Stories about Tajikistan from February, 2014
“A Trip He Will Not Forget”: Russian Man Flies to Tajikistan By Mistake
A young man did not check his ticket before departure and arrived in Tajikistan's Kurgan-Tyube instead of Russia's Kurgan.
Tajik Court Fines Journalist for Calling Docile Intellectuals ‘Shit’
A journalist who quoted Vladimir Lenin in criticizing state-appointed, docile intellectuals in Tajikistan has been ordered by court to pay over 6,000 US dollars in "moral damage".
“We Are Not an Anomaly or Disease”: Gay Bloggers Speak Up in Tajikistan
Social media is enabling Tajikistan's gay community to speak up against widespread homophobic attitudes. These attitudes, however, are quite sticky.
Tajikistan's Tastiest Blogs
There are three blogs in Tajikistan that are a must read for anyone interested in Tajik cuisine. Tajik Restaurant [Tarabkhonai Tojiki] [tj] shares cook-it-yourself videos and recipes of popular Tajik dishes. Suhailo's Cooking Diary [Daftari pukhtu-pazhoi Suhailo] [tj] teaches its readers to bake pastries popular in the country. Finally, Osh...
“They Fell Our Souls and Memory”: Felling of Trees Draws Anger in Tajikistan
Whenever the authorities in Dushanbe launch a redevelopment project, they start by felling trees. Over the last decade, Tajikistan's capital has lost thousands of trees.
Soviet-era Monuments and Slogans in Tajik Capital “Should Stay”
Over the last two decades, the authorities in Dushanbe have dismantled most of the Soviet-era monuments and huge political slogans on rooftops which had all been an important feature of the cityscape before 1991. However, as Radio Ozodi reports [tj], Tajikistan's capital has preserved a handful of Soviet statues, slogans, and signs...
“Celebrating Valentine's Day Is a Direct Way to Hell” in Tajikistan
Popular among younger people in cities, Valentine's Day struggles to gain broader acceptance in Tajikistan.
An “Increasingly Uncertain” Future for Central Asia's Fergana Valley
On the Caravanistan blog, Cycloscope writes about radioactive landfill sites in the Fergana Valley, a region “absurdly divided between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan”: Unaware of the dangers of radioactivity, the locals take the equipment in the old abandoned mines and sell them as scrap, risking not only their own lives...
“Vegetarianism Equals Evil” in Tajikistan
A foreigner tweeting under @onlytajikistan tells about Tajik food and about the way the country has changed him from a vegetarian to meat eater.
Tajik Team at Olympics Opening Ceremony Included a Russian “Tourist”
Following the Olympics opening ceremony, many people in Tajikistan were shocked to find out [ru] that one of the individuals who walked into the ceremony in Sochi alongside Tajik athletes under their nation's flag had little to do with the country. Vladimir Vladimirov, a Russian entrepreneur and member of a municipal...
Tajik Bloggers Ask to Meet With President
Every year, the president of Tajikistan meets with selected members of the national intelligentsia in Dushanbe, in late March. These meetings normally feature long speeches by the president followed by endless praise of his work and his answers to carefully scripted questions from the audience. As the authorities begin [ru]...
Tajikistan: Welcome to the “Facebook Republic of Pitzostan”
A government committee in charge of enforcing language regulations in Tajikistan has recently caused many laughs by insisting that the word “pizza” should be replaced with “pitzo” on restaurant signs in the country's capital. According to the committee's chair, “pitzo” sounds more “Tajik”. #Tajikistan has officially renamed pizza “pitzo”. For...
“What the Hell Is Tajikistan? Why Do They Even Exist?”
Tajikistan is a small and relatively young country unknown to many people throughout the world. Tajikistan Monitor writes: The opening ceremony for this year’s Winter Olympics gave me an opportunity to monitor people’s online reactions to watching team Tajikistan enter the Sochi stadium. Below are just some of the most...
Russian Commentator Mistakes Uzbekistan for Tajikistan at Olympics Opening Ceremony
A renowned Russian sports commentator mistook Uzbekistan's national team for that of Tajikistan in a live broadcast from the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Surname Change As “National Duty” in Tajikistan
Following a controversial assertion by Tajikistan's Prosecutor General, senior officials in the country continue claiming that citizens whose surnames end in “-ov” or “-ev” are not patriots. Speaking to journalists today, Gavhar Sharofzoda, the head of the Tajikistan Language and Terminology Committee, said [ru], “Getting rid of Russian endings in...
Tajikistan Is “Besieged by Snow”
A massive snow storm has caused a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of people in Tajikistan.
