TURKMENISTAN: WOMEN PASTORS "NEED NOT APPLY" AS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001065

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN; DRL/IRF

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/24/2019
TAGS: KIRF PGOV SCUL SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: WOMEN PASTORS "NEED NOT APPLY" AS
RELIGIOUS LEADERS

REF: ASHGABAT 288

Classified By: Charge Richard Miles, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) On August 22, Politcal Officer met with Word of Life
Church Pastor, Elena Stryukova, and church member, Anna
Joratova, to discuss the church's attempts to become
registered. There are currently three Word of Life/River of
Life church groups in Turkmenistan located in Ashgabat,
Turkmenbashy and Turkmenabat. Only the church in Turkmenabat
has been able to register (reftel). The church is loosely
affiliated with the charismatic Word of Life church based in
Uppsala, Sweden, as well as with the Moscow branch of the
same organization. The group was started in Ashgabat 11
years ago by missionaries visiting from Moscow and has never
had registration in Turkmenistan.


2. (C) The Ashgabat group has been trying to register for
more than one year. It first submitted its application to
the Council for Religious Affairs (CRA) in June 2008. (NOTE:
Groups seeking registration first submit an application to
the CRA. The CRA either reviews the application and forwards
it to the Ministry of Justice for approval, or, if there are
problems with the application, returns it to the applicant
for revision. END NOTE.) The CRA reviewed the application
for six months, after which it rejected the application.
Officially, the grounds for rejection were inconsistencies
between the Russian and Turkmen language versions.
Informally, Stryukova, who was named as the group's leader in
the application, was told that a "religious leader (imam)
cannot be a woman." The group's second application, which
named a male member as the group's leader, was also rejected
because of inconsistencies between the Russian and Turkmen
versions. A third application was submitted at the end of
July, for which the group obtained a certified official
translation of the application. Stryukova said group members
prepare the application themselves and that no lawyer would
assist a Christian group with the registration process.


3. (C) According to Stryukova, the group has about 30
members, but for purposes of the application, the group
included only nine names on the required list of members.
Among the nine named individuals, two worked for the
government. Following submission of the application, one of
the government-employed members was forced to resign from his
job. Stryukova said state security agents put pressure on
the employee's director to dismiss him, and the director had
no choice but to ask for his resignation. The group itself
cannot meet together openly. They gather in small groups of
3-4 persons, consciously maintaining a low profile.
Stryukova said the government knows about the group's
activities and could stop them if it wanted, but that "there
is no real reason to harass them."


4. (C) COMMENT: Despite the delays and difficulties, Pastor
Stryukova did not appear overly discouraged about the
prospects for registration, pointing to the eventual success
of the Turkmenabat group. Still, given the difficulties
encountered just trying to get past the CRA, it is clear that
the group's registration process, even if eventually
successful, will be exceedingly drawn-out. While Turkmen law
does not prohibit female religious leaders, the CRA
apparently has its own, unwritten standards, which it applies
in reviewing applications. Such circumstances undermine the
notion that there is law-governed process by which these
groups can obtain registration. END COMMENT.
MILES