USCIRF Implores State Department to Lift Waiver Amid Turkmenistan’s Treatment of Muslims and Others During Ramadan

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemns Turkmenistan’s deplorable treatment of Muslims and other Turkmens, especially during Ramadan. Heightened religious freedom violations come amid a broader context of state control over virtually all aspects of religious life and an especially pointed repression of Muslims who deviate from the state’s preferred interpretation of Islam.

“No government has the right to impose its preferred religious practices on anyone; however, it is especially egregious for the Turkmen government to meddle in the religious affairs of its majority-Muslim population during one of the holiest months of the Islamic calendar,” said USCIRF Commissioner Eric Ueland. “USCIRF calls on the Turkmen government to respect the right to religion or belief of all Turkmens and allow its Muslim citizens to observe Ramadan according to their personal interpretations of Islam.”

Throughout Turkmenistan, in often contradictory and arbitrary ways, authorities dictate how Turkmens should observe Ramadan. For example, Lebap region officials are using Ramadan as an opportunity to further solidify former Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s cult of personality, calling on state employees to honor him by following his example and fasting during the holiday. At the same time, security guards have taken post in front of classrooms in unspecified regions of the country to force students to drink water and break their fasts.

In Yoloten district of the Mary region, police acted on a sudden, unannounced ban on the sale of alcohol during Ramadan and raided shops that sell alcohol and seized all temporarily prohibited products. In some cases, police officers ordered business owners to pay a bribe upon threat of taking them to court. In Ashgabat, security services are surveilling mosques to publicly shame worshipers who have recently been released from prison and interrogating other citizens considered to be “too religious” in order to find murkily defined “extremists.” According to reports, officials have also forcibly shaved the beards of some of the individuals they interrogated.

“While the U.S. Department of State’s redesignation of Turkmenistan as a Country of Particular Concern, or a CPC, was a welcomed move on December 29, 2023, it is regrettable that such designation included a waiver releasing the Biden administration from taking otherwise legislatively mandated actions,” added USCIRF Commissioner Susie Gelman. “The Turkmen government will never have any incentive to reform if the U.S. government continues to allow Turkmen leadership to continue to violate religious freedom with impunity.”

In its 2023 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department designate Turkmenistan as a CPC for the 23rd consecutive year for systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations. USCIRF also documents cases of Turkmen religious prisoners of conscience, the majority of whom are Muslim, in its Frank R. Wolf Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].