USCIRF Annual Report: TJ chapter

US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Annual Report 2025, Tajikistan chapter (pp. 38-39). The report recommends Tajikistan be redesignated a Country of Particular Concern. The document reports that in 2024 religious freedom conditions remained extremely poor, with authorities targeting Ismaili Shi’a Muslims and those deviating from state-preferred Hanafi Sunni Islam through harassment, detention, prison sentences, and transnational repression. The article finds that in February Sughd region officials raided an unregistered Protestant church, and that the Islamic Council of Ulema prohibited women from attending mosques. It records that in April during Ramadan authorities in Sughd arrested imam Ikhtiyorhoja Kamolov of Khoja Muhammad Balodurkun Mosque in Rumon village, along with Bakhtiyor Akbarov and Mirzoburhan Salmanzoda, all on “extremism” charges. The report states that in June President Emomali Rahmon approved amendments to the traditions law banning clothing “foreign to national culture”, with authorities in May denying entry to women at a local hospital and in Sino district detaining men with beards, forcing them to shave at their own expense. In July the Islamic Council of Ulema issued a fatwa against tight, transparent, and black garments. In October Rahmon announced arrests of over 5,000 “illiterate mullahs” and 1,500 individuals for “superstition” and “fortune-telling”, with related criminal code penalties up to 144,000 somonis ($13,350). The document notes the Supreme Court in 2024 first publicly listed Jehovah’s Witnesses as a banned “extremist” organisation following a 2021 closed decision. Internal sources cited include Amnesty International and UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor.