The Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan: Episodes of Islamic Activism, Postconflict Accommodation, and Political Marginalization

The parliamentary elections on March 1, 2015, mark a caesura for postconflict Tajikistan. With the exclusion of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan ( IRPT ) from Tajikistan’s parliament, the political elite has finally abandoned the principles of the 1997 General Peace Accord, which had ended the country’s Civil War (1992–1997). Since then, the IRPT has distinguished itself as a credible oppositional political party committed to democratic principles with an almost imperceptible religious agenda. By shifting the IRPT ’s attention to issues of democratization and socioeconomic development, its chairman, Muhiddin Kabirī, opened the IRPT to a younger electorate. Continuous defamation campaigns and persecution, however, have worn down the IRPT ’s activists and its electorate. The party’s electoral defeat did not come as a surprise.