Ladies and gentlemen!

I myself am a lady from Central Asia and together with my parents we came to Europe after pressures on my family and now we live in one of the European countries.

I want to talk about the suppression of civil society, especially women, in Tajikistan, and how the regime of Emomali Rahmon, who has ruled Tajikistan for almost 30 years, brutally suppresses women and mothers.

I will give 2 examples to prove these words.

The first evidence is 65-year-old Ulkfathonim Mamadshoeva, a civil society activist and journalist born in Badakhshan, who was arrested along with 200 other people from the Pamir minority in May of this year. This 65-year-old woman faces 25 years in prison. Her only fault is that she is a native of Badakhshan and a journalist.

During the repression of the Pomiris this year, she wrote on her Facebook: «I am an human rights defender and an independent journalist, and I have nothing else to say except my good conscience and compassion towards my small people — the Pomiris.»

One of the accusations against this 65-year-old lady is that she received grants from international organizations through her organization «Insof va Nomus». Is it a crime to receive grants from international organizations? Yes, when Tajikistan and some post-Soviet countries look at international organizations as foreign agents, this is the result.

Ladies and gentlemen!

The second example is the imprisonment of 45-year-old Shahida Mahmadjonova. The only fault of this lady is that her son Abdurrahmon lives in Germany and criticizes the government through his videos. After all, why should this mother answer for her child’s activities? Unfortunately, in Tajikistan, families and relatives of political activists who are abroad are always under pressures of the authorities.

Even in 2016, Abdusamad Abdusamadov, a political activist, participated in the OSCE conference in Warsaw, and his mother was put under such pressure that she died of a heart attack due to the pressure.

In short, Emomali Rahmon’s regime does not respect anyone, male or female, and has always suppressed civil society.

Sincerely,

Madinai Khikmatullo

Member of the Tajikistan Center for Human Rights