Dushanbe police stop 8,000 women for failing to wear veil correctly

Campaign to "correct" mode of Islamic dress. According to government sources, the veil is a tool to identify women belonging to terrorist groups.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews / Rfe) - Since the beginning of the month about 8,000 Muslim women have been detained by the authorities for not wearing the veil in the "tagika" fashion. Since the beginning of the month, the government has launched a campaign to educate Muslim women in wearing the headdress in a "correct" way and discouraging a "foreign" style of clothing.

Dildora, 30, was in a clinic where she went with her children when she was approached by a small group of state officials, including two women. Along with others, as she was wearing the veil, the woman was separated from her children and brought to a room where she was told that the "traditional national" way to tie the headgear is with the node behind her neck, leaving it uncovered, and not to the front. "They said we could only wear traditional clothes," Dildora told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE / RL). "I challenged them, asking the policemen why they were wearing western pants and not cover their heads. There was a swift exchange. "

Human rights activists claim that the government uses the term "non-traditional dress" as euphemism for "hijab". According to RFE / Rl, "fashion" patrols only target women in Islamic clothing.

According to Sharif Nazarzoda, head of the Suǧd regional department [one of the four regions into which the country is divided, ndr] for the interior ministry, dress control would test whether or not women and their families were adhering to terrorist organizations.

In Tajikistan, 90% of the 8.3 million citizens are Muslim, mostly of the Hanafite moderate school. In the country, control over religious life has intensified after the news of the adherence of many citizens to Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq: the veil is banned in schools, minors cannot enter the mosques and several foreign Islamic school students were forced to go home.