Proposed Law Banning Children From Mosques in Tajikistan

The new law “on Parental Responsibility”. which was approved by the lower house of the Tajik parliament last month, bans under-18-year-olds from attending prayers in mosques, and may also allow the authorities to stop parents giving Arabic names to their children.

The law is already sparking outrage in the country.
“Right now the government’s approach to handling any issues connected to Islam is repression, rather than any attempt at dialogue, and this is obviously going to be disastrous,” said Paul Quinn-Judge, project director for Central Asia at International Crisis Group.
”The government cannot keep using the law, using pressure, and using restrictions to handle the islamicisation of its society.”
In a report on Tajikistan last month, the group warned the Tajik government to pull back anti-Islamic measures implemented last year, which included repatriating more than a thousand students from religious schools overseas, forcibly closing hundreds of mosques, threatening long jail sentences for setting up “illegal” religious schools, and even banning a footballer who wore an Islamic beard.

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