VZCZCXRO4714
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0622/01 1140922
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240922Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0134
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1437
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1954
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 1204
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 2063
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2095
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2070
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1798

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000622 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN GOVERNMENT TO STUDENTS:  NO MINISKIRTS OR HIJABS 
 
DUSHANBE 00000622  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  First it was gold teeth, then it was graduation 
parties and students driving to school, now girls in Tajikistan 
are fraught over the fact they will no longer be allowed to wear 
jewelry or miniskirts to school.  In remarks to the press, 
President Rahmon said that students at public schools should not 
be allowed to spend money for extravagant graduation parties, 
and students are not to use cell phones in classes or drive cars 
to school.  The Minister of Education, Abdujabbor Rahmonov has 
taken the president's informal commentary further and also 
ordered a new dress code, complaining that girls had been 
wearing revealing clothing, such as miniskirts, to school and 
too much jewelry.  The new dress code gives the minister an 
excuse to reintroduce his informal ban on hijabs.  This de facto 
order will be treated and enforced by education administrators 
as real legislation.  PolOff met with Vahobjon Abdulazizov, Head 
of the International Relations Department at the Ministry of 
Education April 20 to discuss media reports of the Ministry's 
ban on hijabs and miniskirts.  END SUMMARY 
 
JUST A RECOMMENDATION? 
 
¶2.  Abdulazizov repeatedly emphasized that the new rules are not 
an official order from the government and will not be written 
into the law.  However, teachers should enforce the new dress 
regulations.  According to media reports the Minister of 
Education, Abdujabbor Rahmonov, promises to fire any teachers 
who do not comply.  (Note: A professor from the Slavonic 
University told the Ambassador she had questioned this policy 
openly during a command meeting with Rahmonov last week; he 
confirmed "she would be fired" if she did not comply.  End 
note.)  Even though President Rahmon has spoken out publicly and 
ordered a ban on cell phones, graduation parties and students, 
he has not officially signed a presidential order or decree 
banning such activities.  He also has not mentioned banning the 
hijab in public statements. 
 
¶3.  The Ministry will publish a brochure with pictures of 
acceptable dress for high school students.  The brochure does 
not recommend one standard uniform and will permit western style 
dress as well as traditional Tajik dress.  Girls are permitted 
to wear traditional Tajik head scarves, but not hijabs.  Boys 
can wear traditional Tajik hats, but not Islamic prayer caps. 
 
A MORE EQUAL SOCIETY? 
 
¶4.  Abdulazizov's rationale for the new dress code is to promote 
a more egalitarian learning environment.  He explained that it 
is not fair for wealthy students to drive to school in nice 
cars, dripping with gold jewelry; it gives other students an 
inferiority complex and makes them feel too embarrassed to 
attend school.  (Comment: Many Dushanbe residents quietly wonder 
whether President Rahmon's son will still drive one of his 
Porsches everyday to Tajik National University where he is 
enrolled.  End comment.) 
 
¶5.  The ministry's justification for banning what essentially is 
an ostentatious display of wealth and returning to the 
appearance of communist era social equality is in line with 
President Rahmon's criticism of citizens with gold teeth and his 
public comments against Tajiks frivolously spending money on 
large post-funeral commemorations involving lavish meals for 
guests.  Although such customs have long been a Tajik tradition, 
they are not a requirement in Islam.  The president's argument 
is that Tajiks should save their money or spend it more wisely. 
(Note: Ironically, because "gold" capped teeth are much less 
expensive than porcelain crowns, his instructions may put a 
greater burden on the low-income, dentally-challenged. End 
Note.) 
 
SECULARISM OR RESTRICTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM? 
 
¶6.  This is not the first time the Minister of Education has 
spoken out against the hijab.  At a press conference in October 
2005, he publicly stated that girls should not be allowed to 
wear hijabs in schools.  The government later rescinded the 
statement and said that those were the minister's personal views 
and not an official order.  Because it has not been an official 
order, some girls who had been expelled for wearing the hijab 
were readmitted.  Since 2005, expelled girls have approached 
Islamic Renaissance Party members for help and the party has 
been successful reinstating most girls approaching university 
and high school administrators to explain the significance of 
 
DUSHANBE 00000622  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
the hijab.  Islamic Renaissance Party officials told PolOff they 
fear that for every girl who approaches the party, many more 
remain silent and accept the expulsion, or turn to religious 
madrassas. 
 
¶7.  When PolOff pointed out the possible consequences of the 
law, including lower attendance among girls, resulting in a 
poorly educated female population, and girls turning to 
madrassas, Abdulazizov countered that a very small number of 
girls will actually be affected by the new rule.  He argued that 
the girls do not actually want to wear hijabs themselves, but 
are forced to wear it by their parents and therefore will not 
likely turn to madrassas or grow up more religious.  The local 
press quoted the Minister of Education as saying that "an 
oppositional party which is eagerly striving for power" 
persuaded the girls to wear hijabs. 
 
¶8.  Abdulazizov repeatedly justified the Ministry's decision to 
prohibit girls from wearing hijabs based on the fact that 
Tajikistan is a secular state.  PolOff explained that a secular 
state asserts freedom of religion and does not interfere in the 
free practice of religion.  The Minister's recent directive 
indicates that Tajikistan is a not a secular state, but rather 
laical, which places a greater emphasis on citizens not engaging 
in religious practices in public at all.  PolOff pointed out 
that the government is restricting religious freedom. 
Abdulazizov responded by offering an excuse that many Tajik 
bureaucrats frequently spout-that Tajikistan is a young country 
with only 15 years of independence; the United States should be 
patient. 
 
¶9.  COMMENT:  The Ministry of Education believes that by 
implementing new dress regulations, it will force students to 
focus on learning and improve the quality of Tajik students.  In 
a better world, instead of chastising students for the way they 
dress, the ministry would focus on penalizing students for 
bribing teachers and buying their diplomas and make efforts to 
improve the quality of teaching, provide more textbooks, and 
expand schools so that students don't have to attend classes in 
shifts.  Instead, the new edicts seem designed more to deflect 
attention from the serious afflictions of Tajikistan's crumbling 
education system rather than correct the shortcomings. 
 
¶10.  Abdulazizov would not comment on the source of the 
directive.  If the education minister acted alone, it is 
disconcerting that no other ministers, government officials or 
parliamentarians, besides Muhiddin Kabiri of the Islamic Party, 
have spoken out against the ban of the hijab.  It is unlikely 
though that the Minister of Education would have acted without 
the president's office's consent.  Rahmon's new rules are what 
may be the beginning of a strange turn to an increasingly 
state-controlled society where the government interferes 
directly in people's daily lives. 
JACOBSON