Although the famous Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) traveler Robert Dacesin visited 102 countries and thus toured a large part of the world, one country in Central Asia left him speechless.
“I have already visited many conservative and rather closed countries, but I think this one is one of the most extreme so far,” Dachesin said after visiting Tajikistan.
Here, among other things, New Year’s Day, Christmas and any public celebration are prohibited. It is forbidden to organize weddings with many people, and at funerals it is not allowed to cry loudly, hold hands or show too much emotion. It is forbidden to give children a foreign name, men are not allowed to have long beards, and all martial arts that promote violence are also prohibited,” says Dacesin in his travelogue.
Those who are brave enough to celebrate their birthday in a cafe or restaurant can prepare to spend some money on the fine.
A few years ago, Amirbek Isayev learned a lesson when he had to pay a fine of 600 euros for celebrating, which is a huge sum in Tajikistan. The key piece of evidence was a photo of the birthday boy and the cake on Facebook. He was found guilty, although the waiter testified in court that no one congratulated him on his birthday.
Since 2016, citizens must call their children by names from the official state register, and restaurants must also have appropriate names. Whoever wants to open an Italian restaurant in Dushanbe cannot call it Bella Italia or something like that, because the law on the state language dictates that restaurants must have traditional names.
Tajikistan, or the country of the Tajiks, is the smallest country in Central Asia that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. About ten million people live in it today, and there are twice as many outside the country. The capital and largest city is Dushanbe, and almost 90 percent of the area is occupied by mountains,” says Dacesin.
The highest peak in the country, Ismail Samani, is located at 7,495 meters above sea level and was once the highest peak of the Soviet Union, also called the Peak of Communism. Tajikistan was the most underdeveloped republic of the Soviet Union, and today it is among the poorest countries in this part of the world, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
