UK in Tajikistan

The following is a post by Bahodur Sheraliev. In the extremely beautiful spot where the Vakhsh and Pyanj rivers flow together and give birth to the Amu Darya lie the ruins of the Takhti Sangin temple. Once a crossroads of the old silk routes, this previously dynamic and developed settlement is nowadays a place where […]

The following is a post by HM Ambassador Robin Ord-Smith For a foreigner this is a very special time to be in Tajikistan.  Yesterday, the Spring equinox, marked the festival of Navruz, the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in the Iranian calendar.  Navruz is a an ancient festival, believed to […]

I have just returned to the UK from a three-day visit to Dushanbe. I first visited Tajikistan In 2010 and I visited again in 2011. So this was my third opportunity to spend some time in this beautiful country. All my visits were organised by the British Embassy. As I am a member of the […]

In February 2013, in the sunny mountains of northern Tajikistan, in the city of Khujand, a group of pioneering female leaders came together to elaborate  a curriculum to raise awareness among mothers for their role in confronting violent extremism and radicalization. Together with Tajik NGO ASTI, Women without Borders/SAVE developed the innovative concept of the […]

The following is a post by Will Schomburg, a member of DFID’s Graduate Scheme. It takes imagination to picture what ancient Panjakent once looked like. While it might now be little more than a sprawl of ruins in western Tajikistan, the city was once a thriving trading point along the Silk Route. Like famous Samarkand, just […]

The following is a post by Robert Price, a Philosophy and Politics undergraduate at the University of Exeter who has recently completed an internship at the Embassy. Give Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Tajikistan, Robin Ord-Smith, a karaoke machine, and he will show you that he has the voice of an angel. This is just one […]

Our Embassy often assists the British Defence School of Languages in arranging in-country Language and Cultural Training for students of Farsi and Pashto. The latest trip of three weeks included five students of Dari and two of Pashto. The following is a guest post by Fiona MacFarlane, one of the language students. We arrived in the […]

The following is a blog by Farhod Nabiyulloev, Press and Public Affairs Officer As part of the first week back at work in the New Year, I and some of my colleagues at the Embassy took part in several training sessions, organised by the Foreign Office’s Regional Training Centre in Dubai. We held our sessions […]

The following is a post by Steven Mulvain, Vice Consul. It’s almost the end of the year, a time when the embassy starts to feel emptier as our hard-working local staff, as well as the Ambassador and the other British staff, take a well-earned break to enjoy the festive season and spend time with friends […]

Welcome to the first blog by the British Embassy in Tajikistan.  We’ve started this blog to provide a little more information about  what the UK is doing in Tajikistan, give some clarity on the myths of diplomatic work (without being too boring!) and to give an insight into the kind of challenges that Embassies face […]