Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

[D]o something useful. Stop sticking your breasts there where they may offend people. And don’t stand in the way of real feminists doing their noble job.

Emma Sabzalieva writes about the controversy surrounding a dress code introduced recently at a university in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The dress code requires that female students wear high heeled shoes and single-block color clothes to classes. The blogger asks:

Could it really be that the rector believes that ordering such a dress code <…> will enhance female students’ learning experience? Will it make them smarter or better equipped to learn?

[I]n former Soviet Central Asia there is little debate that the root problem [of extremist beliefs] is “foreign ideas,” defined so broadly as to become a target of opportunity for both every political purpose and every local policeman or official’s ambition. Any sign of dissent from state policies or ideology <…> can be enough to bring the wrath of the state, sometimes with great violence.

If we want Nowruz to serve the goal of the [cultural] revival of our nation, the holiday should mark the official beginning of a new year in the country…

How do people in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan celebrate Nowruz today? NewEurasia.net bloggers have produced a video that gives you an idea.

The shattered system of primary and secondary education, corrupt and rotten system of higher education, the official clergy which has lost [people's] trust, the absence of state-controlled religious education, weak and will-less intellectuals, the presence of a large number of uncontrolled websites with extremist and jihadist content – these are the major reasons why an increasing number of young individuals in our country become extremists.