http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2055
Uzbekistan-Women Fear Police
Brutality, Searches, Arrest over Freedom of Religion or Belief
By Mushfig
Bayram, Forum 18 News Service – 14 April 2015
Nearly three
years after losing her job as a teacher for insisting on wearing the hijab
(Islamic headscarf), Gulchohra Norbayeva has faced police summonses, a house
search for religious literature, accusations she was teaching the Koran
“illegally”, and pressure to sign statements incriminating Muslim men she did
not know. “At the moment they have left me alone. I don’t know if the Police
opened a case,” she told Forum 18 News Service. An Anti-Terrorism Police
Officer who took part in a raid on Norbayeva’s home insisted to Forum 18 that
the search was for religious literature and that the case is now closed.
Meanwhile, police have renewed their hunt for Guljahon Kuzebayeva, a
Protestant in the southern Kashkadarya Region who has been in hiding since
July 2014, for allegedly talking to family members about her Christian faith.
“She fears police brutality during interrogation and also possible
administrative arrest,” fellow Protestants told Forum 18. The use of informal
physical violence and torture, or threats of this, by the authorities is
widespread in Uzbekistan.
In recent months
Uzbekistan's police are known to have renewed their targeting of two women
for exercising their freedom of religion or belief – Gulchohra Norbayeva, a
Muslim in Tashkent Region, and Guljahon Kuzebayeva, a Protestant in the
southern Kashkadarya Region, Forum 18 News Service has learned. Two more
Muslim women were sacked from their jobs in Karshi for insisting on wearing
the hijab (Islamic headscarf).
Norbayeva – who lost her job as a teacher in 2012 for refusing to give up
wearing the hijab – faced police summonses, a house search for religious
literature, accusations she was teaching the Koran “illegally”, and pressure
to sign statements incriminating Muslim men she did not know.
Asked whether the police or other authorities are still harassing her or
whether she knows if a case has been opened against her, Norbayeva told Forum
18 on 7 April: “At the moment they have left me alone. I don't know if the
police opened a case.” An Anti-Terrorism Police officer who took part in a
February 2015 raid on Norbayeva's home insisted to Forum 18 that the search
was to hunt for religious literature and that the case is now closed. Severe
censorship of such literature, including house searches, is imposed by the
state (see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1862).
Kuzebayeva – who went into hiding in July 2014 following a raid on her home -
faces possible prosecution for allegedly talking to family members about her
Christian faith. “She fears police brutality during interrogation and also
possible administrative arrest,” fellow Protestants told Forum 18.
The use of physical violence and torture, or threats of this, by the
authorities is widespread in Uzbekistan. Most victims are, for extremely good
reasons, unwilling to publicly discuss their experiences and women are often
particularly targeted by male officials (see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious
freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1862).
Protestants told Forum 18 that they think that police opened a case against
Kuzebayeva under Administrative Code Article 240, Part 1 ("Violation of
the Religion Law") and Article 241 (“Teaching religious beliefs without
specialised religious education and without permission from the central organ
of a [registered] religious organisation, as well as teaching religious
beliefs privately”). But the police “could not bring her before a court as
she is hiding for fear of administrative arrest.”
Punishments under these Articles are fines or administrative arrest of up to
15 days (see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1862).
Police are known to detain people who actively exercise their freedom of
religion or belief after having opened an administrative case against them.
Police then bring such people quickly before the courts without proper
investigation or due legal process, resulting in punishments for exercising
human rights. If the police's victims are given a term of administrative
arrest, they are immediately taken to prison (see Forum 18's Uzbekistan
religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1862).
“Special register of Muslims to be watched”
Norbayeva told Forum 18 that during one recent interrogation, police officers
told her that “it does not matter now if I wear the hijab or abandon it. They
said that I will still be in their special register of Muslims to be
watched.”
People who actively exercise their freedom of religion or belief – both
Muslims and those with other beliefs – are known to be on lists for special
scrutiny, held by the National Security Service (NSS) secret police, ordinary
police and Mahalla (local district) Committee officials. Wearing the hijab or
going to the mosque or other place of worship frequently is enough to be
listed (see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1862).
Norbayeva approached the Human Rights Alliance, an independent human rights
organisation in Tashkent. “We studied her case, and it is a gross violation
of her religious and other human rights,” Yelena Urlayeva of the Alliance
told Forum 18 from Tashkent on 14 April. She said her organisation is calling
on the international community to "support and protect" Norbayeva,
as well as on Uzbekistan's authorities to "restore her to her work"
as a teacher.
A source from Kashkadarya, who asked not to be named for fear of state
reprisals, told Forum 18 on 13 April that they know of at least two Muslim
women from Karshi who were dismissed from their jobs recently for wearing the
hijab. The women were also subjected to police interrogation and harassment
for their religious beliefs. The source did not wish to identify the two for
fear of state reprisals.
Officials of the government's Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent,
including Press Secretary Shovkat Hamdamov, refused to comment on the cases
to Forum 18 on 13 April.
Pressure to abandon the hijab
Trouble began for Norbayeva, a Muslim resident of Parkent in Tashkent Region,
in 2008, when she heard rumours that her husband had died in Afghanistan. “He
left me and our seven-month-old baby in 2000 and went abroad, I don't know
where,” she told Forum 18. During this period, police questioned her several
times over the whereabouts of her husband. “Officers also warned me not to
wear the hijab.” In 2008 Norbayeva filed for divorce, and was granted it.
In 2012 the Administration of Secondary School No. 8, where she worked as an
English teacher, warned Norbayeva not to wear the hijab. “School officials
told me in front of all the staff that either I must stop wearing the hijab -
as the government does not want teachers to wear hijabs - or I must leave my
job,” she told Forum 18. “Otherwise I'd be in trouble. I chose leaving my job
instaed of stopping wearing the hijab.” She signed a letter voluntarily
resigning her job at the school.
Norbayeva has been without a full-time job since 2012, surviving by giving
English lessons privately. “And I still wear my hijab,” she added.
Sadriddin Abullayev, Director of School No. 8, adamantly denied that he or
other school officials pressured Norbayeva to resign her job. “She left the
job for health reasons,” he claimed to Forum 18 on 7 April. However, he
affirmed that teachers “cannot wear the hijab to school since an Education
Ministry Decree on the official dress code for teachers does not allow the
hijab or any other religious apparel.” Asked why teachers cannot wear clothes
that accord with their religious beliefs, he did not answer. He did not wish
to talk to Forum 18 further.
Harassment continues
For some time after 2012, police left Norbayeva alone. “But they began
harassing me again in August 2014,” she told Forum 18. “They would summon me
and pressure me to sign statements against two Muslim men and their alleged
illegal actions. I didn't even know them.” She told Forum 18 that she knew
the men's wives by sight. “We got acquainted through common friends in the
bazaar. We greet each other occasionally on the street, but our relationship
has not gone beyond these greetings.”
At 6 am on 23 February 2015, about 14 police officers raided Norbayeva's
Parkent home. The raid was organised by Yukori-Chirchik District's Yangibazar
City Police in cooperation with the Police from Parkent. Officers showed her
a search warrant from the Yukori-Chirchik District Prosecutor's Office.
However, some of the officers hurried Norbayeva away to the Yangibazar Police
Station, while others searched the flat in the presence of her brother and
some neighbours.
Why the search?
Yangibazar Anti-Terrorism Police Officer Mirvohid Mirboboyev told Forum 18
the search was conducted “because we were tipped off by the Religious Affairs
Committee that Norbayeva has religious books in her flat”. He added that
“books were seized from her flat and sent for expert analysis to the
Committee in Tashkent”.
However, Norbayeva denied this. “I counted my books when I returned home, and
all the books were in place.” She pointed out that the Prosecutor's warrant
said that the search in her flat was in connection with a Muslim man (whose
name she did not remember) who was in custody, and who allegedly testified
that he knew her. The police had pressured the man's wife to sign a
pre-written statement which claimed that “Norbayeva lived like a vagabond,
and she taught Koran lessons illegally.”
Asked on 9 April why Norbayeva's home was searched and why she was questioned
by the Police, Yukori-Chirchik District Prosecutor Otabek Abdullayev refused
to discuss the case. “You need to talk to higher authorities, if they allow
us then we'll talk to you,” he told Forum 18. Asked who exactly it should
speak to, the Prosecutor put the phone down.
Officer Mirboboyev adamantly denied that Norbayeva is being targeted by the
police. Asked why officers pressured her to sign statements against the
Muslim men, he told Forum 18: “We only conducted a search in her home.” Asked
why then on 23 February she was taken to Yangibazar Police Station for
interrogation, he did not answer. “The case is over, there is no need to
worry,” he insisted.
Asked why he thinks the case is over, Officer Mirboboyev responded: “The
Religious Affairs Committee sent us an expert analysis that the books found
in her home are the Koran and Hadith [collections of sayings attributed to
the Islamic prophet Muhammad], which are legally allowed in Uzbekistan.”
Local police officer Aziz Bekmirzayev, who led the officers to Norbayeva's
flat and who participated in her detention and the search, refused to discuss
the case. “I cannot discuss this case with you over the phone,” he told Forum
18 on 8 April. Asked why, he said: “It's a secret.” He also refused to tell
Forum 18 whether a case was opened against Norbayeva or any other details of
the Police investigation.
12-hour interrogation, 11 days of heart treatment
After being taken to Yangibazar Police early on 23 February, Norbayeva was
questioned there for almost 12 hours with only a short break, she complained
to Forum 18. Officers were able to compel another Muslim woman to sign a
statement that “I allegedly gave her private Koran lessons, which I never
did. It is this woman's husband who in February was given a 15-day
administrative arrest in Yangibazar, and against whom I was asked to sign a
statement,” Norbayeva said. She said that later the man “was freed.”
At about 7 pm, she and the Muslim woman who testified against her were taken
to Yukori-Chirchik Prosecutor's Office for the police to “complete some
formalities for about 15 minutes” and where they were not questioned. They
were then returned to the police station. “After that we sat on chairs in the
police station hallway until 11 pm without being fed or given water, and then
we were released.”
The woman “admitted to me she had to sign the statement against me, because
police then released her husband as promised,” Norbayeva told Forum 18. “She
was very sorry, and apologised to me that she had to do this to save her
husband.”
The police officers, one of whose name is Olim (last name not known),
“verbally abused me during the interrogation and threatened to put me in a
psychiatric ward if I did not sign false statements, one of which was against
me.” Despite the police pressure, Norbayeva refused to sign the statements.
Officer Olim seized Norbayeva's mobile phone and her passport on 23 February.
They were not returned until late March, Norbayeva said.
Norbayeva told Forum 18 that “after that interrogation I suffered heart pain
and palpitations for many days.” On 9 March she was accepted as an outpatient
by Tashkent City hospital No. 7 with a diagnosis of tachycardia, she said.
She attended the hospital daily for treatment until 20 March.
Police target Protestant in Kashkadarya
Meanwhile, trouble began for Kuzebayeva on 11 July 2014, when police searched
her flat in Karshi in her absence, “hoping that they could find Christian
books there to punish her,” Protestants told Forum 18. However, officers
“found nothing illegal.”
Soon after, police brought Kuzebayeva's brother and his wife and their 19
year-old son to a police station. “There they were made to sign statements
that Kuzebayeva illegally shared her Christian beliefs with them.” After this
police began hunting for her to punish her under the Administrative Code for
teaching religion without state permission.
The officers who searched Kuzebayeva's home and searched for her in the
beginning were Olim Gulomov, Bakhtiyor Babayev, and Zhavlon Sharipov of
Karshi Police, Protestants told Forum 18. Later Karshi Criminal Police
officers Iskandar Zhahongirov, Ilhom Zhabbarov and Chief of Criminal Police
Alisher Mahmudov searched for Kuzebayeva and “made her relatives sign
statements.”
Attempted arrest
The latest attempt to bring Kuzebayeva before the police was made by Aziz
Haydarov, Chief of Karshi's Passport Regime Department. On 12 February 2015
he signed a summons for Kuzebayeva to appear before the Department with her
passport, as well as a letter from the local Mahalla Committee about her
character. The letter reached her address in Karshi on 23 February,
Protestants told Forum 18. However, Kuzebayeva did “not appear before the
police, and is still hiding.”
Officer Zhabborov came to her home at 11 pm on 24 February to “arrest her but
could not find her.”
Asked on 13 April why the Criminal Police is searching for Kuzebayeva and why
her relatives were summoned and compelled to sign statements against her,
Police Inspector Timur Hakverdiyev from Karshi Criminal Police responded: “I
need to look into the case.” Asked whether a criminal or an administrative
case has been opened against Kuzebayeva, Inspector Hakverdiyev did not
answer. After consulting his supervisors, he told Forum 18: “I cannot say
anything.” He referred Forum 18 to Aziz Haydarov, Chief of the Passport
Regime Department, and refused to talk further.
Haydarov of the Passport Department also was reluctant to comment on why
police are searching for Kuzebayeva. “She needs to come to us herself, and we
will explain to her,” he told Forum 18 on 13 April. Asked why Kuzebayeva
cannot peacefully practice her religion or why she cannot share her beliefs
with her relatives, Haydarov did not answer. He repeated his previous answer.
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