DUSHANBE, April 27, 2015, Asia-Plus — “Recently we have received three complaints from Sughd province and districts subordinate to the center (RRP), in which citizens say that police officers make them shave their beards,” Deputy Interior Minister, Ikrom Umarzoda, told Asia-Plus in an interview Monday afternoon.
He called such actions illegal and noted that administrative action would be imposed upon on those police officers.
“Citizens facing such cases may apply a 24-hour hotline: 221-21-21,” the deputy interior minister added.
We will recall that in his Mother’s Day speech last month, Tajikistan”s President Emomali Rahmon criticized women who wear “foreign” clothing, especially the black veils associated with conservative Islam. Within days, officials appeared at Dushanbe markets and told shopkeepers selling Islamic clothing to stop.
Last week, the Committee on Religious Affairs and Regulation of National Traditions and Rituals under the Government of Tajikistan (CRA) applied to residents of Tajikistan with solicitation to help reveal swindlers engaged in issuing fake documents purporting to allow observant Muslims to wear a beard or hijab. The permits, adorned with an official-looking stamp, allegedly go for 250 somoni each.
“No one has the right to issue such documents,” the CRA said in a statement, noting that the idea of such permits is “absurd.”
We will recall that in 2009, the Tajik government banned teachers from wearing beards. Under a dress code introduced by the Ministry of Education, young male teachers are banned from growing beards. Male teachers above the age of 50 are allowed to have beards, but not more than 1 centimeter in length. The ministry”s dress code prohibits female teachers from wearing an Islamic headscarf or the hijab, which is banned in all state institutions.
