No Comics for Tajik Kids

Educationalists in Tajikistan bemoan the lack of magazines aimed at children, saying they are missing out on an important part of growing up.

No Comics for Tajik Kids

Educationalists in Tajikistan bemoan the lack of magazines aimed at children, saying they are missing out on an important part of growing up.

Thursday, 27 August, 2009
IWPR

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

As Sohiba Olempour reports, publications printed in Russia are sometimes available, but they are expensive and in Russian rather than Tajik.



Businessman Akbarali Sattorov recalls his own failed attempt to publish a children’s magazine in both languages. The Tajik-language version, in particular, just didn’t sell, he says, adding, “People here buy sweets for their kids, not newspapers.”



Many adults now look back fondly on the kids’ magazines published during the Soviet era, although Khurshed Atovullo, who heads the Centre for Investigative Journalism, says those publications were never actually popular at the time. People simply felt obliged to buy them as an outward sign of loyalty to the Communist state.
Frontline Updates
Support local journalists