«Under the Cover»

The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons in Tajikistan have been violated, even though consensual homosexual relations between adults were decriminalised in Tajikistan in 1998. Officially, the age of sexual consent for same-sex and opposite-sex relationships is also equalised. However, the law does not protect LGBT persons from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Here, homosexuality is still “mended” with various Muslim rituals, and many gay, lesbian, and transgender persons have to either lead a double life or leave the country.

LGBTQ Muslims in Tajikistan face homophobia and transphobia, discrimination and stigmatisation both in society at large and within the Muslim community. Key religious figures have publicly called on citizens in mosques to punish people who have committed the "sin of sodomy".

LGBTQ Muslims have to choose between their identity and spirituality, which only increases isolation, minority stress, and internal stigma based on orientation and gender.

Due to stigma within the religious community, these people are unable to attend mosques and sometimes reject either their LGBT identity or religion, and sometimes both.

In this project, we want to make visible the experiences of LGBTQ people in Tajikistan who find their faith important and who have resolved the conflict between their sexual and gender identities and spiritual needs.

We talked to six persons. The visual aspect of the project is represented by the images of people in urban space, in different parts of Tajikistan. People are concealed under Tajik clothes or decorative items: blankets with traditional patterns, skullcaps, satin, chakan and suzani (hand-embroidered wall carpets, prayer rugs). This provides security while symbolically illustrating the situation in the country.

LGBTQ Muslims in Tajikistan remain "under the cover": invisible, they are surrounded by homo- and transphobia within society, on the one hand, Islamophobia, on the other, stigma within the religious community from yet another perspective, and then again the internal stigma rooted in LGBTQ identity and religion.

The concept of the photo project and the chosen cultural code symbolise this conflict: it seems like a person and their experience in Tajikistan do not exist, but an invisible silhouette emerges in the folds of the fabric – a signifier without the signified.

The project team:

The project was implemented thanks to...