Stories from Quick Reads and Tajik
Tajikistan’s president’s son is the man behind the national football team’s success at the Asian Cup
The national team’s heroics will breathe confidence and optimism into everyone implementing the national football development program called “Orzu-2026” (Dream-2026).
If adopted, Tajikistan’s draft law on bloggers will do more harm than good
In the last few years, the country has recorded significant backsliding with regards to freedom of expression as well as overall political freedoms.
Tajikistan's government adds another colossal building to its tally
Tajikistan building all these buildings is all the more striking given the fact that it is the poorest country in Central Asia.
Voices Against Women's Day Remain Rare in Tajikistan
As Tajikistan celebrates the International Women's Day (re-branded as Mother's Day in the country in 2009), social media help amplify the rare voices that speak against the holiday. Writing on his personal website, prominent religious leader and politician Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda urges [tj] Tajiks not to celebrate on March 8: Celebrating Mother's Day or...
Tajikistan's Tastiest Blogs
There are three blogs in Tajikistan that are a must read for anyone interested in Tajik cuisine. Tajik Restaurant [Tarabkhonai Tojiki] [tj] shares cook-it-yourself videos and recipes of popular Tajik dishes. Suhailo's Cooking Diary [Daftari pukhtu-pazhoi Suhailo] [tj] teaches its readers to bake pastries popular in the country. Finally, Osh...
Soviet-era Monuments and Slogans in Tajik Capital “Should Stay”
Over the last two decades, the authorities in Dushanbe have dismantled most of the Soviet-era monuments and huge political slogans on rooftops which had all been an important feature of the cityscape before 1991. However, as Radio Ozodi reports [tj], Tajikistan's capital has preserved a handful of Soviet statues, slogans, and signs...
Tajikistan: Welcome to the “Facebook Republic of Pitzostan”
A government committee in charge of enforcing language regulations in Tajikistan has recently caused many laughs by insisting that the word “pizza” should be replaced with “pitzo” on restaurant signs in the country's capital. According to the committee's chair, “pitzo” sounds more “Tajik”. #Tajikistan has officially renamed pizza “pitzo”. For...
‘Good Girls’ Don't Use Social Media Sites in Tajikistan
Sexist bullying and harassment of girls and women is widespread on social media sites in Tajikistan, according to Radio Ozodi [tj] (Tajik service of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). The problem has to do with a strongly-held stereotype that female social media users are sexually promiscuous. On Odnoklassniki, the most popular...
VIDEO: Young Men Are Forced to Join Army in Tajikistan
As Tajikistan's military faces a struggle to get enough volunteer conscripts, recruitment officers often rely on illegal practices in drafting military-age men into the army. One of the most common among such practices is “oblava” which involves “military press gangs making sweeps of city streets, bazaars and bus stations, rounding up...
Tajik Elections Debate: Either Rahmon or “Cannibalism”
Prior to Tajikistan's presidential elections, the website of the opposition Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) published a story titled “Will Emomali Rahmon Remain President or Not?” [tj]. The story drew hundreds of comments, triggering a heated debate between those who thought it was time for the incumbent president to step down and...
Tajik Official Plagiarizes Story Extolling President
Social media users in Tajikistan have caught an education official-cum-ardent supporter of the incumbent president plagiarizing. In his recent article “Why I Am Voting for [President] Emomali Rahmon” [ru] Ilkhomjon Khamidov extolled the country's veteran president who is seeking to secure a re-election in the November 6 vote. After the article...
Tajiks Note that “Moscow Has Changed”
As Russians try to make sense of ethnic riots rocking Moscow, these developments are also carefully watched in Tajikistan where more than half of the population depends on money that their relatives working in Russia send home. Halil Qayumzod who lived in Moscow in the 1990s suggests [tj] that over...
Tajikistan: Voters Are Entitled to Know if Candidates are ‘Full’ or ‘Hungry’
As Global Voices reported, some netizens say they will vote for the incumbent president during November 6 elections in Tajikistan because a “full leader is better than a hungry one”. Reflecting on this, Salimi Aioubzod suggests [tj] it is “sad” that voters in the country are more concerned about how...
Tajik President is ‘A Real, Normal Man’
On the video from [his son's] wedding, Emomali Rahmon shows himself as a real, normal man - he has fun, dances with joy, and encourages everyone else to do the same. Don't all our men behave the same way at their sons' weddings?
Tajik Constitution's ‘Fairy Tales’
Mardikornoma blog comments [tj] on the constitution of Tajikistan, suggesting that it has become more of a fairy tales book than the country's supreme law: As I skim through the pages of Tajikistan's Constitution, I cannot help thinking that this document must be from some other country.
Nowruz as Tajikistan's Official New Year?
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...
Praising Lenin in Tajik Poetry
Glorifying Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was a popular theme in Soviet literature. Kimiyoi Saodat (The Chemistry of Happiness) blog traces [tj] the Lenin-praising tradition in Tajik poetry, from the prominent poets of the Soviet period to some contemporaries. More than two decades after independence, debates persist about...
Halloween an ‘Alien’ Holiday in Tajikistan
We should teach the younger generation that Halloween is alien to Tajiks and all Muslims. Proud Tajik boys and girls who love their nation should never celebrate alien holidays. Blogger Bachai Sako [tj] on why people in Tajikistan should not celebrate Halloween today.
Tajikistan: Legality of Government Military Operation Questioned
On his blog, Tajik journalist Salim Ayubzod questions [tj] the legality of the recent military operation launched by the government in Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan's easternmost province. Ayubzod also argues that the government had failed to think through possible outcomes of the violent intervention.
Tajikistan: Stories of Female Migrant Workers
On Blogiston.tj, Shakhlo posts [tj] short stories about the lives of Tajik women working in Russia. Most of these stories focus on the problems that female migrant workers typically go through to help their families back in Tajikistan make ends meet.