DUSHANBE, February 13, 2015, Asia-Plus — An article “Tajik Mother Urges Baghdadi to Let Her Only Daughter Come Home” posted on Radio Liberty’s website notes that a 65-year-old mother from Tajikistan has made an emotional appeal to the leader of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, asking that her only daughter be allowed to return home from Syria.
Mayram Olimova from the Tajik southern city of Kulob called on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to permit her 24-year-old daughter Gulru Olimova and her three grandchildren to come back to Tajikistan.
“I don”t want to speak badly of him. Let him pity me and return my daughter to me,” Olimova said of Baghdadi.
Olimova told RFE/RL”s Tajik Service on February 11 that she had learned from her son-in-law two weeks ago of Gulru”s decision to take her three small children — 7-year-old Fotima, 4-year-old Ahmad, and 6-monthold Rumaiso — to Syria from Russia.
Gulru had gone to Syria because her husband had asked her to do so, Olimova said.
Olimova said that, as yet, she has not approached the law-enforcement authorities in Kulob about her daughter.
Gulru”s husband was also from Kulob but had gone to Russia for work.
The man”s father, Sherafkan Rajabov, told RFE/RL that his son had called him from Moscow in September and asked him to send Gulru and the three children to join him in Russia.
“He said he had found a job with good conditions in a sanatorium outside Moscow, where he was going to live with his family. We bought tickets and sent them,” Rajabov said.
Two months later, the young man called again, Rajabov recalls. This time, however, he didn”t say where he was, just that he was “doing well.”
“His phone number wasn”t Russian,” Rajabov noted.
Rajabov said that if his son calls home again, he will ask him to come home, because he can no longer tolerate his mother-in-law”s crying.
According to Vosi Salimzoda of the Serious Crimes Unit of the Khatlon region”s prosecutor”s office, four Tajik men have returned voluntarily from the fighting in Syria and were not subjected to criminal proceedings. Salimzoda said that under Article 187 of Tajikistan”s Penal Code, those who voluntarily return home and express remorse are exempt from punishment.
Tajikistan”s Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL”s Tajik Service that returning Tajik nationals from Islamic State-controlled territories is a complex process. The ministry is reportedly prepared to provide assistance to Tajiks who have left Syria for Arab countries or Turkey.
It is not known how many Tajik nationals are fighting in Syria. Official figures, according to RFE/RL”s Tajik Service, put the number at 300. According to Edward Lemon, who tracks Tajik fighters in Syria, there is online evidence of just 22 fighters, though there are likely to be more unreported Tajiks in Syria.
