Tajikistan is suffering from a case of Goldilocks syndrome when it comes to clothing.
Wear clothes that are too Muslim and you risk being dragged off the street by the police.
A group of parents in the capital, Dushanbe, is now facing the music for sending their children to school in excessively expensive garb.
Radio Free Europe’s Tajik service, Ozodi, has reported that the parents of 11 pupils from a school in Dushanbe’s Nosiri Husrav neighborhood have been brought to heel for violating the “Law on the Responsibility of Parents for Educating Children.”
The girls in question stand accused of spurning the uniforms made in a local neighborhood sewing factory, where pupils are expected to buy their school outfits, and instead buying their own in the market, Ozodi reported. Their parents now face a 120 somoni ($19) fine.
The thinking behind the action is said to be the need to protect poorer students from exposure to luxuries they could not themselves possibly afford.
“Those who have money can buy clothes for 300 somoni. Those who don’t (have the money), buy the cheap clothes. Students from poor families, when they see this, feel bad,” Bozorgul Saidova, deputy head of the Nosiri Husrav neighborhood, told Ozodi.
But the brother of one offending student, Murod Rahmonov, told Ozodi that the neighborhood sewing factory did not make a uniform for his sister’s size, which is why they had to look for alternatives at the market.
“My sister’s clothes were sewn badly and were too large for her. So she went to school in another dress. But they made trouble for us and summoned us to the prosecutors. I don’t know what is going to happen now,” Rahmonov said.
The practice of assisting the hard-up from having to indulge in unaffordable expenses has some vintage in Tajikistan.
Under legislation passed in 2007, a ban was slapped on large and expensive festivities. The law requires people to only celebrate birthdays within their family circle and stipulated that festivities must occur between the hours of 10 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekends, or from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays.
At the time, President Emomali Rahmon argued that austerity was necessary as spending on weddings, funerals and other events had got out of hand.
"Each year, citizens of our small country spend [almost $1.5 billion] on weddings and funerals, whereas the whole national budget is only [about $1 billion," Rahmon said.
Such micro-management of customs has caused conflicting emotions. While some bristle at the limitations, others are secretly grateful at being spared the often-crippling costs of having to throw massive bashes for weddings.
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