Final preparations were in full swing at Zaidullo Khudoyorov's home in Kulob as the family got ready to celebrate the marriage of his eldest daughter when a group of local officials raided the house and confiscated most of the food the family had prepared for the banquet, according to Radio Liberty.
The officials deemed the quantities of food “wasteful” and in violation of a newly amended Tajik law that regulates and limits how much families spend on wedding, funerals, and all other private functions.
“We managed to prevent a law breaking in the village,” said Kholmurod Ibrohimov, an official who took part in the August 26 raid, in Dahana, on the outskirts of the city of Kulob.
“During the raid, we established that the family prepared a wasteful amount of food, such as special flatbreads and halva for the banquet at the bridegroom's house,” Ibrohimov said on September 18, after reports of the seizure emerged. “We seized the food and handed it over to the Kulob psychiatric hospital.”
Ibrohimov also pointed out that the cost of the food was incompatible with the “impoverished” family's income.
The law — locally known as “tanzim” or the “regulation” — was initially adopted in 2007, after longtime President Emomali Rahmon said the cost of the lavish wedding and funeral traditions was putting a financial strain on families in the country.
RFE/RL says Khudoyorov, an unemployed father of seven children, depends on irregular income of odd jobs and the vegetables grown in his courtyard.
Khudoyorov, 44, says he had told his wife and other female relatives not to prepare the food that, according to local custom, the family of the bride sends to the bridegroom's house ahead of the party.
Khudoyorov is relieved that he escaped a potentially hefty fine for violating the law on the regulation of private functions.
The law now stipulates up to a $4,000 fine for the offenders and some $5,700 for repeat offenders.
In late August, Tajikistan's parliament approved the amendments to expand the law, introducing new limits and bans. According to the new changes, government officials may be removed from their post if they or their immediate family members violate the law to throw a lavish party.
