DUSHANBE, January 19, 2016, Asia-Plus – Tajik expert on religious affairs Abdullo Muhaqqiq proposes to designate President Rahmon’s wife “the leader of the Muslim women of Tajikistan.”
In an article “Moiyati Umrai Peshvoi Millat va Bonui Avval” (The Meaning of Umrah of the Leader of the Nation and the First Lady) that was posted on the website of Tajikistan’s national news agency
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on January 19, Muhaqiq motivates his proposal to designate Azizamo Sadulloyeva as “the leader of the Muslim women of Tajikistan” by noting that she was the first Muslim woman from Central Asia to pray inside the Kaaba.
Muhaqqiq compares Emomali Rahmon to the founder of the Achaemenid Empire Cyrus the Great. “Like Cyrus the Great, he [Rahmon] has challenged forces of extremism and terrorism and called on society to counter them.”
We will recall that President Emomali Rahmon together with his wife Azizamo Sadulloyeva, some of his children and immediate relatives, including Rahmon’s eldest daughter, Firouza, another daughter, Ozoda Emomali, his youngest son, Somon, and a son-in-law, Jamoliddin Nouraliyev, performed Umrah rituals on January 5.
The Umrah is a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, performed by Muslims that can be undertaken at any time of the year, in contrast to the Hajj. The pilgrim performs a series of ritual acts symbolic of the lives of Ibrahim (Abraham) and his second wife Hajar, and of solidarity with Muslims worldwide.
As it had been reported earlier, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament endorsed a bill designating the incumbent President Emomali Rahmon the “leader of the nation” on December 9.
