There has been a split in Tajikistan’s largest opposition party.

Muhammadiqbol Sadriddin, who has lately been criticising the leadership of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), on August 6 released a statement announcing the formation of the Reformers Movement of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan’s embattled opposition already faces enormous hurdles in challenging the firmly entrenched government of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, in power for some 33 years. The rift in the IRPT is likely to weaken the opposition’s efforts.

Leader of the Reformers Movement of Tajikistan Sadriddin, 47, fled Tajikistan in 2012 to escape growing pressure on the IRPT and on himself personally.

He headed to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan but, in 2015, he was briefly detained. With the threat of deportation to Tajikistan hanging over him, Sadriddin left Kyrgyzstan in November 2015, moving on to Kazakhstan, then to Belarus, and eventually travelling to the European Union, where he settled in France in 2017.

Sadriddin serves as the chief editor of the opposition Isloh.net (Reform.net) opposition website and runs the Isloh TV YouTube channel. Both the website and the channel have been operating since not long after Sadriddin arrived in France.

In October 2020, the Tajik prosecutor’s office charged Sadriddin with defrauding three Tajik citizens out of a combined $430,000 in 2010. Sadriddin said the charges against him were groundless.

In mid-2023, Tajik authorities tried unsuccessfully to have Sadriddin extradited from France.

In 2024, Moscow’s Basmanny district issued arrest warrants for Sadriddin and another leading Tajik opposition figure in Europe, Sharofiddin Gadoyev, the head of the Movement for Reform and Development of Tajikistan, also a leader in the National Alliance of Tajikistan. Both were charged with disseminating false information about the activities of the Russian military in Ukraine.

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Sadriddin was an IRPT member from as far back as 1999, but in March, he released a video  expressing his dissatisfaction with IRPT policies and the group’s leader, Muhiddin Kabiri.

Kabiri became the IRPT leader in 2006 when Said Abdullo Nuri died.

Muhiddin Kabiri took the IRPT helm in 2006. Kabiri has urged him to step down "with dignity", saying it would be a "manifestation of heroism" (Credit: CurrentTime.tv, screenshot).

Sadriddin said Kabiri had been IRPT leader long enough. “Leaving with dignity is a manifestation of heroism,” 

Nuri was the IRPT’s leader through Tajikistan’s 1992-1997 civil war, and also headed the United Tajik Opposition (UTO),  a coalition of groups that fought against the Tajik government during the conflict. Nuri, as UTO leader, signed the Tajik Peace Accord with President Rahmon on June 27, 1997.

Part of the agreement legalised the activities of Rahmon’s civil war opponents. The IRPT thus became the first, and to date only, Islamic party registered not only in Tajikistan but in any of the Central Asian states.

Several years after the signing of the peace deal, however, Rahmon began neutralising his civil war foes, as well as some of his allies, as he tightened his grip on power.

As the dominant group in the UTO, the IRPT was given the lion’s share of the 30% of places in government promised to the opposition under the terms of the peace agreement.

The party had two deputies in parliament until 2015 when it failed to win any seats in elections. The IRPT had more than 40,000 registered members at the time (though the party claimed the number of actual supporters was as many as 10 times higher), so was second only to Rahmon’s ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.

After the loss of its seats in parliament, the IRPT’s fortunes took a sharp turn for the worse.

The 2015 parliamentary elections were conducted at the start of March, and by the end of that month, state-appointed imams were already calling for the IRPT to be banned. On August 28, 2015, Tajikistan’s Justice Ministry said the IRPT did not have the required representative offices around the country and ordered the party to cease all activities.

Tajik authorities claim the party was involved in an alleged mutiny led by Tajikistan’s deputy defence minister at the start of September 2015. The government never provided any compelling evidence to support the claimed involvement of the IRPT in the murky affair, but on September 29, the country’s Supreme Court declared that the IRPT was a terrorist group and arrests of IRPT leaders started.

Many IRPT members had already fled the country, Kabiri among them, and they continued their work in exile. Sadriddin referred to this in his August 6 statement, writing, “The majority of our members, due to years of repression and persecution, have lived outside the country as refugees for the past decade.”

In the March 2025 video, Sadriddin said Kabiri had been IRPT leader long enough. “Leaving with dignity is a manifestation of heroism,” Sadriddin said, calling for the electing of new, younger members at the then upcoming May assembly of the IRPT leadership for the selection of the party leader. He also accused Kabiri of rigging the upcoming poll and warned that his tenure was making him a second Rahmon.

The IRPT has not commented on Sadriddin’s criticism, except to say it was unfounded.

Kabiri was elected to another four-year term as IRPT chairman at the May assembly.

Tajik opposition’s hard road ahead

In September 2018, the IRPT and three other Tajik opposition groups in exile – the Movement for Reforms and Development, the Association of Central Asian Migrants and the Forum of Tajik Freethinkers – formed the National Alliance of Tajikistan (NAT).

Tajikistan’s Supreme Court declared the NAT a terrorist and extremist organisation In March 2019.

The formation of the NAT marked a high point in cooperation among Tajik opposition parties and movements not seen since the days of the civil war. However, the Movement for Reforms and Development withdrew from the NAT in August 2024. Movement leader Sharofiddin Gadoyev accused Kabiri and the IRPT of dominating the NAT. “Now all decisions in NAT are made in favour of the chairman of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan,” Sharofiddin claimed.

Sadriddin’s departure has dealt another blow to the Tajik opposition’s hopes of regaining some influence inside Tajikistan. He said some 200 other opposition activists, mostly living in Europe, were joining his new movement.

Rahmon’s government continues stamping out any signs of political opposition inside Tajikistan and has already imprisoned at least 25 people suspected of gathering information or providing funding for Sadriddin’s website.

Tajik authorities have also relentlessly pursued opponents like Sadriddin and Kabiri who are outside the country.

Dozens of opposition politicians and activists have been extradited back to Tajikistan in recent years, including some who were sent back by governments in Europe.

It is a frustrating situation for the Tajik opposition outside Tajikistan and it appears that the exasperation is wearing on their alliances.

Sadriddin, however, has left the door open for new partnerships, writing: “We are ready to cooperate with all opposition forces standing against the dictatorial regime….”

Unity among Tajikistan’s opposition groups in exile would seem to be essential if they ever hope to regain influence inside Tajikistan.