Wave of Arrests Ahead of Eid in Uzbekistan

   

17-Nov-09

Female Islamists in Uzbekistan are being targeted in a wave of arrests ahead of Eid al-Adha, a major festival in the Muslim calendar.

On November 16, the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders based in Tashkent reported that at least 30 Muslim women had been arrested in the town of Karshi, in the southern Kashkadarya province.

Observers note that the arrests came made shortly before Eid al-Adha, known as Qurban Hayit in Uzbekistan, which falls on November 27 this year.

Human rights activists allege that detainees have been subjected to psychological pressure and intimidation, as investigators from the National Security Service tried to coerce them into testifying against an Islamic teacher.

Mehriniso Hamdamova was arrested on November 5 and accused of recruiting young people into “jamoats” – community-based Islamic groups.

Before her arrest, Hamdamova, who trained in Islamic studies, had been teaching women the precepts of Islam for the last two years at Karshi’s Kok Gumbaz mosque. She was appointed on the recommendation of Uzbekistan’s officially-approved top Muslim cleric, Mufti Usmonkhon Olimov.

“The [security service] investigator told me that my mother enjoyed respect among the local population,” said Latofat Arzikulova, Hamdamova’s daughter. “He told me he wasn’t going to allow many more Muslims like us in Karshi.”

Tashpulat Yoldashev, an Uzbek political analyst based abroad, believes the authorities grew concerned at Hamdamova’s growing popularity so decided to take preemptive action.

“People are drawn to religion because of the tough social situation, by the lack of a national ideology, and by continuous repression,” said Yoldashev. “They are drawn to various Islamic activists who promote spiritual values that offer them some relief.”

Eyewitnesses say all the women detained in Karshi are accused of wearing hijab – Islamic costume, of teaching children to pray and observe Islamic law, and of providing free meals during Muslim weddings and festivals.

A number of women who were released said detainees were being held in a single cell where they were subjected to deliberate humiliations – police removed their hijabs, touched them and insulted them.

“They demanded that we tell them who was teaching Islam and prayers,” said one woman, who was allowed home to breastfeed her six-month old child. “The interrogators constantly poured cold water over some of the women.”

Surat Ikramov, who heads the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders, notes that the arrests form part of a wider campaign against devout Muslim women, as a result of which about 350 are currently in prison.

In autumn 2008, 27 women were arrested in Tashkent on charges of belonging to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir groups. Earlier the same year, there were mass arrests of women in the Yangiyol and Chinaz districts of Tashkent province.


“Many of them have yet to be found guilty in court,” said Ikramov. “Over the last few years, the number of female believers has increased, and that alarms the authorities. Law-enforcement agencies are under instructions to arrest and jail them to get them to renounce their faith.

The Uzbek authorities have been persecuting Muslim activists and anyone deemed to be over-devout since 1992. They say they face a threat from Islamic extremists, an argument that was used to devastating effect in 2005, when government troops fired into a crowd of demonstrators in Andijan, killing hundreds.

(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)