On July 29, Tajikistan’s Committee on Religion, Regulation of Traditions, Celebrations, and Ceremonies issued a statement to Asia-Plus, the country’s last major independent media outlet, asserting that no law exists in Tajikistan to ban beards or the hijab. The committee further claimed that international assessments regarding religious freedom in the nation are based on unreliable information. This official denial follows a wave of Russian-language media reports that emerged during the week of July 27, which suggested that Dushanbe had implemented a formal ban on hijabs, beards, and Arab-style clothing.
The reports appear to have originated from a single post on the Uzbek website Nuz.uz, which claimed authorities were intensifying restrictions on clothing considered foreign to Tajik culture, particularly black hijabs. Within 24 hours, this claim was republished by various outlets, including Lenta.ru, Trud, RBC, Fontanka, and organizations in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, which framed the enforcement as a new legislative act. Investigations by Nezavisimaya Gazeta revealed that the claims could be traced back to Instagram accounts posing as legal advisers. Furthermore, Asia-Plus clarified that it had not published such reports, despite being cited by other media as the source of the claim.
While the committee’s denial is technically accurate regarding the absence of a brand-new law, it ignores the reality of existing legislation. Article 18 of the Law on the Ordering of Traditions, Celebrations, and Ceremonies, which has been in force since June 2024, prohibits the import, sale, promotion, and public wearing of clothing that does not align with national culture. Critically, the law provides no definition for what constitutes non-national clothing and attaches no specific penalties for these violations. Administrative code amendments that include fines of up to 100,000 somoni ($10,800) are reserved for rituals such as weddings, funerals, and pilgrimages.
In the absence of clear legal definitions, police discretion has become the primary tool for enforcement. RFE/RL reported on July 26 that a trader in Bokhtar was detained for three days and fined 180 somoni ($18) for having a beard; he is now required to send authorities weekly photographs of his clean-shaven face. Other men have reported being forcibly shaved by police. Additionally, passport office officials in Khatlon have confirmed that they instruct bearded applicants to shave, logging each case into monthly reports that track facial hair and religious dress. Earlier in May, the women’s affairs committee in the Rudaki district briefly posted, then deleted, images from a campaign aimed at discouraging women from wearing foreign-style clothing.
Tajikistan has been designated as a U.S. Country of Particular Concern regarding religious freedom since 2016. According to a May update from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the 2024 law is being utilized to facilitate campaigns against attire deemed foreign, including inspections at schools. Such practices are not new; police forcibly shaved approximately 13,000 men in 2015, long before any clothing-related legislation was enacted. Because the current prohibition lacks specific definitions or punishments, it remains a flexible tool for authorities.
These clothing restrictions are part of a broader state strategy that began with the banning of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) as an extremist organization in 2015. Since then, the government has imprisoned journalists, lawyers, and bloggers under similar charges. By framing itself as a bulwark against extremism, Dushanbe has secured international counterterrorism and border-security funding. Analysts such as Edward Lemon of the Oxus Society suggest that this support has helped build a coercive apparatus that the state uses against its own citizens, as seen during the 2022 crackdown in Gorno-Badakhshan. Furthermore, the narrative of policing religious expression has been amplified by Russian media, which uses these reports to justify its own domestic migration crackdowns by pointing to the policies of labor-exporting nations.
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Uzbekistan banned face coverings in 2023, and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan followed in 2025. Russian media outlets have amplified each of these measures since Moscow’s post-Crocus Hall migration crackdown began, because the story is useful at home: proof for Russian audiences that the states supplying their labor migrants are policing their own Muslims – and so should Moscow.
