An Uzbek imam has been sacked after urging President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to lift a ban on personal religious symbols such as women’s hijabs and beards for men, in a case showing the limits of newly-proclaimed tolerance in the mainly Muslim country.
Fazliddin Parpiyev, 32, imam of a mosque in Tashkent, said in a video address published last week that despite the recent reforms, Muslims were still being oppressed over the hijab and beard issue and asked Mr. Mirziyoyev for help “in maintaining freedom of conscience”.
