The government continues to construct new, modern, and elegant buildings to house all branches of government. A huge flagpole with a flag clearly remains a major priority. However, little has been done to preserve the charm of old Dushanbe or to take basic urban planning into account.

Crédit : Maiya Ivanova (Bulgaria, @mhi.mhi.mhi)

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The statue of Ismail Samani, which stands in Dushti Square (meaning “friendship”) and is the symbol of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, was unveiled in 1999 to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the Samanid state. It is part of a memorial complex for national unity and the rebirth of Tajikistan and is a tourist attraction in the region.

Standing 13 meters tall, the statue depicts Ismail Samani (849-907), leader and emir of the Samanid dynasty, considered the founder of the Tajik state and a national hero. Dressed in royal robes, he is depicted standing, holding a golden scepter bearing seven stars, which are also found on the Tajik national emblem.

Credits: Pierre-Armand Dussex, (Switzerland, mon-beau-jailoo)

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The capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe is historically a city of commerce. Located on the legendary Silk Road, its name means “Monday market.”

Even today, markets are still very much a part of city life. Fine fabrics, fruits, a variety of spices… head to the Bazaar, the commercial heart of the city, to stock up on supplies!

Credits: Pierre-Armand Dussex (Switzerland, mon-beau-jailoo )

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A mundane stroll through the quiet streets of south Dushanbe. Here, the Tajik capital unfolds its peaceful daily life along the pavements, just a few streets away from the wide avenues teeming with taxis. The houses follow one another, rather large estates, with the tops of trees peeking out from behind painted iron gates.

Credits : Novastan

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The Hisar Fortress, located south of the city of Hisar, about 20 kilometres from Dushanbe, is one of Tajikistan’s main historical sites. The site, which is very old and has been inhabited for a long time, is now a museum with heavily renovated walls.

Credit : Pierre-Armand Dussex (nomadsland.travel, Switzerland)

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The city centre of Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, is notable for its modern skyscrapers, the comings and goings of its yellow and green taxis, and its wide tree-lined streets. The rapidly changing centre is giving pride of place to Chinese real estate investments, transforming the urban landscape at great speed. Clad entirely in white, the new parliament building has been operational since March 2025 thanks to Chinese funding.

Credits : Pierre-Armand Dussex (Switzerland, https://nomadsland.travel/fr/before-you-go/blog/mon-beau-jailoo)

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Hidden behind a small door on a side street, the Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments showcases the rich musical heritage of Tajikistan and Pamir. The impressive collection of instruments belonged to actor Gurminj Zafkibekov (1929–2003), who rose to fame in Soviet cinema in the 1970s. His son and the Pamiri music group Samo have since made this collection available to the public.

Credits : Pierre-Armand Dussex (https://nomadsland.travel/fr/before-you-go/blog/mon-beau-jailoo, Switzerland)

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In Rudaki Park in Dushanbe there is a statue of the poet of the same name.

In 2007 it replaced the statue of Lenin. It was made in honor of Rudaki’s birthday in 1150, the poet is considered to be the father of Tajik poetry.

It was made of bronze by sculptor Vladimir Kozlov and is an exact copy of a monument previously erected in St. Petersburg’s Smolny Palace.

Credits: Fiona Smith (Germany)

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International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world on 8 March. Originating in the feminist struggles of the early 20th century, this day is intended as a day of mobilisation for gender equality. In the countries of Central Asia, this popular holiday is more a celebration of femininity, with flowers being the custom.

To mark the occasion, the price of bouquets sold in this Dushanbe underground passage has been raised from 30 to 40 somoni. 

Credits: Novastan.

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From the top of her very quiet shopping arcade, this young girl dreamily observes the activity of the Mehrgon market in Dushanbe.

Built in 2014 to replace the ‘obsolete’ street markets, Mehrgon is a sumptuous three-storey shopping complex showcasing products from every region of Tajikistan. The Tajik government sees it as an architectural monument designed to boost national pride. (June 2023).

Crédits : Hannah McMillen (@the_crease_in_the_atlas, États-Unis)

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“For me, this image reveals in a radical way the change brought about by modernisation. The old architecture, made up of meaningful motifs and details, is being covered with a sterile and cheap material, a simple white and monotonous mask, to give the illusion of growth and prosperity. However, although this façade is thin, it conceals the history of a region that deserves to be better known by the public. Dushanbe/ 2023″

Credits : Sasha Ronneburger (Germany)

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Tajik men enjoy a meal at Chaihona Rohat, an iconic teahouse on Dushanbe‘s Rudaki Avenue. A Soviet-era rendition of a traditional Tajik design, Rohat was saved from demolition in 2015 by a public campaign (which sadly did not prevent the destruction of other architectural monuments, such as the central post office, Russian Drama Theater, and Jomi Cinema, to make way for high-rise buildings). However, the building will be demolished in the near future, announced Nizom Mirzozoda, head of the Architecture and Construction Committee recently, in favor of modern buildings. Here locals continue to gather over Tajik milk tea, as they have for decades.

Credits : Hannah McMillen (@the_crease_in_the_atlas, United States)

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“In Central Asia, almost everyone has old photos of their mother in retro Atlas dresses, and I wanted to transpose this aesthetic to our own time” says Umed Mardonov, a photographer from Dushanbe.

Credits : Umed Mardonov ( @umed_mardo, Tajikistan )

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Nooruz (literally “New Day”) is officially celebrated on March 21 in all the countries of the former Persian Empire and particularly in Central Asia. In Tajikistan, the festival is prepared well in advance and lasts seven days.

Credit : our Editorial

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An unusal view to the Ismoil Somoni Statue at night. The monument is the landmark of Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe and remembers the national hero of the country. Credit: Fiona Smith (Germany)

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Rush hour on trolleybus line 1 on the central north-south city route in Dushanbe. On most buses, there is a clear rule as to who is entitled to a seat on a full bus and who must stand. Credit : Joachim Bohndorf (Germany) Find all of our photos of the day here.

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The effects of sanctions against Russia are being strongly felt in Tajikistan. The Central Asian post-Soviet republic’s economy has been stagnant for years and many had left to find work in Russia. The instability in reaction to Russia’s activities in Ukraine is affecting almost every aspect of daily life. In Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital city, life is getting expensive. As American media Eurasianet remarks, Tajikistan is highly dependent on Russia economically, and many families count on remittances from relatives working there. According to World Bank data, remittances consisted of 26.7 % of Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, which makes it the third most dependent country in the world. With the increasing sanctions being placed on Russia following the on-going conflict in Ukraine, and the subsequent boast to the dollar, almost everything has become more expensive in the past weeks. Feruza, a teacher working at a private university, spoke to Novastan of the impact the changing dollar price has had on her family. “I had to pay the fees for my son’s school a few days ago. Now the somoni is so weak against the dollar; it’s like I’m paying an extra 100 dollars in the previous rate”, she explains.

The fees for international schools can generally be paid in dollars or somoni, but the price is, like most expenses, set by the dollar. “I wanted to pay in dollars but when I went to the bank, they told me that they are not allowed to pay out dollars. I explained it was to pay for my son’s school fees but they said, ‘No, we can only give you dollars with permission from the bank manager, and only if your account is in dollars.’ There were others there with a similar problem”, describes Feruza.

Sending money home becomes more expensive

Generally, people often opt to exchange money on the black market, rather than go to the bank. “You can find a better rate if you shop around, but it’s very dangerous,” Nagina, an office worker from Gorno-Badakhshan, in eastern Tajikistan, explained to Novastan. “My children are living in Moscow and we don’t usually need them to send money home. But if it’s needed, right now it is better to find someone travelling from Russia to Tajikistan, rather than using the bank”, she says. When payments are sent from Russia, they are paid in ruble and received in somoni. Due to the ruble’s depreciation following the sanctions, people working in Russia need to pay extra to reflect the changing price and secure the needed amount of somoni. It is therefore easier and more cost-effective to send dollars in cash with someone making the journey. This current instability is nothing new, as Nagina highlights. “We are experienced. During the financial crisis, it was the same so we know how to prepare. We buy food to store, things like oil or flour which last for a long time. We don’t know when the prices will change again, so we have to be prepared”, she describes. Food insecurity is already a major issue in Tajikistan with up to 27 % of the population living on 1.90 dollars (£1.44) or less per day, according to USAID. While many families received a one-time payment of 500 somoni (£29.16) during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is yet to be announced how the Tajik government will respond to current price hikes.

Prices heavily rely on the dollar

“For me, it has affected my day-to-day costs of course, and my business a little,” import-middleman Alisher explained to Novastan. “People are shopping less. For example, see this iPhone case. Before it was maybe 10 somoni (£0.58), now it’s 16 (£0.93)”, he says. Around the capital, businesses have increased their prices to reflect the new cost of living. A small portion of oshi pilau, Tajikistan’s national dish, typically cost 16 somoni (£0.93) but has risen to as high as 20 somoni (£1.16). Most significantly, the price of petrol from the Russian supplier Gazprom has risen from 10.30 somoni (£0.60 per litre) to 12 somoni (£0.70). “Everything here is connected to the price of the dollar,” Alisher concluded. “The dollar is everything in Tajikistan.”

Fiona Katherine Smith Editor and writer for Novastan in Dushanbe

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Passenger exchange on Kuibyshev Square in front of Dushanbe station. The trolleybuses, which are electrically operated, have already had their days. Credit: Joachim Bohndorf (Germany)

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On the way past Khorog airfield to the Afghan-Tajik weekly market at the border bridge between Tem and Demogan (Afghanistan). The view of the landed Antonov aircraft from Dushanbe is blocked by a lattice fence. The visual flight with the Antonov through the 5,000-metre-high rocky embrasures off Khorog is considered a delicate flight manoeuvre. The flights are also weather-dependent and irregular.Credit: Joachim Bohndorf (Germany)Find all of our photos of the day here.

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Held on 17 September in Dushanbe, the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) clarified member countries’ positions on Afghanistan. Bringing together China, Russia, and four of five Central Asian countries, the SCO meeting seems to have been a particularly popular occasion for making statements about neighbouring Afghanistan. This article was originally published on Novastan’s French website on 20 September 2021.In Dushanbe, Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries were able to establish what had been unclear since the Taliban’s seizure of power. On 17 September, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), founded in Beijing in 2001, organised its annual meeting in the capital of Tajikistan. At the table were the majority of the institution’s members: Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. Joining the meeting remotely were China, Russia, and India.Aside from statements vaunting cooperation among the eight member countries, the Dushanbe Summit made possible an in-depth discussion about Afghanistan. Three of the organisation’s countries sharpened their differences concerning Afghanistan, at the same time presenting a superficial impression of being in accord.

The Push for an Inclusive Government

These three members expressed their desire to see an inclusive government in Afghanistan, according to Tajik media outletAsia-Plus. On 21 September, only a few days after that statement was made, the Taliban announced the new members of their government: only one Uzbek and two Tajiks. These new members are essentially in lower-level positions, or are ethnic Hazaras, as reported by Afghan media Tolonews and the American news agency AP.

The humanitarian situation of refugees was also raised, with SCO members expressing a desire for their long-term accommodation, and for the facilitating of a “dignified, safe, and permanent return to their country,” the communal statement declared.

Uzbekistan: the Most Pro-Taliban Country

But that statement did not erase the differences among the heads of state. True to his role as mediator, Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev suggested that business discussions with Afghanistan were more relevant than ever, according to Russian press agency TASS. The leader of the most populous Central Asian country hoped that high-level meetings between the SCO and Afghanistan would be held regularly, which would amount to official recognition of the Taliban government. Shavkat Mirziyoyev also asserted that Afghan assets in foreign banks should be unfrozen.Unfreezing these assets was also supported by Vladimir Putin via video-conference, reported TASS. The Russian president expressed his desire for international aid to be set up, with most of the cost carried by the United States, who he judged as responsible for the Taliban’s seizure of power. In addition, the Kyrgyz and Kazakh presidents affirmed that a security barrier should be set up around Afghanistan to combat drugs trafficking and terrorism, according to Kazakh media site Tengrinews.Sadyr Japarov and Kassym-Jomart Tokaev have also suggested that humanitarian aid be provided to Afghanistan, and said they are prepared to participate but without providing specific details, Russian media site Sputnik reported.

Tajikistan: Leader of the Anti-Taliban

These fairly amicable positions towards the Taliban were largely eclipsed by bombastic statements by the Tajiki president. According to Emomali Rahmon, the Taliban movement intends to establish autocracy in Afghanistan by installing an “Islamic emirate based on harsh medieval Sharia law,”asreported by Radio Ozodi, the Tajik branch of the American media Radio Free Europe. In line with earlier statements, Tajikistan’s head of state asserted that the Taliban must allow humanitarian aid to be delivered toPanjshir, a province fighting Afghanistan’s new rulers which has been cut off from the world since late July, reported Radio Ozodi. However, the Tajik president’s assertions were most virulent on the eve of the SCO summit, with Dushanbe hosting a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a militaristic organisation directed by Moscow. “The composition of the interim government announced by the Taliban fails to take into consideration political, ethnic, and linguistic diversity, and equality of the sexes. This means that over the course of the next two or three years the propagation of extreme ideology in Afghanistan will increase, and the likelihood that these destructive ideas will spread into adjacent areas will be multiplied,”stated Emomali Rahmon, as reported by Radio Ozodi.Despite expected tensions in the SCO due to the presence of Pakistan, a strong supporter of the Taliban, no conflict arose when the Tajik head of state met with the Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan away from the main stage of the summit, Asia-Plusreported. The two heads of state expressed their shared readiness to facilitate talks between the Taliban and the Tajiks of Afghanistan, and signedeight agreements. 

Afghanistan, a Double-edged Sword for the SCO

More broadly, disagreements among members seem damaging to the idea that the SCO, under the leadership of China and Russia, can take the upper hand in Afghanistan. “The SCO is a very great organisation with numerous unsolved problems among its members, which makes it imperfect,”Konstantin Kourylev, a professor of international relations at Moscow’s Peoples’ Friendship University, told Novastan. In fact, the 2017 admission of Pakistan and India increased dissent, whereas the SCO officially admitted Iran as a separate full member during the Dushanbe Summit, Asia-Plus reported. “So the SCO ought not to be considered a force capable of influencing the situation in Afghanistan. The [member] states alone can be influential, but they are poorly organised and therefore ineffective,” suggested the Russian researcher.That position is not shared by the director of the Institute for European Perspective and Security, Emmanuel Dupuy. “Afghanistan will be a unifying subject for the SCO, since nearly all of its neighbouring countries are members, except for Turkmenistan. The formal admission of Iran as the ninth member confirms this,” he believes in an interview with Novastan. “Furthermore, the flagship countries of the SCO, like Russia and China, are in the process of taking advantage of the American absence in Central and South Asia. Witness the deployment of Russian troops to Tajikistan, the Rubezh-2021 military exercises in Kyrgyzstan, and the planning of the first communal naval manoeuvres by Iran, China, and Russia,” he added.Expanding on this theme, Emmanuel Dupuy suggests that “the strengthening of the SCO is only the first stage of a rocket that will see the strengthening of the CSTO, and no doubt the removal of obstacles to membership for Central Asian countries that up until now have hesitated to join—for instance, Uzbekistan. All this will occur in a context in which Russia will seem to be the lesser evil to Central Asian countries after the American retreat.”Taking a middle path, Ding Xiaoxing, director of the Institute of Eurasian Studies, published an opinion on theSCO site apparently shared by that organisation. “The SCO is an ideal platform for resolving the Afghanistan problem. The organisation can play a part in coordinating members’ differing positions on Afghanistan and their shared encouragement of the goals of internal peace and stability in that country,”he suggested. It remains to be seen how the Taliban will react to the attempts of the SCO to play humanitarian, protective, and diplomatic roles simultaneously, while at the same time being noticeably divided on how to accomplish these goals.

Etienne Combier Editor-in-chief of Novastan

Translated from French by Judy Harter

Edited by Fiona Katherine Smith

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