Restriction of access to Turajonzoda’s website politically motivated, says expert

DUSHANBE, May 25, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The chairperson of the Association of Internet-Providers of Tajikistan, Ms. Parvina Ibodova, considers that restriction imposed on access to religious website of the Turajonzoda family is politically motivated.

According to her, the situation with restricting access to the website of Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda and his brothers looks like the situation that emerged in the country last fall, when during the military operation in Rasht district (eastern Tajikistan), authorities restricted all communications wit the eastern part of the country, citing the same reason – technical problems.

“But this restriction cannot yield desire results, because the website can be accessed by using proxy servers,” Ibodova said.

“I do not understand what does the wording “technical problem” mean?  Who has technical problems – website, provider or anybody else?”  Such a wording arouses many questions.”

In her opinion, by restricting access to the website the authorities unknowingly boost the image of it.

“I visited this website and it does not have anything provocative; on contrary, it contains many useful information about Islam, role of woman in Islam, etc,” Ibodova noted.

We will recall that the State Communications Service issued a directive, a copy of which was shown to journalists on May 19, ordering internet providers to restrict access to the website of known Tajik religious and political figure Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda (www.turajon.com) because of “a technical problem.”  As of May 20, the website could only be accessed by using proxy servers.

The website was created by Turajonzoda and his brothers a year ago.  Since then, it has had more than one million visits.

Turajonzoda told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on May 24 that restricting access to turajon.com is unconstitutional, because the website is not political.  RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports several new books by Turajonzoda were recently posted to the site.  Visitors can also listen to sermons by prominent Islamic leaders at Friday prayers.