Akbar Turajonzoda

Who is Akbar Turajonzoda?

Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda is a Senator in the National Assembly of Tajikistan. He served as the Qazi Qalon, the highest Muslim authority in Tajikistan, from 1988 to 1991. He served as the second-in-command of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition from 1993 until his expulsion from the party in 1999. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister in the Tajik government after the civil war.

Turajonzoda was born in the Kofarnihon region near Dushanbe in the Tajik SSR. He served in the Department of International Relations in the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Central Asia in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR from 1985 to 1987. He left Tajikistan in 1992 when the civil war began, visiting Iran, the Arab world, the United States, Europe, Russia, and Uzbekistan. UTO leader Said Abdullah Nuri and Turajonzoda led the UTO from Afghanistan and Iran during the civil war, returning to Tajikistan in February 1998.