Emomali Rahmon

Emomalii Rahmon Эмомалӣ Раҳмонامام علی رحمان >
President of Tajikistan
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 November 1992
Prime Minister	Abdumalik Abdullajanov Abdujalil Samadov Jamshed Karimov Yahyo Azimov Oqil Oqilov
Preceded by	Rahmon Nabiyev
Personal details
Born	(1952-10-05) 5 October 1952 Kulob, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union
Political party	People's Democratic Party

Emomalii Rahmon (Tajik: Эмомалӣ Раҳмон; Russian: Эмомали Рахмон) (born October 5, 1952) has served as the head of state of the Republic of Tajikistan since 1992, under the position of President since 1994.

Biography

Rahmon was born to a peasant family in Kulob, in the Kulob Oblast, now part of Khatlon province. In 1971-1974 he served in the Soviet Armed Forces . As an apparatchik rising through the nomenklatura, his original power base was as chairman of the collective state farm of his native Dangara. In 1982, he graduated from the Tajik State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics. Between 1976 and 1988, Rahmon was the Chairman of the Union Committee of the collective farm in the Dangara region of Kulob province. He also held various positions in leading Government divisions at that time.

In 1990, Rahmon was elected a people's deputy to the Supreme Council of the Tajik SSR. President Rahmon Nabiyev, fearing for his life amidst anti-government protesting, resigned in Dushanbe in August 1992. Akbarsho Iskandarov, Speaker of the Supreme Soviet, became acting president. Iskandarov resigned in November in an attempt to end the civil unrest. The Supreme Soviet met in Khujand and abolished the position of president that same month. Rahmon, then the Speaker of Parliament, became the head-of-government.

Between 1992 and 1997, Rahmon's rule was opposed by the United Tajik Opposition in the Tajik Civil War in which up to 100,000 people died. Rahmon survived an assassination attempt in April 1997 in Khujand, as well as two attempted coups in August 1997 and in November 1998.

On November 6, 1994, Rahmon was elected to the newly created post of president of Tajikistan, and he was sworn in on November 16. Following constitutional changes, he was re-elected on November 6, 1999 to a seven-year term, taking 97% of the vote. On June 22, 2003, he won a referendum that would allow him to run for two more consecutive seven-year terms after his present term expired in 2006. The opposition alleges that this amendment was hidden in a way that verged upon electoral fraud. Rahmon was re-elected in a controversial election on November 6, 2006, with about 79% of the vote according to the official results.

He is leader of the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan, which dominates the Tajik legislature.

He is married to Azizmo Asadullayeva and has nine children.He has seven daughters and two sons. Rahmon is a recipient of numerous honors, including the 2000 World Peace Corps academy Gold Medal award.

Name change

In March 2007, Rahmonov announced that he had changed his last name to Rahmon, dropping the Russian ending -ov (which was added to the first name of the father of men in the 19th century to create surnames in the Russian Empire), and that he urges other Tajiks to follow his example and return to their cultural and national roots. The official website of the presidency uses the name Emomali Rahmonov in all news up to March 20, 2007 and Emomalii Rahmon since March 21, without any explanation.

The added i at the end of his first name is a Persian ezafe meaning Emomali of Rahmon. It can be used to link two nouns or a noun and an adjective. For a first name, it can be used when followed by the surname.

Rahmon and Tajik culture

Rahmon meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on 4 February 2009.

Rahmon convinced UNESCO to declare 2002-2003 the third millennium since Zoroaster's birth, and in his book, The Tajiks in the Mirror of History, he claimed that Zoroaster was a Tajik from Bactria. In this book, Rahmon also wrote:

Many principles of the Zarathushtrian religion have left a deep imprint on the [Tajik] people's mind. The habit has been preserved prohibiting the killing of animals when they are pregnant and the cutting of trees in blossom. Water, earth and fire have to be protected from any impurity. The fumes of some fragrant herbs are still used to keep away sickness and the force of evil.

These and many other examples give evidence that in every Tajik house we may find trace of Zarathushtra's teachings.

Let us hope in the new millennium, the Tajik people will continue to live under the spiritual guidance of Zarathushtra, the prophet of truth and light.

Rahmon is a Sunni Muslim and has performed the hajj when he went to Mecca in March 1997. He has called for closer ties with other Muslim nations in the region, notably the Persian speaking nations of Iran and Afghanistan. His reply to the critics of the election standards of the 2006 Tajikistani presidential elections was:

Tajikistan is a country where more than 99 percent of the population is Muslim. We have a different culture, and this has to be taken account of.

The international community has repeatedly criticized the Rahmon administration's record on human rights and press freedom.

Awards

Anniversary award «10 year old Astana» Olympic award of Asia (2009). Golden medal of FIAS(2009) — высшая награда международного самбо Golden medal of UNESCO by Jalolidinni Rumi (2009)

External links

• Official Website of the Tajik Embassy in USA
• Official Website of the President of Tajikistan
• Excerpt concerning Zoroaster from Rahmonov's The Tajiks In The Mirror of History