Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia and ruled since 1992 by President Rahmon, who has concentrated power in his family’s hands. President Rahmon was elected to another seven-year term in October 2020, allegedly winning almost 91 percent of the vote in elections widely perceived as fraudulent. The government is weak and highly corrupt, and it faces financial catastrophe in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Tajikistan typically derives around 40 percent of its gross domestic product from labor remittances, primarily from Russia, but this dramatically declined as many laborers were forced to return home amid the pandemic. The population is predominantly Sunni Muslim—around 86 percent—while Shi’a Muslims, mostly located in the mountainous east, account for roughly 4 percent. The remaining 10 percent includes Russian Orthodox, Protestants, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, Jews, Baha’is, and Zoroastrians. Tajikistan’s legal environment for freedom of religion or belief sharply declined after the adoption of several highly restrictive laws in 2009. In particular, the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions set onerous registration requirements; criminalized unregistered religious activity, private religious education, and proselytism; set strict limits on the number and size of mosques; allowed state interference in the appointment of imams and the content of sermons; required official permission for religious organizations to provide religious instruction and communicate with foreign coreligionists; and imposed state controls on the content, publication, and import of religious materials. In 2011 and 2012, administrative and Penal Code amendments set new penalties, including large fines and prison terms, for religion-related charges such as organizing or participating in “unapproved” religious meetings. A 2011 law on parental responsibility banned minors from any organized religious activity except funerals. Since 2014, the state has paid imams’ salaries and required them to wear state-manufactured religious garments, and the content of sermons is commonly dictated by the government. Misuse of Extremism Laws The Tajikistani government continued to use concerns over Islamist extremism to justify actions against participants in certain religious or political activities in 2020. As in past years, Tajikistan used this pretext to crack down on individuals in the religious, media, and civil society sectors. For example, it leads Central Asia in imprisoning journalists for alleged extremism, terrorist links, and inciting religious hatred. In March, the government officially banned the Prague-based news outlet Akhbor, a website founded by a former employee of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to provide objective coverage largely unavailable inside Tajikistan, claiming that it was a “platform” for “extremists and terrorists.” Akhbor was forced to cease operations in November, citing official opposition and the threat it posed to journalists, experts, and participants. In April, a Tajikistani court sentenced the journalist Daler Sharipov to one year in prison for “inciting religious hatred,” likely for his coverage of religious freedom conditions in the country, including government anti-hijab campaigns. Government entities make all determinations about extremism through a closed and opaque process that favors the prosecution, and there is no provision for independent analysis. Government Persecution of Muslims In 2020, the government conducted mass arrests and interrogations of Islamic leaders, including prominent Sufi Muslim clerics and many who received religious education abroad. This trend likely represented an attempt by the government to suppress dissent and ensure compliance ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections by intimidating religious leaders who do not follow officially sanctioned Hanafi practice. Furthermore, since January the government has detained at least 154 people it accuses of membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood; in June, a Muslim cleric and three of his brothers received suspended prison terms for alleged membership in the group, while 10 other defendants—including the cleric’s son, son-inlaw, and nephews—were sentenced to prison terms of between five and seven years. In August, a court sentenced 20 alleged members— including academics, businessmen, and at least one government official—to prison terms that ranged from five to seven years. In November, authorities arrested Eshoni Sirojiddin, a prominent cleric previously imprisoned for teaching Salafi Islam. Key U.S. Policy U.S. policy toward Tajikistan has emphasized security and regional connectivity. In January, then U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells visited Tajikistan and announced that the United States was “deepening [its] security cooperation in the areas of border security, counterterrorism, law enforcement, and joint military exercises and training.” She referred several times to the more than $200 million in aid that the U.S. government had provided Tajikistan to secure its border with Afghanistan and expressed concern about restrictions on fundamental freedoms. General Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, made his first visit to Tajikistan in October, where he met with President Rahmon and senior military and security officials to discuss continued cooperation on security and stability in Tajikistan and the Central Asian region, including Afghanistan. In October, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched its first full mission in Tajikistan; its presence in the country had previously been a branch of the regional mission in Kazakhstan. USAID initiatives in Tajikistan work to foster food security, support civil society and nongovernmental organizations, improve education quality and access, combat human trafficking, and help reintegrate migrant workers into their home communities. The U.S. Department of State has designated Tajikistan as a CPC repeatedly since 2016, most recently on December 2, but it has also maintained a waiver on imposing any related sanctions on the country “as required in the important national interest of the United States.” U S C I R F – R E C O M M E N D E D F O R C O U N T R I E S O F PA R T I C U L A R C O N C E R N ( C P C ) 49 TAJIKISTAN Background