On 5 February 2018 Tajikistan’s State Committee for Religious Affairs and Regulation of Traditions, Ceremonies and Rituals (SCRA) claimed that 1,938 mosques were in 2017 forcibly closed and converted to secular uses. However, human rights defender Faizinisso Vokhidova noted that the SCRA’s claims that the mosques were illegal is not credible. She also noted that many closed mosques had refused to complain about their closure, even when offered legal assistance in bringing court cases. “They were afraid to do so”, Vokhidova told Forum 18 (see below).

Press conferences were in early January held in various parts of Tajikistan to announce local mosque closures and the alleged reasons for this. Two typical examples were in the northern Sogd Region, in Isfara and in Bobojon-Gofurov District. In both cases, officials claimed the mosques were closed at the request of local residents. In neither case were officials able to explain to Forum 18 why they only allow mosques with a capacity far below the possible numbers of worshippers (see below).

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