Uzbek imams urge Muslims to take part in cotton harvest
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 26 September 2016 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Uzbek imams urge Muslims to take part in cotton harvest, 26 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/58189e0113.html [accessed 22 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
September 26, 2016
The Uzbek cotton harvest (file photo)
Some Muslim clerics in Uzbekistan's mosques have called participation in the country's cotton harvest an "obligation of Uzbek Muslims."
At Friday Prayers on September 23 in some mosques in Uzbekistan, the imams called on Muslims to pray for "a great cotton harvest" and urged them to take part in cotton picking, saying it is their "vijab-amal," or religious obligation.
A cleric in Tashkent's Khazrati Ali Mosque told RFE/RL that imams had received an instruction from the state-controlled Spiritual Directorate of Muslims "to explain" to believers about the "importance" of cotton to the nation and "the need to contribute to the country's needs."
For years, Uzbekistan has been criticized for forcing citizens, including children, to pick cotton.
A report released in May by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation ranked Uzbekistan, which uses one of the world's largest state-sponsored systems of forced labor to harvest cotton, as the world's second worst country, after North Korea, in terms of the prevalence of slavery in proportion to the population.
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
