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The war in Ukraine has brought issues of self-identification and national identity in Central Asian states into focus. According to researchers, decolonisation issues had been discussed in the expert community previously, but it has gone beyond academic limits after the outbreak of the war. However, the degree of knowledge of the colonial past and decolonisation processes in the countries of the region is very diverse and it is often the political issue.
Tajik cotton producers claim losses due to falling demand in Russia, following sanctions imposed on that country. (more…)
Officials believe that speeding and failure to follow traffic rules are the main reasons for the increase in road accidents in Tajikistan. But experts also attribute this to the influence of corruption. Accidents involving officials’ children are of particular concern.
There are concerns that Russian disinformation and extremist groups may instrumentalise the conflict. (more…)
Parents of children with disabilities from remote villages in Khatlon Province are concerned about their children’s education conditions, but authorities say all are covered
It is very difficult for children with disabilities to get to school due to poor roads in remote, mountainous regions. The lack of specialized classes and teachers is also a big problem. And getting to schools, especially for those who have to use wheelchairs, is even physically difficult.
Olambi Naimova, 10, lives in the Muminabad district in southern Tajikistan. She and her family live in the mountainous village of Tuto. Olambi’s legs have been paralyzed since childhood, and the way from the village to school is one kilometer and it is a very rough road full of mud and stones. She cannot get to school alone, she is helped by older students and sometimes by her mother.
“I want good conditions, especially for my daughter Olambi. Our village is in the mountains, the road is steep and it is difficult for healthy children to walk on it. It is with great difficulty that I take my daughter to school in a wheelchair. It snows in winter and rains in spring, it is slippery, muddy, and very difficult to take my child to school,” Olambi’s mother Mizhgona Pirhonzoda added with concern.
She said that it is not always possible to take Olambi to school on time because of the difficult road from their village to the school.
“Before, the school had no special paths or ramp for wheelchair children, but this problem has been solved, they have already built this thing. The only problem is the bad road to the school itself,” she says.
10-year-old Olambi can’t go to school every day because of leg problems, she is worried about not attending classes regularly. But she dreams of becoming a surgeon in the future.
Teachers say she has a better chance than other children with disabilities living in rural areas because her parents and other relatives encourage her desire to learn.
Raikhona is the conventional name of a 35-year-old woman from the Vakhsh Valley. After divorcing her husband, she is alone raising her son, who has not seen since birth. He is 9 years old and has good learning abilities, but finds it difficult to attend school with other children.
According to Rayhona, her son has good hearing, if he hears something on TV, he learns quickly, but unfortunately he does not go to the village school because there are no conditions for education of the blind.
“My son has to learn in a special alphabet with Braille. I want my son to study, but there is no special class for the blind in our village,” says Rayhona.
Such children need special textbooks, she said, and there are no teachers to teach them either.
“In order for him to study, we have to take the child to the city of Bokhtar. It’s very far away and we don’t have such an opportunity,” Raihona added.
In the entire Vakhsh Valley, there is only one class in Bokhtar City School No. 5, which provides special classes for children with disabilities. But the number of students in that class is only 10.
Many parents want to send their children to this school, but because of the long distance it is impossible, representatives of Bokhtar City School No. 5 told CABAR.asia.
“So that parents do not hide their children from society”
Khatlon Oblast has 2,293 school-age children with disabilities, according to official information.
Sarfaroz Yakubov, deputy head of the Khatlon Oblast Education Department, told CABAR.asia that 317 of those children are home-schooled, while the rest study in schools.
“These are children from 7 to 17 years old. For those who are home-schooled, teachers from educational institutions travel to their homes to teach them. Home schooling is monitored to ensure that it is done well. The rest of the children with disabilities study in schools, and for them, modern or new type schools have installed pathways and ramps,” Yakubov added.
However, Rozia Boboeva, an invadid resident of Bokhtar, went through home education herself as a child and says it did not have good results. She believes that home education has many difficulties for children with disabilities.
“I have that experience myself, I went through it. I am blind and have faced many difficulties while studying. I know very well that in our society and in educational institutions of the region children with disabilities are accepted very reluctantly. I want such children not to be left out of education and parents not to hide them from society,” Boboeva added.
Rozia Boboeva spent three years ensuring that children with disabilities could attend school together with their healthy peers. This helps them better adapt to society.
Sabohat Hakimzoda, head of the Association of Parents of Children with Disabilities, said they are aware of the difficulties in educating children in different regions of Tajikistan. Problems for this group of students are still seen in remote, hard-to-reach regions of Tajikistan.
“Only in Dushanbe, new schools in new schools have ramps and adaptations for children with disabilities, but in other regions there are almost no such facilities. In particular, there should be ramps, special passageways, separate room toilets, but, unfortunately, all this is missing,” Hakimzoda said.
Tajikistan has more than 159,000 people with disabilities, 32,000 of whom are children, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
Parents of these children say that despite their disabilities, they try to ensure that their children can get an education. According to them, they are used to this difficult situation and rely only on their own strength and the help of relatives.
Tajik experts believe that the authorities, by requiring mandatory registration of IMEI codes, are trying to replenish the budget and strengthen control over citizens
In Tajikistan, a government decree on mandatory registration of IMEI codes of all cell phones and other mobile telecommunication devices was adopted back in 2020. On the website www.imei.tj created by the Communications and Customs Services under the Government of Tajikistan, it is noted that until April 30, 2023, entering IMEI codes of mobile devices into the State System was free of charge in automatic mode by connecting to the networks of mobile operators.
The report specifies that from May 1, 2023, the entry of IMEI codes is still “free of charge” through a single portal of the system operator www.imei.tj
The announcement also states that the government’s mobile telecommunication identification system has benefits such as:
– preventing the illegal importation of mobile devices;
– organizing a national database of IMEI codes of mobile telecommunication devices;
– protecting the right of owners by disabling lost or stolen mobile devices.
The introduction of the IMEI code registration system raises questions from users. A Tajik journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, said she first heard in a phone store that she had to pay for registration. The phone salesman there explained that to register an IMEI code, the gadget had to be “customs cleared” – that is, to pay customs duties and taxes on its own.
“I tried to find out in that store why the seller was selling “non-customized phones”. I was stupidly sent away, they said: if you don’t want it, don’t take it,” says the interviewee of CABAR.asia.
After that, the journalist went around at least ten different outlets, but nowhere had “un-cleared phones”.
“Then I decided to buy a phone and test how the system works. I never managed to register the IMEI code. Because customs still hasn’t determined the average cost of the phone model I bought. And the imei.tj website keeps showing an error,” said the interviewee.
After a request to the imei.tj call center for an IMEI code, the journalist received a text message stating that she had to enter the IMEI code of her device into the State System of Identification of Mobile Means of Electric Communication.
“Enter the IMEI code of your device into the State System within 30 days using the Unified Portal www.imei.tj. Otherwise, electric communication services will be terminated,” the message read.
However, despite the threats, the connection was not disconnected after 30 days.
The journalist also received a message from Dcity, Dushanbe City Bank, telling her to pay 1,436 somoni (about US $130) for customs clearance services.
These services included VAT – 117 USD, brokerage services – 50 TJS (about 5 USD) and customs duty – 10 USD.
At the same time, the cost of the purchased phone was only 1,250 somoni (about 120 dollars), which caused particular bewilderment to the interviewee.
“I then studied all the documentation – nowhere does it say that the buyer in Tajikistan has to pay taxes and customs duties,” she said.
According to her, earlier the imei.tj call center said that if a phone is registered in the customs database, registration of the IMEI code should be free of charge.
She claims that customs should not leave this issue at the discretion of sellers and buyers.
“Customs officers should prevent smuggling, not hang it on the buyer,” she said.
As reported by other Tajik citizens, they also received messages about the need to register codes.
According to the Customs Service, over 64,000 mobile devices were imported into Tajikistan in 2022, with the annual demand for cell phones estimated at about 500,000. This figure indicates that a large number of imported goods of this type are actually smuggled into Tajikistan.
The customs duty on the import of cell phones, tablets and other electronic means of communication is 15-20% of the value of the goods.
According to the rules, the importer must register the goods at customs, otherwise it is considered smuggled and residents should refrain from buying them. But today residents cannot find registered phones at cell phone outlets. The sellers ask them to register themselves by paying a fixed amount.
Khairiddini Hussain, one of the cell phone sellers at the Sadbarg Mall in Dushanbe, told CABAR.asia that his goods have passed the registration system. However, the prices of phones in his store are higher than in others.
Customs: either the seller or the buyer must register the code
Khurshed Karimzoda, head of the Customs Service of Tajikistan, said that registration of IMEI codes of phones and other mobile communication devices is mandatory.
“This action is carried out either by the importer or the buyer,” he stressed at an August 11 press conference.
According to him, when buying, the consumer should inquire whether the product is registered or not.
“From here, the cost of communication equipment is determined,” Karimzoda said.
According to Karimzoda, importers of communication devices are not obliged to enter IMEI codes into the State Identification System for Mobile Electronic Communication Devices until the moment of sale.
“When the code is registered, the user’s SIM card must be installed in the device. It does not matter who does it. The reason is that without this action, the user will not be able to use the purchased equipment. That is why the importer of the equipment does not have to register it when importing it,” Khurshed Karimzoda added.
Tajikistan’s customs authorities have detected 10 cases of illegal transfer of cell phones in the first six months of this year, on the basis of which administrative offenses were initiated.
The government is trying to fill the state budget by registering IMEI codes, Tajik lawyer Shokirjon Khakimov said.
In his opinion, when making such decisions, the factor of low solvency of the majority of the country’s citizens should be taken into account.
The Tajik lawyer believes that this step is primarily political in nature.
“The requirement of mandatory registration of all mobile devices is aimed at strengthening control over citizens,” Khakimov emphasized.
He believes that contradictions and conflicts of interest need to be resolved first by improving and amending the relevant regulatory documents.
In his opinion, imperfect legislation and the lack of subordinate clarifying acts give officials and businessmen the opportunity to “misinterpret” the issue.
“As a result, conditions are created for the growth of corrupt relations and other undesirable phenomena,” he told CABAR.asia.
Central Asian countries need to clearly understand the risks of developing cooperation with Germany according to the formula “raw materials for technology”, as there is a risk of increasing dependence on energy resources, says Eldaniz Huseynov, a specialist in European and international studies of the Heartland Expert Analytical Center, commenting on the results of the last summit “Germany-Central Asia”. (more…)
It became obvious, according to political analysts, after the summit of Central Asian presidents and the U.S. president, which was held on September 19 in New York during the UN General Assembly.
An ambitious infrastructure project in Afghanistan risks exacerbating scarcities in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. (more…)
Over the past two months, cases of persecution of Tajik migrants and students in Russia have become more frequent. Experts assume that this is due to the growth of xenophobia in Russia and, possibly, migrants being forcibly recruited to the war in Ukraine. (more…)