emomali Rahmon.
At the center of the disrupted press conference was SDP leader Rahmatillo Zoyirov, who was speaking to the media at party headquarters about his trip to Kyiv and the antigovernment rallies in the Ukrainian capital.
As the presser got under way, the women burst into the room, shouting. They confronted Zoyirov and other party leaders, accusing them of seeking to destabilize the country, unlawfully challenging “popular” President Rahmon, and “not wanting peace.” The women demanded Zoyirov “let Rahmon work as he was elected by a majority of Tajikistan”s citizens.”
The women claimed they are “neighbors who found out about Zoyirov”s meeting from the Internet.” They said they didn”t know each other, and that their sudden appearance at the meeting wasn”t an organized act but an expression of concern by ordinary citizens.
Journalists, however, quickly recognized some familiar faces in the crowd.
At least two of the women reportedly took part in a rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe in April 2013 protesting the release of former Tajik Prime Minister Abdumalik Abdullojonov detained in Ukraine.
Founded in 2002, the Social-Democratic Party was registered on December 20, 2002. It was originally registered as the Party of Justice and Development in 1999. Tajikistan”s Ministry of Justice requested the same year that the Supreme Court ban the party”s activities and its registration was canceled. The party re-emerged and was registered under the name of the Social-Democratic Party in late 2002. Chairman of the Social-Democratic Party is Rahmatillo Zoyirov and the party reportedly has 7,700 members.
