Emma Harden-Wolfson

It’s a leaf straight out of the authoritarian playbook. You don’t like what someone has to say? There’s a risk that they might speak out against the government or its practices?

Suppress them.

You have a number of options here. Fire them. Threaten their family. Arrest them on spurious charges. Throw them in jail. Remove their right to leave the country. Exile them.

Actions like these have been frequent with activists, journalists and others in positions where truth-seeking is the priority.

In Central Asia – and in a growing number of other parts of the world – it’s not only these professions that are at risk, but academics too. Like democracy, academic freedom is on the decline (this article demonstrates waves of growth and decline, the most recent being a global decline since 2013).

It thus comes as disappointingly no surprise to see at least two more cases of repression from the region.

There’s the firing and subsequent arrest of Ayub Usmonzoda in March 2025 in Tajikistan. Professor Usmonzoda was removed from his position as Rector of the prestigious Khujand State University, possibly on the grounds of corruption although no official charge has been published and his family (understandably) have been unwilling to disclose details. As of late May 2025, he remains in detention with no further information available.

In Kyrgyzstan, academic Joomart Karabaev was sentenced to three years’ probation in May 2025 for allegedly calling for mass civil unrest and seizure of power. Karabaev denies the charges; his lawyer is preparing an appeal. He was arrested in June 2024 after making statements that his colleagues were being illegally pressured by the state security committee to provide expert opinions on criminal cases against politicians, activists and journalists. Karabaev was fired from his job at the National Academy of Sciences for refusing to comply with the security committee’s demands, an act that human rights lawyer Gulshaiyr Abduraslova has called persecution and punishment.

There will be many other cases of academics under threat in Central Asia that are not being reported. Kyrgyzstan is on an autocratic slide; Tajikistan has been among the world’s least democratic countries for some time. Other countries in the region are not exactly beacons of freedom.

The importance of keeping on top of the ways that academic freedom is being continually threatened is therefore only growing. Governments may be using new or different forms of repression and these should be recorded. Demonstrating solidarity with those who are being persecuted on false grounds is critical. Above all, we cannot give us hope.

You can send a message of solidarity to Joomart Karabaev through Front Line Defenders.