Title is a tad bit misleading, I highly doubt I'll be posting daily in this. Nonetheless, I decided to stop filling my other books with news articles and such so I've created this one. In this book I'll be sharing articles, stories, and sometimes pi...
Dildora, a 30-year-old Tajik mother in Dushanbe, had taken her children to see a doctor at a medical clinic near her home in early August when she was approached by a small team of state officials.
The authorities questioned her about her apparel -- an Islamic hijab, tied under her chin and over the front of her neck -- that is known as a satr.
Although there are no laws against wearing a hijab in Tajikistan, Dildora says the officials told her she could be fined for wearing her head scarf in an "alien" fashion.
Dildora says she and other hijab-clad women at the clinic were separated from their children and herded into a room where they were lectured on how to tie their head scarves in the style of "traditional national clothing" -- that is, with a knot behind their heads in a way that exposes the front of their necks.
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"Alien fashion vs approved national style"
"Security officers, one man and two women, were among them," Dildora told RFE/RL. "They forced us to take off our satrs and showed us how we must wear hijabs."
"They told us to wear national clothing only," said Dildora, who has worn the hijab since finishing her education at a madrasah, an Islamic religious school, 12 years ago. "I challenged them, asking the women police officers why they wore Western trousers and did not cover their heads. We exchanged many words."
"Everything was filmed and photographed," Dildora said, adding that the confrontation was so intimidating she no longer goes out in public unless it is absolutely necessary.
Religion Control
Dildora was among some 8,000 women approached by authorities in Dushanbe in early August as part of a state campaign to discourage what the government calls "nontraditional" foreign clothing.
Human rights activists say the government uses the term "nontraditional dress" as a euphemism for the Islamic hijab.
Indeed, Dushanbe's fashion patrols only targeted the women in Islamic garb that they came across in public places like parks, markets, or state institutions like Dildora's local medical clinic.
A U.S. State Department report on religious freedom this week noted numerous cases since May 2016 in which hijab-wearing Tajik women say they have been harassed by authorities.
The report confirmed that U.S. diplomats have raised concerns with Tajikistan's government about its harassment of women in Islamic clothing.
It also raised concerns about the government's attempts to control all aspects of religious life in the country -- including the approval and registration of religions, the construction of places of worship, the distribution of religious literature, and religious education for children.
About 90 percent of Tajikistan's 8.3 million citizens are Muslims, and the majority are followers of the moderate Hanafi school of Sunni Islam.
About 4 percent of the country's Muslims are Ismaili Shi'a. Most of that minority community live in the mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region that borders Afghanistan.
