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Uzbekistan

From Bahaipedia
 Uzbekistan
Celebration of the Bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, Uzbekistan, 2017.
Location of Uzbekistan
National AssemblyUzbekistan
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 34,081,449
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 975
History:
Firsts
 -  National Assembly 1994 
Official Website https://www.bahai.uz/
Related media
Categories: Uzbekistan • People

The Republic of Uzbekistan is a Central Asian country. Its official language is Uzbek with Karakalpak being recognized as a regional language and several other languages are spoken throughout the country. The predominant religion is Islam.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory and was part of Persian and Mongolian Empires in ancient history. In the 19th century the area came under the rule of the Russian Empire and in 1924 the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic which remained part of the Soviet Union until the independent Republic of Uzbekistan was established in 1991.

The Bahá’í Faith was established in Uzbekistan in the 1880's however restrictions on religion in the Soviet Union put in place in the 1930's lead to the community disbanding and Bahá’ís residing in the country losing contact with the wider Bahá’í community until the late 1950's. Religious restrictions were relaxed in the 1980's and the Bahá’í community was re-established in the early 1990's.

History[edit]

In the 1880's many Bahá’ís from Iran moved to Central Asia due to persecution of the Bahá’í Faith in Iran with small communities being established in Samarkand, Tashkent, and Bukhara during the decade. As of the end of the 1880's there were approximately seventy Bahá’ís in the region which is now Uzbekistan with a Bahá’í Publishing House named Vahdat having been established in Tashkent.[2] From 1928 onward the Soviet Union began to impose increasingly oppressive restrictions on the Bahá’í Faith,[3] and many Bahá’ís were arrested in Samarkand in Tashkent and sentenced to exile or imprisonment however active communities continued to exist in Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara until approximately 1937.[2]

In 1953 Shoghi Effendi launched the Ten Year Crusade, an international teaching plan devoted to establishing Bahá’í communities across the world, and Uzbekistan was named as a goal country for a community to be established in.[4] All contact had been lost with the Bahá’ís of Uzbekistan and it was assumed there was no Uzbekistan community however it was later found that there were Bahá’ís still residing in the country and Shoghi Effendi announced the country was opened to the Faith in his 1956 Ridvan message.[5][6][7] As of 1964 there were Bahá’ís residing in two localities of Uzbekistan and that year the Universal House of Justice launched a Nine Year Plan which set Uzbekistan the goal of establishing a Local Spiritual Assembly however Soviet restrictions limited the possibility of Bahá’í activity.[8]

In the late 1980's restrictions on religion in the Soviet Union began to relax and in 1990 the Universal House of Justice launched a Two Year Teaching Plan for the Soviet Union.[9] In the spring of 1990 a Bahá’í doctor visited Uzbekistan and taught the Faith at a Tashkent hospital,[10] in August 1991 a teaching team conducted teaching activities in Tashkent,[11] and in the autumn of 1991 a Bahá’í academic was invited to address the Institute of Preventative Medicine of Uzbekistan and spoke about the Faith informally at the event.[10]

As of 1992 a Bahá’í center had been purchased in Samarkand and that year a National Spiritual Assembly of Central Asia was established which was responsible for administrating the Bahá’í communities of several countries including Uzbekistan.[12] In 1994 Uzbekistan formed an independent National Spiritual Assembly at its first National Convention in Tashkent,[13] and by 1995 Bahá’í Institute courses were being held in the country,[14] and a teaching project had been launched to proclaim the Faith in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan.[15]

In August 1999 the Bahá’í community of Uzbekistan was invited to participate in a government press conference called to celebrate the anniversary of religious liberty laws being passed and several Bahá’í communities were granted official legal recognition shortly afterwards with the communities of Bukhara, Jizak, Navoi, Samarkand, and Tashkent being officially registered.[16]

In 2008 the experiences of Bahá’ís working in the Denau cluster of Uzbekistan were highlighted and shared at a major Bahá’í Regional Conference held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.[17]

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. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "O'zbekistonda Jamoaning Paydo Bo'lish Tarixi | O'zbekiston Bahoiylari". bahai.uz (in oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча). Bahá'í Community of Uzbekistan. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  3. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 196. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1953). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 273, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1970). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 13 (1954-1963), Pg(s) 457. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 111. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News Canada, April 1956, p 1
  8. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 131. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 199. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 205. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 204. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 215. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 30. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 117. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 113. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 81. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/almaty.html
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