Untold Stories

Return to Dushanbe

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

Family members and neighbours gather inside a home to dance and sing at a Pamiri wedding. The Pamiri people are part of a sect of Shia Islam called Ismaili, and they follow the spiritual leader Aga Khan, who is believed to be a direct descendant of Muhammad.

More press credential-less street interviews and meetings today including an off the record interview with the US ambassador. In the evening I went to a nightclub, a tawdry disco filled a few wealthy Tajik men and Russians of both genders –including Russian soldiers from the Russian base outside Dushanbe. I'm caught filming the dance floor and promptly escorted to the front door bouncer, who is approximately the size of a mid-sized sedan. The bouncer tells me to delete my camera. I make a show of touching a few buttons and the bouncer is satisfied.

Khojand continued...

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

>Workers at a kebab grill lit by electricity from a generator. The city is provided with one hour of electricity per day in winter.

For reasons never explained to me, the city of Khojand has an unusual number of non-governmental organizations. Before flying back to Dushanbe this evening, I meet with a couple of them.

Taboshar

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

Soldiers guard the entrance to a hotel owned by the president in Khujand before the arrival of a delegation for a meeting.

Another day, another fiasco.

Carolyn and I, along with a translator and a driver head to villages outside Khojand. We get an early start and drive for about an hour to a town called Taboshar, where a uranium mine was active during Soviet times but has been dormant since Tajikistan's independence. Most of the Russians and Ukrainians who once lived in Taboshar have emigrated, leaving behind the many stately stone houses originally built by German prisoners from WWII.

Our car stopped near the small outdoor market that appeared to be the only economic activity in Taboshar. Carolyn took her camera and went in search of pictures; I went into the bazaar looking for people to interview. Three minutes later, my cell phone went off. It was Carolyn. “The KGB has me.”

Khojand

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

Tajiks gather at the airport in Dushanbe, Tajikistan to greet and honor friends and family returning on charter flights from Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam.* Caption continued below...

Our tickets were booked for the 11am flight to Khojand, not 2pm as we asked for and were told was our departure time. The woman at the airline service desk told us we were out of luck, everything was booked solid for the day -- but a porter took us aside and offered to fix things. He took us to a different counter and within about fifteen minutes he handed us tickets for the 11am flight. After going through security –which consisted of a broken metal detector-- the porter asked for 100 somoni, about $35. A bit exorbitant but I didn't have the energy to argue. I took my suitcase containing various flammable liquids and a very sharp knife and boarded the aircraft.

Freedom to Farm

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

Diversification of the Tajik economy and eliminating the system of debts owed by families working cotton fields is considered crucial to reducing poverty.* Caption continued below...

This morning I met with Tajiks involved in agricultural development. A big government reform is in place that could have a huge impact on Tajikistan's agriculture. Farmers now have the right, in theory, to choose what to grow. The reform is called “Freedom to Farm.”

Near The Afghan Border

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

A peeling Soviet mural showing villagers adding stones to the shore of an irrigation canal to protect it.

Today was a fiasco.

Having cooled our heels all morning waiting for press accreditation badges, Carolyn and I finally hit the road. We are both eager to check out the isolated farming communities lining Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan.

But after a three hour drive, we are given disappointing news. Our contact in the area, a local journalist, warns us against traveling on the main (read: paved) road to the border area. While guards on the Afghan side pose no big problem, he says the Tajik guards are jumpy and hostile. Our best bet is to figure out a plan with someone he knows who is from a village on the border.

Dushanbe #2

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

Tajiks gather at the airport in Dushanbe to greet and honor friends and family returning on charter flights from Hajj.

Central Asia is not a beacon for press freedom. But government attitudes are generally calibrated by  the language a journalist writes or broadcasts. National languages –Tajik, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, or Turkmen-- are the most sensitive and tightly controlled. Russian, the lingua franca of post-Soviet Central Asia, comes a close second. English is not such a big deal since very few Central Asians can understand it and Central Asian regimes care most about controlling the information actually consumed by their citizens.

Nonetheless, we – we meaning Carolyn Drake, a photographer working alongside me on this trip, and I -- figure it's a good idea to get an official government press accreditation. Also, Farhod tells us it's a good idea to get accredited and we're inclined to do whatever Farhod tells us to do.

Dushanbe

Ilan Greenberg, for the Pulitzer Center. Photos by Carolyn Drake

A view of mountains on a Tajik airways flight from Bishkek to Dushanbe. Mountains comprise 93% of the country's territory and provide the majority of water that sustains life and agriculture in Central Asia.

On the Turkish Airlines flight into Dushanbe, the young American woman sitting next to me was enthusiastic about her next three days of personal freedom in Tajikistan. She is a political officer at the US embassy in Afghanistan. “I'm looking forward to being able to walk around on streets,” she told me in a slight southern twang. “It will feel good to be in a normal city.”