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Women are banned from studying theology in Turkmenistan
- including Islamic theology, the only permitted religious university subject
– an official has told Forum 18 News Service. "Only men are accepted for
this course," the State University official – who did not give her name
or role – told Forum 18. "Women can't study there." She declined to
say why this discrimination against women has been imposed. This is the only
university-level institution in Turkmenistan where the government allows any
religious faith to be studied, and only Islam is permitted to be studied. It
is also the only institution where the government allows young men who want
to become imams to be trained. Potential imams are not allowed to study
abroad, and only a small number of men (some of whom do not wish to become
imams) are allowed to academically study any religious topic. Only the
Russian Orthodox Church is permitted to send male and female students abroad
for their studies, and the possibilities for all other formal and informal
(such as Sunday School) religious education and instruction are extremely
severely restricted.
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Women are banned from studying theology in Turkmenistan -
including Islamic theology, the only permitted religious university subject -
an official of Magtymguly Turkmen State University has told Forum 18 News
Service. The University, in the capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat], is the only
university-level institution in Turkmenistan where the government allows any
religious faith to be studied, and the government only allows Islam to be
studied. It is also the only institution where the government allows young men
who want to become imams in Turkmenistan to be trained.
This means both that potential imams are not allowed to study abroad, and
that only a small number of men (some of whom do not wish to become imams)
are allowed to academically study any religious topic - and these men are
only allowed to study Islamic theology.
"Only men are accepted for this course," the official – who did not
give her name or role – told Forum 18 from Ashgabad on 22 September.
"Women can't study there." She declined to say why this
discrimination against women has been imposed.
Nurmukhamed Gurbanov, Deputy Chair of the government's Gengeshi (Council) for
Religious Affairs, put the phone down on 21 September before Forum 18 was
able to ask him why women cannot study Islamic theology at the University,
why only a limited number of men can do so, why the academic study of
non-Islamic religions is banned, why the Turkmen Government ended
participation in a Turkish-funded Islamic education programme in 2008, why
religious colleges cannot be set up, and why individuals have been punished
for teaching religion.
Ten students per year
The University official confirmed to Forum 18 that, since the Theology
Faculty was abolished by presidential decree in 2005, the subject has been
taught within the History Faculty. "There's no separate department –
it's a specialism within the Faculty."
The official said that 50 men are studying theology, ten in each year of the
five-year course. She said the latest 10 men began the first year of the
course at the beginning of the new academic year on 1 September. She added
that some of those who graduate from the course become imams, but not all.
Are numbers studying theology falling?
The numbers of students who study Islamic theology at the University is controlled
by the government, as is their selection, sources in Turkmenistan have told
Forum 18. The University official declined to explain to Forum 18 how the
students are chosen and who by.
If the official's claim of 50 current students is correct, this appears to
represent the same number as were studying in the 2009-10 academic year, but
a fall compared to earlier years. In the 2008-9 academic year 60 students
were taking its five-year course of study, sources have told Forum 18.....
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