Fri Jan 24 09:51:53 UTC 2025: ## Tajikistan Cracks Down on Fortune Tellers, Witches in Nationwide Crackdown
**DUSHANBE, Tajikistan** – Tajikistan’s government has launched a sweeping crackdown on fortune tellers, clairvoyants, and other practitioners of the occult, leading to thousands of arrests and forcing many to operate underground. The authoritarian regime, under President Emomali Rakhmon, views these practices as detrimental to society and a threat to its control, linking them to illegal religious teachings and scams.
Last year alone, authorities arrested approximately 1,500 individuals involved in witchcraft and divination, along with over 5,000 mullahs accused of offering healing through prayer. Repeat offenders now face up to two years imprisonment and a hefty fine equivalent to six years’ average salary.
The campaign, part of wider efforts to curb both radical Islam and pre-Islamic traditions, has driven practitioners underground. One woman, interviewed anonymously, cautiously opened her door only a crack, fearing arrest and public shaming. Others, like 56-year-old Adalat, have adapted by traveling to clients’ homes instead of receiving them at their own residences. Adalat, who specializes in reconciliation and fortune-telling, admits that her practice supplements, rather than supports, her income.
The high cost of conventional medicine in impoverished Tajikistan, coupled with limited access to healthcare and social services, fuels the demand for alternative remedies, according to Mehrigiul Ablezova, a professor of sociology at the American University of Central Asia. She argues that while repression is underway, deeper societal issues like poverty and inequality contribute to the persistence of these practices. The crackdown, therefore, may not eradicate deeply rooted traditions predating the arrival of Islam in the region.
First Piper 