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Tajikistan

From Bahaipedia
 Tajikistan
First National Convention of Tajikistan, 1994.
Location of Tajikistan
National AssemblyTajikistan
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 9,750,064
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 4,374
History:
Firsts
 -  National Assembly 1994 
Related media
Categories: Tajikistan • People

The Republic of Tajikistan is a Central Asian country. Official languages of the country are Tajik and Russian and the predominant religion is Islam.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory and was part of the Persian Empire in antiquity. In the 19th Century the area became part of the Russian Empire and it then became part of the Soviet Union as the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic until achieving independence in 1991.

The Bahá’í Faith has been present in Tajikistan since at least the 1950's with administrative development taking place from the 1990's onward.

History[edit]

Bahá’ís had settled in many territories of the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries however the Soviet Union persecuted the Bahá’í Faith in its territories like Tajikistan with government restrictions becoming increasingly oppressive in the period from 1928 to 1938 with literature being confiscated and Bahá’ís being imprisoned and deported resulting in the disbandment of Bahá’í institutions.[2]

In 1953 Shoghi Effendi tasked the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran with opening Tajikistan to the Bahá’í Faith,[3] however it was found that there were already Bahá’ís living in Tajikistan prior to 1953 and in 1957 Shoghi Effendi announced the Faith had already been established in the area.[4][5]

Throughout the 1980's the Soviet Union began to relax religious restrictions and as of 1989 there was a community of fifty Bahá’ís in Dushanbe in Tajikistan although the authorities had not granted permission for a Local Spiritual Assembly to form.[6] In 1990 the Universal House of Justice inaugurated a Two Year Teaching Plan for the Soviet Union,[7] setting Tajikistan the goal of establishing a Local Spiritual Assembly in Dushanbe and this was achieved by 1992. Small communities had also been established in three localities other than Dushanbe by 1992.[8]

In 1992 a National Spiritual Assembly of Central Asia was formed which was responsible for administrating the Bahá’ís of several countries including Tajikistan,[9] however in 1993 it was decided that independent Assemblies could be formed due to a dramatic increase in the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies in the region.[10] The National Spiritual Assembly of Tajikistan was formed with its seat in Dushanbe in 1994.[11]

The Bahá’í Faith faced some violent opposition in Tajikistan at the start of the 21st Century with a Bahá’í being martyred in 1999 and two more Bahá’ís being martyred in 2001.[12] As of 2018 it was estimated there were approximately 1,000 Bahá’ís in Tajikistan with the religion being officially registered with the government although there was still some prejudice in the Islamic community against Muslims who converted to the religion.[13]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 196. View as PDF.
  3. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 197. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1970). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 13 (1954-1963), Pg(s) 456. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 111. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ American Baha'i, Vol. 20(11), Nov 1989, p 3
  7. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 199. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 223. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1993). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 21 (1992-1993), Pg(s) 119. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ https://bahai.works/Ri%E1%B8%8Dv%C3%A1n_messages/1994
  12. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2003). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 30 (2001-2002), Pg(s) 146. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ https://cabar.asia/en/tajik-bahais-keep-quiet-about-their-faith
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