When a father in Tajikistan accused his 15-year-old son of stealing cash -- the equivalent of $60 -- he did not take him to the police or even scold him. Instead, he tied the boy's legs with a rope, dragged him behind his car, and filmed the ordeal. The teenager died of his injuries.
The July killing sent shock waves across Tajikistan, where corporal punishment was banned in 2024. Yet in many families in Central Asia corporal punishment is not only common, it is the norm. Slaps for poor grades, ear-pulls for disobedience, beatings "to instill discipline" remain embedded in the parenting culture.
The phrase "My child, my rules" is frequently invoked as a justification, covering up harmful actions that often constitute abuse.
The teenager's killing in the town of Tursunzade, 60 kilometers from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, was not an isolated case. In November 2024, Tajik social media was flooded with footage of a grandmother from the southern region of Khatlon striking five children aged 3 to 7 with a stick as they lay on the floor crying. A month earlier, a mother in the same province was caught on video punching her 10-year-old son in public until his nose bled.
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According to Tajikistan's Interior Ministry, 994 crimes were committed against minors in 2024, a more than 30 percent increase over the previous year. Forty-eight of those cases involved serious injury. With 40 percent of Tajikistan's 10 million people being under the age of 28, the scale of violence is significant.
"According to the latest demographic and health survey, 56 percent of children under 14 have experienced violence at home," a UNICEF representative in Dushanbe, who asked to remain anonymous, told RFE/RL.
Using physical punishment to parent is common across Central Asia. In Uzbekistan, a 2023 UNICEF survey found that 62 percent of children under 14 had been subjected to violent discipline. That led parliament to adopt a new law this spring banning all forms of corporal punishment by parents.
In in Kazakhstan, UNICEF reported in 2023 that 53 percent of children experienced either psychological or physical punishment. Among toddlers between the ages of 1 and 2, the figure was 38 percent. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Astana to impose a legal ban, which the country still lacks.
In Kyrgyzstan, plans are under way to prohibit corporal punishment following a 2023 survey that found 65 percent of children experience violent discipline at home and 37 percent endure physical punishment.
'Parental Illiteracy'
In recent years, a troubling pattern has appeared in Central Asia: Some parents are physically abusing and humiliating their children on camera, intentionally recording these acts to send to spouses or other family members. Such videos are used to manipulate and put pressure on relatives.
In February, in Uzbekistan, a mother was recorded beating her infant and threatening to kill him to spite her husband. In 2023, an Uzbek father in the country's Tashkent Province filmed himself kicking and choking his toddler to torment his wife.
