DUSHANBE (TCA) — Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon has appointed his elder daughter, Ozoda Rakhmon, as head of the presidential administration. The appointment was announced on January 27, the president’s website said.
One of Rakhmon’s seven daughters, 38-year-old Ozoda Rakhmon has served as first deputy foreign minister since May 2014.
She graduated from Tajikistan’s National University before studying in the United States in 2004-2006.
Late in December, Rakhmon signed a law that gave him the title “Leader of the Nation” and granted him and his family lifelong immunity from prosecution.
Last week, Tajik lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment that, if approved by a nationwide referendum, will allow Rakhmon to run for re-election an unlimited number of times.
The lawmakers also approved a constitutional amendment that would lower the minimum age for presidents from 35 to 30.
That proposal is widely seen as designed to enable the elder of Rakhmon’s two sons, 28-year-old Rustam Emomali, to run in the next presidential election in 2020. It is also subject to approval in a referendum whose outcome is all but assured in the tightly controlled country, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported.
Rustam Emomali was appointed as head of the state anticorruption agency last year, after running Tajikistan’s Customs Service since 2013.
Many of Rakhmon’s relatives hold important official positions or control lucrative businesses in the country.
Ozoda Rakhmon’s husband, Jamollidin Nuralizoda, is deputy head of Tajikistan’s National Bank.
The president’s brother-in-law, Hasan Asadullozoda, runs the country’s largest commercial bank, Oriyonbank, and reportedly controls sales of aluminum, a key export commodity.
