State television in Tajikistan is worried about women’s clothes.

Earlier this week, Khatlon, a channel based in the eponymous southern region, broadcast a report lambasting pop music performers for failing to protect and preserve traditional Tajik values, and instead promoting Western-style permissiveness in how they dress.

Presenter Albina Abdusattor argued in the segment, aired on February 26, that Tajik singers are too interested in gaining popularity.

“Female artists keep trying every day to shorten their dresses, to make them more see-through and revealing,” Abdusattor said. “With their behavior, these singers propagandize American and European clothing styles, but why don’t they care for our national dress?”

The presenter went further, suggesting that the authorities should consider introducing legislation bringing in fines or jail time for performers who “spread immorality.” 

Abdusattor did not single out any singers by name, but her remarks were accompanied by footage of music videos featuring three female acts: Mehrnigor Rustam, Farzona Khurshed, and Firuza Hafizova.

Abdusattor’s remarks have sparked a lively online conversation, with most commenters appearing to support her position. Opinions typically run along the lines that growing permissiveness could lead to a gradual loss of traditional values and customs in Tajikistan. Some propose their own solutions, including expelling offending artists from the country, banning them from performing or even putting them in prison for a few years.

“It is lawmakers that are to blame. They should adopt a decree to condemn singers like these and strip them of the right to perform at concerts and weddings,” wrote one Facebook user, Ismatullah Rajab.

The authorities have shown themselves perfectly willing to take a more hands-on role in shaping popular culture. 

In January, parliament and then the president approved a new law regulating culture that obliges artists holding concerts outside the country to coordinate their tours with the Tajik Culture Ministry.

Akmal Olimshoyev, a lawyer at the Culture Ministry, told RFE/RL’s Tajik service, Radioi Ozodi, that the measure was needed as artists performing abroad are in effect representing their country to the wider world. Regulators need to know how Tajik culture is being represented on foreign soil, Olimshoyev said.

Tajik officials have, in truth, long reserved the right to dictate how women dress. Usually, however, they are irked that Tajik women are wearing too many items of clothing.

Over the last decade, law enforcement officers have routinely hauled up women wearing the hijab, on the grounds that it is alien to Tajik culture. Talking heads of state television habitually condemn overly Islamic-looking clothing.

This campaign is couched in a broader agenda to intimidate the public into eschewing Islamic piety, which the Tajik government often in effect equates to potentially violent religious radicalism.

Men have not been touched by the anti-Western turn. The authorities do not decry jeans, suits, T-shirts or other arguably untraditional Tajik clothes as alien.