CABAR Longreads: 'I could not even cry' — Children of the 90s and the civil war in Tajikistan

CABAR Longreads publishes a multimedia long-read titled «Я даже не могла плакать»: Дети 90-х и гражданская война в Таджикистане (“I could not even cry”: Children of the 90s and the civil war in Tajikistan). The article reports that after Tajikistan’s independence a societal split developed and by spring 1992 escalated into a civil war; it states the armed clashes lasted about five years and that the “General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord” was signed on 27 June 1997 between the government and the opposition. The article collects first-person recollections from Tajiks whose childhood or adolescence fell during the war. One interviewee, Nozanin (Нозанин), 13 years old at the start of the war, describes fleeing with her family in October 1992 to Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan; she recounts crossing a barbed-wire border with the help of guards and says fighters later entered Kabadiyon and burned her family’s home, after which her father escaped through cotton fields at night. The article reports the Tajik terms “вовчики” (as used for opposition supporters — an alliance including the Islamic Renaissance Party, noted as banned by a Tajik court, the Democratic Party and other movements) and “юрчики” (supporters of presidents Rahmon Nabiev and Emomali Rahmon). Another interviewee recalls an armed man in military uniform entering their Dushanbe apartment block and asking whether “вовчики”, teachers or “democrats” lived there, saying children could ransack apartments. A third recalls hearing that a classmate’s father from Garm was killed, and states that weapons were common on university campuses, with students bringing fighters to exam sessions to pressure teachers. The article frames these as testimonies collected from people who lived through the war. Sources cited: named and anonymised interviewees recalling their own experiences; editorial framing by CABAR Longreads.