Muslim Majorities Protection: State Control of Mosques and Religious Life

Summary

Governments from Egypt to Central Asia run mosques, appoint imams and police Muslim dress; Tajikistan and Uzbekistan enforce bans on hijabs, beards and religious speech through fines, prosecutions and informal pressure despite denying any law requires it.

What it argues

1. State-run religious institutions

   Egypt's Awqaf, Turkey's Diyanet and Central Asia's Muftiyats appoint imams, run mosques and set religious curricula, Carnegie's Nathan Brown and Bayram Balci write. In 2016 Egypt's Ministry of Awqaf imposed a single government-written Friday sermon on all mosques, which preachers told Middle East Eye was a tool of political control. States use official Islamic institutions, including sermon content, as instruments of political control.

2. Tajikistan outlaws Islamist party

   In 2015 Tajikistan banned the Islamic Renaissance Party, its only legal Islamist party, as a terrorist organisation, Human Rights Watch reports. HRW says the party had argued for separating religion from the state and expanding women's education, not for an Islamic state. Tajikistan closed the one channel through which Muslim political participation had been tolerated.

3. Uzbekistan's extremism charges

   Uzbek courts have jailed young Muslims for three to five years for sharing religious songs on Telegram, Human Rights Watch documented in 2023. HRW and UN rapporteurs say the criminal code's 'extremism' provisions are overly broad and used against peaceful religious expression. Vaguely defined extremism laws criminalise ordinary private religious practice in Uzbekistan.

4. Tajikistan's dress bans

   No Tajik law explicitly bans the hijab or beards, officials admit, yet police fine and detain people for wearing them, Forum 18 and RFE/RL report. A 2024 amendment to the 'traditions' law bans clothing 'alien to Tajik culture,' widely understood to mean Islamic dress. Tajikistan enforces an unwritten ban through administrative penalties rather than codified law.

5. Egypt's divorce dispute

   Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb says only a new consensus of Islamic scholars, not the state, can change rules on verbal divorce. President Sisi wants verbal divorce invalid unless registered by an authorised official, citing high divorce rates, Carnegie's Mohamed Helmi Abdelwahab reports. Egypt's government and its top religious authority dispute who holds the power to reinterpret Islamic family law.

6. Family life under pressure

   Tajik police pressured a man for years until he divorced his hijab-wearing wife and evicted her, Forum 18 reported in 2018; defender Vokhidova says many such cases go unreported. Tajik women now choose bright, patterned headscarves and avoid plain black or white to avoid looking 'too religious,' RFE/RL reported in 2026. Pressure over the hijab shapes Muslim family life and daily dress choices in Tajikistan.

7. Schools police dress

   Tajik police patrol schools and universities to stop pupils and students wearing hijabs or beards, Forum 18 and HRW report. Headteachers who fail to report violations face punishment; thousands of teachers have been penalised, Radio Free Europe reported. Enforcement of dress rules has extended into classrooms and reaches children as young as six.

8. Hijab costs jobs, care

   Hijab-wearing women in Tajikistan say employers reject them at interview because of an official dress code, Forum 18 reported. One woman said a state hospital refused to let her see a doctor because she would not remove her hijab. Dress restrictions deny hijab-wearing Muslim women work and access to healthcare in Tajikistan.