Tajikistan cracks down on ‘witchcraft’ and fortune-telling

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AFP) — In a block of flats in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, a turbaned woman cautiously opened the door of her apartment a chink, letting out a waft of incense.

“I’m not taking on new clients. It could be a set-up,” she says, as she closes the door again and locks it.

“I risk a heavy fine. I do not want people outside on my landing,” speaking through the door.

A majority Muslim country in Central Asia, mountainous and impoverished Tajikistan has recently launched a crackdown against fortune tellers, clairvoyants, mediums and “witches.”

Practitioners of the occult are keeping a low profile to avoid arrest and public shaming because of a government-led campaign against them.

Tajik police have stepped up raids against what they call “parasites engaged in some of the most detestable activities imaginable — divination and witchcraft.”

Other countries in Central Asia are also cracking down on what have become widespread practices with roots in pre-Islamic traditions.

Thousands of arrests

The fight against occult practices is part of wider strict controls imposed in the authoritarian country, which is seeking to curb both radical Islam and ancestral beliefs.

“Illegal religious teaching leads to scams, divination and witchcraft. Tajiks! The Prophet categorically forbade going to diviners and sorcerers,” President Emomali Rakhmon, who has ruled the country since 1992, said last year.

Rakhmon also last year announced the arrest of 1,500 people “engaged in witchcraft and divination” as well as “more than 5,000 mullahs” who promised healing through prayer.

A repeat offense is now punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 12,800 euros ($13,300) -- the equivalent of six years’ average salary for a Tajik.

Witches and fortune tellers have adapted to avoid police raids.