USCIRF Annual Report: TJ chapter

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Annual Report 2024 chapter on Tajikistan (covering events in 2023), recommending Tajikistan be redesignated a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under IRFA. The document reports approximately 90 percent of the population is Muslim (majority Hanafi Sunni), around 4 percent are ethnically Pamiri adhering to Ismaili Shia Islam in Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). The report states authorities continued enforcement of the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, including discriminatory registration and mosque/clergy appointment requirements. In January 2023 German authorities deported Abdullo Shamsiddin, son of an IRPT founder, who received a seven-year sentence. In January Belarus deported former Group-24 member Nizomiddin Nasriddinov, later sentenced to 8.5 years. In August 63-year-old Jaloliddin Makhmudov died in prison while serving a term for IRPT affiliation. The document records that in March, imam Mukhammadi Mukhammarov was sentenced to 8 years for allegedly teaching Islam to 12 Muslims; in April, imam Abdulhannon Usmonov received 6 years in Khatlon; Jehovah’s Witness Shamil Khakimov was released in May. In June two women were fined USD 311 (3,400 somoni) for “inciting religious hatred.” The report names UN special rapporteurs Nazila Ghanea and Fernand de Varennes as having visited in 2023. Secretary Antony J. Blinken met Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin in February; Senator Ben Cardin wrote to President Rahmon in December 2023. USCIRF’s FoRB Victims List includes Tajik individuals.