KAZAKHSTAN: Parents challenge schoolgirl headscarf ban

Kazakhstan's national schoolgirl headscarf ban is being legally challenged by a group of Muslim parents, whose daughters have been banned from school for wearing a headscarf. In their interpretation of Islam, they argue, wearing a headscarf is compulsory. Officials deny a headscarf problem exists.

13 April 2018

UZBEKISTAN: Prisoners of conscience freed, others not

Sisters Zulhumor and Mehrinisso Hamdamova were freed after more than eight years in prison for unauthorised religious meetings. Also freed was Zuboyd Mirzorakhimov, a Tajik citizen jailed for Muslim material on his mobile. An unconfirmed report says another Muslim Farida Sobirova was freed. Yet another, Mastura Latipova, remains jailed.

11 April 2018

KAZAKHSTAN: State demands young worshippers' personal data

A Kazakh regional Religious Affairs Department has demanded the personal data of everyone under 18 who attends Christian meetings for worship. "It was not sent to Muslims, for example, just to Christians, and selectively", an official stated. She refused to explain what "selectively" means.

6 April 2018

UZBEKISTAN: Legally-published religious literature "extremist"?

The Tashkent trial is due to begin on 13 April of a Muslim accused of giving his hairdresser a legally-published Muslim book. A Fergana Region court handed a Muslim scholar a three-year suspended prison term for possessing for scholarly purposes a Muslim work he did not completely agree with.

5 April 2018

KAZAKHSTAN: Cancer sufferer freed, other cases continue

Transferred by train from Pavlodar labour camp to cancer hospital in Almaty, Jehovah's Witness pensioner Teymur Akhmedov was pardoned and freed on 4 April. Prosecutors say a criminal case against a Protestant pastor will "soon" be closed down. Prosecutors are still investigating a five-year-old criminal case against an atheist. The trial of three Muslims continues in Karaganda.

29 March 2018

UZBEKISTAN: Will authorities pardon tortured, jailed Shia Muslim?

The Chief Directorate for the Enforcement of Punishments refused to say what stage Shia Muslim prisoner of conscience Jahongir Kulijanov's request for pardon has reached. Among 20 Shias detained in Bukhara in February 2017 and tortured, fined in August 2017, Kulijanov was jailed for five years in September 2017 for having works on Shia history.

26 March 2018

KAZAKHSTAN: Raid, filming, fingerprinting, insults, criminal case

"Anti-extremism" police raided Kyzylorda's New Life Church, halted Sunday worship, filmed those present, and forced them to state why they attend. Teachers from a Special School questioned adult former students why they were present and insulted their faith. Pastor Serik Bisembayev faces criminal investigation for "inciting discord".

23 March 2018

TURKMENISTAN: Jailings of conscientious objectors resume

Two conscientious objectors, both Jehovah's Witnesses, were jailed for one year in January. One had just completed a corrective labour sentence. These are the first jailings of conscientious objectors since 2014. No prisoners of conscience are known to have been freed under the Novruz amnesty.

19 March 2018

UZBEKISTAN: Officials bully child, "show trial", fines

The authorities in Uzbekistan's Navoi Region keep raiding and punishing local Baptists "to stop them meeting for worship and peaceful religious activity". Baptists also said that the authorities compel the relatives of ethnic Uzbek Christians to try to stop family members from meeting co-believers.

15 March 2018

KAZAKHSTAN: One church, two prosecutions

Shymkent's New Life Protestant Church was fined for having three not five fire detectors in a storage building and banned for one month. The ban will go into force if the church's appeal fails. But the court acquitted a church member of helping an apparent police agent provocateur download a Bible onto her phone.

5 March 2018

KAZAKHSTAN: 24 criminal convictions in 2017, more imminent?

Zholbarys Zhumanazarov – jailed for one year in Almaty Region for alleged membership of the Tabligh Jamaat Muslim missionary movement – became the 24th known individual given a criminal conviction in 2017 for exercising freedom of religion and belief. The criminal trial of three more begins in Karaganda on 12 March.

27 February 2018

TAJIKISTAN: Conscientious objection appeal to UN Human Rights Committee?

Prisoner of conscience Daniil Islamov is preparing to appeal for the last time to Tajikistan's Supreme Court against a six-month jail term for refusing compulsory military service. If this appeal is rejected, he is likely to appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee.