Tajikistan is widening the war on warlocks.
The Tajik government has previously announced hard labor, heavy fines and other tough penalties for people convicted of fortune-telling, sorcery and witchcraft. Now it is targeting their customers.
Legal measures are being taken against more than 150 people suspected of paying soothsayers to commit “criminal acts,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Wednesday.
The ministry did not provide details about the legal action, but said it will collect the data and photographs of people who go to fortune-tellers and sorcerers.
For years, Tajikistan has warned that fortune-tellers and the like are fraudsters seeking to bilk customers out of their money. There appear to be deeper concerns that deeply rooted beliefs revolving around the supernatural are a threat to stability.
Alarming human rights groups, the government has also banned clothing deemed to be foreign to Tajik culture, a purported reference to Islamic clothing such as the hijab. Tajikistan´s efforts to regulate religious expression are part of a bigger campaign against extremism, though critics fear such controls could end up pushing some people toward radicalism.
