Avicenna Tajik State Medical University in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Foteh Rahimov via Wikimedia Commons.In January 2018, we wrote an article for Eurasianet discussing the decline of academic freedom in Tajikistan and how foreign scholars involved in research might respond. We considered several options, including withdrawal, but advocated critical engagement as part of the academic response to the human rights crisis engulfing the country and the increased risks faced by Tajik scholars.
We sought to start a debate in the international research community about what “critical engagement” might mean for academic freedom. The responses to our call from Malika Bahovadinova and Karolina Kluczewska, published by OpenDemocracy in February 2018, make some good points about the ethics of fieldwork; we have elsewhere made similar points. However, both authors, proceeding on a fundamental misreading of our argument, say little about the core issue of academic freedom that we raise.
Tajikistan’s human rights crisis
Academics, journalists and civil society widely acknowledge that Tajikistan is going through a period of authoritarian retrenchment. Human Rights Watch has called this a “a severe, widespread crackdown on free expression and association”.
