Unlike in neighboring Uzbekistan, where “sodomy” is illegal, both male and female same-sex sexual activity is legal in Tajikistan, since 1998. The problem is that actual situation in the country is not favorable for LGBT people. LGBT persons in Tajikistan face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. In 2014, Tajikistan’s most senior Muslim cleric blasted homosexual relationships as “calamitous” during a sermon in the main mosque in the capital, Dushanbe.
Authorities in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic, have drawn up a register of 367 allegedly gay citizens. They will be required to undergo testing to avoid “the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases”. Zakonnost, a newspaper published by Tajikistan’s state prosecutor, said that the official list of “gay and lesbian” citizens was compiled following research into the LGBT community.
The paper said that working groups set up last year had identified 319 gay men and 48 lesbians but no transgender people in the Central Asian state of 8.5 million. The journal also said the individuals were identified in operations called "Morality" and "Purge" carried out by federal prosecutors and the Interior Ministry, without giving further details.
According to authorities, the list aims to protect sexual minorities and halt the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Rights activists in this authoritarian central Asian nation have in the past raised fears over discrimination faced by LGBT individuals in Tajikistan, a conservative country that is mainly Muslim but has secular authorities.
Zakonnost did not specify what kind of checks would be involved, but said the people had been “put on a register due to their vulnerability in society and for their safety and to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.”
In the former Soviet Union, there are growing concerns over the safety of LGBT communities, especially across Muslim-majority regions of those countries. In March, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya were imprisoning and torturing gay men. And last month, Amnesty International raised alarm over the apparent detentions of LGBT people in the Caucasus country of Azerbaijan.
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