[RFE/RL] Authorities in Tajikistan have prohibited citizens under the age of 40 from performing this year's annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.Tajikistan's Committee on Religious Affairs said that the decision was made to give older Tajik Muslims a better chance to undertake the pilgrimage, as Saudi officials have established stricter quotas. But others believe the ban is an attempt to prevent radicalization among younger generations.
In the past years, the Tajik government has routinely imposed age restrictions for devout Muslims to perform hajj. In 2015, the minimum age was 35.
President Emomali Rahmon's government has repeatedly called for the strengthening of secular standards in the nation. Tajikistan has banned head scarves for schoolgirls, barred minors from mosques, and forced thousands of students to return home from Islamic schools abroad in recent years amid reports that many Tajiks have joined Islamist extremists in Iraq and Syria.