By Tim Binnall
Officials in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan are considering instituting a rather harsh punishment for individuals busted practicing the proverbial dark arts: six months of forced labor. Although various forms of fortune telling and witchcraft were reportedly banned in the country back in 2007, interest in the occult remains quite popular, much to the dismay of authorities. These beliefs are perceived as such a problem that the president of Tajikistan went so far as to give a speech earlier this year wherein he stressed to residents that "the Prophet of Islam strictly forbade going to fortune tellers and sorcerers."
It would seem that his words of warning did little to quell the popularity of the occult in the country and, as such, the nation's Interior Ministry recently announced that it intends to amend the regulation in the face of what is seen as a worrisome increase in these practices, specifically in the form of exorcisms. While the current law against occult activities currently imposes a fine of "30 and 40 times the minimum monthly wage," the proposed amendment to the ban would include "forced labor for up to six months" for anyone found guilty of "earning a living by fraud" in the form of "witchcraft, fortune-telling, distribution of talismans and amulets, [and] illegal religious instruction."