Authorities have uncovered an illegal home-based religious school in the Baghdad district of Fergana province, where a woman was providing unlawful religious instruction to 41 underage girls.
During a joint operation by the provinceal Interior Affairs Department and the State Security Service, it was established that the woman, born in 1987 and residing in the Nurafshon neighborhood of Baghdad district, had set up a religious study cell (hujra) in her home.
A total of 41 underage girls were found to have been receiving religious instruction there, all of whom lived and studied on the premises. According to investigators, the girls were children of residents from the city of Kokand and the districts of Uchkoprik, Yazyavan, Buvayda and Baghdad. Parents reportedly paid 600,000 soums per month for each child.
Among those receiving religious instruction at the site were girls as young as five and six who had not yet started school. It was also noted that the woman running the classes had no higher education and held no relevant teaching qualifications.
A criminal case has been opened against the woman under Part 2 of Article 229-1 of the Criminal Code. In addition, administrative citations were issued to the parents of all 41 girls under Part 3 of Article 47 of the Code of Administrative Liability.
In June, a married couple was reported detained in the Almazar district of Tashkent for providing unlawful religious instruction to minors. They had reportedly charged each child's parents between $100 and $200 for the classes, teaching from various religious texts under boarding-style living conditions.
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