Herald Report Some 300 children from four villages in the Vahdat district of Tajikistan must make a treacherous journey to school, walking between three and four kilometers every day, each way. Some wade through a river, but when the waters rise, they must cross a high, rickety suspension bridge, says a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) report. Vahdat …

Herald Report The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Tajik authorities to investigate the “apparently targeted disruption” of the embattled independent news agency’s websites and to help ensure they are accessible. The New York-based media-freedom watchdog made the call on September 10 after Dushanbe-based media group Asia-Plus reported that its main websites and business e-mails had stopped working …

Its a great news for snow leopards and local herding communities: the Mongolian government has decided to expand the Tost Nature Reserve in the country’s South Gobi province by 150 sq.km, says Snow Leopard Trust newsletter. In doing so, the government also revoked a mining license that had threatened a water source that is critical for people and wildlife. Herald …

A documentary by an award-winning Pakistani filmmaker shows the lives of traditional musicians, musical instrument makers and the challenges they face by Omair Ahmad Indus Blues is an aural and visual delight, and it is no wonder it is winning, and being nominated for, a slew of awards. A 75 minute documentary on the folk musicians of Pakistan by the young filmmaker …

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR Compared to the events two decades ago when the Afghan Taliban appeared in the Amu Darya region in northern Afghanistan and Central Asian states and Russia went into feverish tantrums, there is an eerie calm palpable in the steppes today.  The contrast couldn’t be sharper. In 1997 when Taliban first appeared in Mazar-i-Sharif on the Amu …

Sayvaly Shafiev leads a group of about 200 fighters from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and other Central Asian countries in Afghanistan, says UN report Herald Report A little-known Tajik man has emerged as a unit leader of the Islamic State (IS) affiliate in Afghanistan as the extremist group tries to expand its footprint in the war-torn country, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty …

In the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, thousands of young girls and women are kidnapped every year to be forced into marriage. Although the practice was outlawed in 2013, bride kidnapping continues to exist, with destructive consequences for society. By Iris Oppelaar With WILDNESS, Iris aims to de-sensationalize the practice of bride kidnapping and instead reveal the motives and societal …

While the only existing studies consider trilingualism in Kazakhstan in general, this research aims to identify possible risks and prospects for the implementation of the program of trilingualism at regional level, specifically in the East Kazakhstan Region. by Zhuldyz Moldagazinova The survey was funded by the Oumirserik Kassenov grant, established by the Institutional Foundation “International Charitable Foundation—Altyn Kyran” and the Kazakhstan …

When we talk about the carpets of Central Asia, we typically mean those produced by Turkmens. However, the production of this homemade handicraft was historically widespread among other peoples of the region: Karakalpaks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Arabs, Tajiks, and Uzbeks, Emira Gyul. She focuses specifically on the Uzbek tradition of carpet weaving. by Elmira Gyul Carpet-weaving is an amazing art with which mankind …

  Tajikistan has opened a criminal investigation after 14 prison inmates died of food poisoning while being transferred from Tajikistan’s northern Sogd region to prisons in Dushanbe, Norak, and Yovon in southern Tajikistan on July 7. “During transportation, one of the prisoners shared three pieces of bread with another 15 inmates in Varzab Valley,” the Justice Ministry said in a …