The Daily Sigh

Tyrannical Tajikistan

"The hypocrite men and hypocrite women are of one another. They enjoin what is wrong and forbid what is right and close their hands (from giving for Allah's sake). They have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them [accordingly]. Indeed, the hypocrites - it is they who are the defiantly disobedient. Allah has promised the hypocrite men and hypocrite women and the disbelievers the fire of Hell, wherein they will abide eternally. It is sufficient for them. And Allah has cursed them, and for them is an enduring punishment." (9:67-68)

Yep. We're starting there again. Why? Because this is pretty much a continuation of the last issue. Let's put our sighing faces on and dive in. 😧

Tajikistan has set up a commission to promote clothing the government deems appropriate for citizens of the Central Asian country, an initiative it says is aimed at combating “alien” culture.

The commission will help design clothes for men and women “taking into consideration Tajik traditions” and “modern” life, Culture Minister Shamsuddin Omurbekzoda told reporters on July 21.

Omurbekzoda's comments suggest the initiative is part of a number of moves by longtime President Emomali Rahmon's secular government to discourage Islamic practices it fears could promote extremism in the mostly Muslim country.

The culture minister said that the Islamic hijab is not compatible with Tajikistan’s “hot climate” for hygiene reasons, and that women wearing the hijab could spark “fear and doubt" in public places.

“Some people standing next to them might wonder, 'What if she is hiding something under her hijab,” Omurbekzoda said. (Lower your gaze and forget what she's got under there. Try that. For crying out loud, you sound like the ignorant 12-year-old trumpanzees making bomb jokes online.)

He said it is recommended that Tajik men wear “European clothes,” adding that he can’t imagine “us wearing Arab clothes.”

In what it says are efforts to combat Islamic extremism, state authorities have banned the hijab in government offices and schools, and boys under 18 are barred from praying in mosques. (Forbid the good, enforce the evil, right?)

Tajiks say police have sometimes rounded up men with bushy beards on the streets and in markets and forced them to shave.