Some Tajik Media (and Links)

News: For news about Tajikistan in English, I end up reading Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Eurasianet. The former has more frequent and timely news stories, and its Tajik-language service is an important source of independent journalism as the moment (so important that its website was blocked earlier this year). The latter seems to have better feature stories, like the piece on foreign investors and the photo essay on Now Ruz.

Movie: Last weekend we watched a movie set in Tajikistan! Spies Like Us is probably the only Hollywood feature film that mentions the country. It stars Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd, and is a ridiculous send-up of Cold War spy movies. There is actually nothing particularly Tajik when they are supposed to be in the country, but we cheered when they mentioned that they were on the "road to Doo-shan-bee" (as opposed to Du-shahn-beh). Lots of fun. 

Music: My slightly-ingratiating answer if asked my favorite musician is "Daler Nazarov," one of the most famous musicians in the country. I got to see him in a concert in Dushanbe before I left, and he was absolutely amazing. (I will post if/when we get the BBC Persian recording of the concert.) He plays old Persian poetry on guitar with a back-up band that mixes traditional sounds with more international/modern sounds. By the end of the concert I was in love with him and his sax/flute player. A previous ETA described him as a Bob Dylan-character: he is seen as intellectual and a good songwriter, but is popular more with parents than their teenagers. He does make young people want to play the guitar. This is his website, but you can also search his name on YouTube.

Poetry: The staple of Tajikistan and the rest of the Persian-speaking world. Part of the reason I started studying Persian. Omar Khayyom seems to be the most favored Persian poet here - perhaps because Samarkand is closer than Hafez's Shiraz or Rumi's various homes in Iran and Afghanistan and Turkey. One of the local embassy workers sent me this Word Doc of a few of Khayyom's poems in Tajik and two different English translations.