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19/04/2004 TURKMEN PRESIDENT EXTENDS PERSONALITY CULT
by Anton Lomov
ASHGABAT, April 19 (AFP) - Turkmenistan's schoolgirls and women teachers will soon have to don traditional long dresses and headscarves, and both sexes will have to wear a badge with a profile of the Central Asian nation's authoritarian president, officials said Monday.
"Teachers and schoolgirls will be strictly prohibited from coming to school in trousers, mini-skirts, skirts with a high split, tops that expose the midriff and low-cut blouses," an education ministry official told AFP.
With the compulsory wearing of the badge with President Saparmurat Niyazov's profile, school officials and students will join civil servants in Turkmenistan, who are already required to sport such lapel pins.
The order for the new dress code, which includes a ban on Western fashion, takes effect in September, the start of the next school year in this mostly Muslim country. "Prevailing trends are having a pernicious effect on Turkmen youth," the official said.
The reform does not seem to be aimed at encouraging Islamic values, but rather at furthering President Niyazov's bid to replace Soviet and Russian influences with a personality cult focused on himself as chief interpreter of Turkmen tradition.
Officials in this arid former Soviet republic, where it is rare to see a woman wearing an Islamic headscarf or veil, fear that Islamic extremism might be imported from neighboring Afghanistan.
Niyazov's blend of strictly circumscribed Islam, nomadic folklore and veneration of himself and his deceased parents are all elements of the "philosophical" writings he has penned for study in schools and universities.
Traditionally-dressed Turkmen women wear long dresses embroidered at the neck and hair gathered on top of the heads under a small scarf. Scarves wound around the whole face are commonly worn by female street-cleaners and women working in dustier parts of this mainly desert country.
The Turkmen leader has in the past criticised young men for growing long hair and beards, as well as the popular Turkmen habit of replacing natural teeth with gold ones.
The new school rules affect all students in the country, including the Russian minority, which traces its origins in Turkmenistan to the 19th century when czarist Russia first began conquering the region.
Minorities "are Turkmen citizens and should live by the law of our land," the education official said. Initial reaction to the planned school uniform changes were negative. "First of all, how about paying us on time?" demanded Svetlana, a 47-year-old Ashgabat schoolteacher. "Teachers in several schools haven't been paid since January -- it costs money to buy dresses and headscarves," she told AFP.
Marina, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, doubted that she would wear Turkmen dress except at festivals.
"Personally I'm more comfortable in a T-shirt and shorts," she said.
Niyazov was Turkmenistan's last Soviet-era ruler and was officially declared president-for-life and Turkmenbashi (father of all Turkmen) in 1999. Western governments and activists have strongly criticized the country's human rights record.
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Copyright 2004 Republican Party of Turkmenistan |
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