تحقیق در گوشه جهان فراموش: او آغاز میشود

I hate research. This needs to be stated, because it’s starting to consume my once bountiful free time, and if I’m going to be pulling all-nighters in Tajikistan, I think I need to address why I’m doing this.

If you've been reading this for a while, you know that it’s been a goal of mine to do some sort of research during my time in Tajikistan. And, following the fallout of what I am lovingly calling “The Armenian Fiasco”, Tajikistan will be the only country under study. But what to do? This question has puzzled me for quite some time. On one hand, Tajikistan is, as far as the Central Asian countries go, among the most interesting, pinned between the perpetual quagmire of Afghanistan, the political powderkeg of Kyrgyzstan, and having a hate-more hate relationship with neighboring Uzbekistan (also known as the country that the US has trained and armed to have the largest army in Central Asia).

On the other hand, Tajikistan is not a free country by any stretch of the imagination, and too much snooping in the wrong direction could cause problems. And let’s be fair, I would totally go snooping in the wrong direction, because I’m that guy.

So, what causes problems for Tajikistan, and would be something on which “original” research could be done? My answer ended up being: migration, Diasporas, and the relationship there. While I’m not going into too much detail here (there’s Wikipedia for a reason folks), any country that has almost 1 million people working abroad is bound to have a complex relationship with communities abroad. Add in that Tajikistan has been on the “critically unstable/crises to look out for” lists for the last several years, without any major existential crises, and you've got an interesting topic.

On that note, I've got a research “class” going on here, which will, before the end of the program in May, see me speaking with the Ministries of Labor and Migration, the opposition Hizb-i Nazahat-i Islami (or, slightly more frighteningly in English, “Islamic Renaissance Party”) and Social Democratic Party, various media and civil organizations around the capital, and Tajik Diaspora groups abroad in Russia and (hopefully) the US.

So yeah…good stuff.

Finally, I said there’d be a farewell this week, but if I say anymore, I’m pretty sure I’ll cause more problems than I have before, so you know who you are, it was a damn shame to see you leave, and I’ve said everything else.

As always: Ташаккуру Худо ҳафез