Religious believers in Turkmenistan don't have freedom. We can be raided
as we meet for worship, and be stopped and searched anywhere. But one of the biggest problems we face is not being able to freely maintain public
places of worship.
You cannot build, buy, or securely rent such property, let alone put up a notice outside saying "This is a place of worship". Officials won't give a place of worship legal status as such - I don't know why. All kinds of obstructions are imposed, whether through rules or just in practice.
Some places of worship do exist. Mosques and Russian Orthodox churches are usually reasonably visible and known as such. Within the capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] the handful of registered non-Muslim and non-Orthodox religious communities are able to meet quietly for worship, however insecure their arrangements, though not in a formal place of worship. Other faiths - and those of us outside the capital - have it more difficult.
If the community has existed for some time, it might have a place of worship which people know about, but which usually has no legal status. But for those that had their places of worship bulldozed or confiscated in the last decade - as has happened to Muslim, Protestant, and Hare Krishna places of worship - there is no chance of getting them back or of compensation.
Even registered religious communities (apart from most Muslim and Russian Orthodox communities) find it hard to get a place of worship.
The many communities which exist without state registration (a process which has now all but come to a halt) face the biggest difficulties. They cannot officially get a place of worship and if they try unofficially they always fear they will be discovered and punished for even trying.
I don't know why the authorities restrict places of worship - you will have to ask them. Perhaps they are afraid.
Although a dedicated place of worship is not essential for a religious community, in today's Turkmenistan it makes it difficult for a community to operate without one. People interested in learning more about your community and its beliefs cannot come to attend services - even if they know you exist they don't know how to find you. We don't have telephone directories (the last ones were issued in the Soviet period) but if we could have an open place of worship people could find the phone number from directory enquiries or from the local hyakimlik (administration).
If you meet in a private flat - and try to escape police or secret police surveillance - this might be on the third or fourth floor of a block of flats. Climbing stairs with no lift is difficult for some.
If it is difficult to meet unobtrusively in towns, it is almost impossible in villages and small settlements. Aksakals (community elders), the police and Ministry of State Security (MSS) secret police often ban minority faiths from meeting in villagers' homes. They deploy a whole range of threats - from intimidation and public humiliation to social ostracism or denial of work.
In other ways too having a recognised place of worship is vital. It would provide a safe place where a religious community could hold not just open, public worship, but educational work with children or adults, something that remains highly risky today. Maybe I'm being too ambitious here, but our communities could try to hold larger events or conferences - this is of course impossible today.
