Tajik Leader Sets Fashion by Changing His Name

30-Mar-07

The president of Tajikistan has given a boost to national identity by de-Russifying his surname. Other Tajiks are likely to do the same, but commentators say the decision should be a personal one.

At a meeting with intellectuals on March 20, president Imomali Rahmonov announced that from now his surname would be plain Rahmon, dropping the Russian “-ov” to get back to a more traditional Tajik name.

The idea caught on, and at a cabinet meeting on March 26, it was recommended that birth registration offices should record the names of babies in the Tajik style, without the Russian endings.

To standardise names across the Soviet Union, Russian endings were added to people’s surnames in all the non-Russian republics at the end of the 1920s. Another innovation was patronymics - middle names based on the name of one’s father – which were added in 1950. All official documents had to give people’s named in the required style.

Experts on the subject say the president is trying to popularise the use of original Tajik names, but they say the law already allows anyone to change their name to make it less Soviet.

Saifullo Safarov, an analyst at the Centre for Strategic Studies, which is affiliated with the president’s office, explains that the name-change was supposed to happen right after Tajikistan became independent in 1991, and a language law that made provision for this had been passed three years before that. However, the 1992-97 civil war put the move on hold.

Member of parliament Galiya Rabieva said the current legislation allows people to adopt a more Tajik version of their name or stay as they are.

Muso Dinorshoev, director of the philosophy institute at Tajikistan’s Science Academy, says this return to old naming traditions makes perfect sense, especially since it will happen on a voluntary basis.

He noted that President Rahmon’s proposal is aimed only at ethnic Tajiks, not the other ethnic groups living in the country.

Professor Hoji Umarov, an NBCentralAsia observer, said the new instructions could present problems if over-zealous officials start forcing people to name their children in a certain way.

“Naming is a very personal matter for every individual and should not be regulated by anyone else. It’s my right to name my son Petr or John if I want – no one can stop me. If people are put under pressure, that will be a breach of their human rights,” he said.

Umarov said that because he is grateful to the Soviet Union for the education it gave him, he will not be changing his name but will hand it down to his children and grandchildren. His “-ov” will live on.

(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)