Ilhomjon Yokubov

The biggest fault of the Tajik government is that Emomali Rahmon’s government is currently implementing the same policy towards its political opponents that was implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union in 1930-37. And it is indeed a discrimination in every sense.

The government of Tajikistan labels anyone who criticizes Emomali Rahmon and his family as an “enemy of the people” and “traitor of the nation” and punishes him widely. This slander is mostly directed at the opposition parties, which are currently outside Tajikistan, especially in Europe, because of being declared “terrorist”. And this is at a time when the opposition parties of Tajikistan, which operate under the umbrella of the coalition of “the National Alliance of Tajikistan”, are not only actually peaceful in their activities, but also insist on the issue of peacefulness of any kind of its political activities. But with all this, they were declared “enemy of the people” and “terrorist” by the government, which is run by Rahmon since 1992.

In Tajikistan today, in order not to be called a “terrorist”, the condition is that you should not do a slightest criticism of Rahmon and his regime, and as soon as you do it, you are immediately declared a “terrorist” and “enemy of the people”.

And this is a political discrimination, and no worse discrimination is imaginable.

2) Second issue is discrimination against the news media.

Another issue is the government’s discrimination against journalists and reporters and mass media. Rahmon’s government has set red lines for them – and now these red lines were publicly announced and, unfortunately, they were also legalized — that exceeding these lines is considered against the law. One of these limitations is not to criticize Rahmon and his family. That is, if a journalist writes an article or note in one of the newspapers and criticizes Rahmon’s policy, he will be legally punished and thrown into prison. Today, a number of journalists are behind bars just for criticizing the Tajik authorities, including Abduloh Ghurbati, Pirmuhammadzoda, Daleri Imomali, Zavqibek Saidamini, Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva and others.

This kind of discrimination is not only against journalists, but against any citizen, who criticizes Rahmon on social networks, or even puts a “like” under opposition posts, will be sent to prison. In recent years, about 10 Tajik citizens have been sent to prison just for pushing “like” and “share” buttons on a post on Facebook.