Emomali Rahmon

Biography

Emomali Rahmon, born Emomali Rahmonov, was born in 1952 to a peasant family in Danghara, in the Kulob region of Soviet Tajikistan. He served in the Soviet Pacific Fleet from 1971 to 1974, worked as an electrician and then on the state farm in Danghara, which he chaired from 1987. According to his official biography he graduated in economics from the Tajik State University in 1982.

Elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR in 1990, he was chosen in November 1992, early in the civil war, as chairman of the Supreme Soviet, which made him head of state and government; he was seen as a compromise candidate. A new constitution restored the presidency in 1994, and he won the election held that November.

The war with the United Tajik Opposition lasted until 1997. He survived an assassination attempt in Khujand that year and coup attempts in 1997 and 1998. Referendums in 1999, 2003 and 2016 lengthened his terms and finally removed term limits, and he was re-elected in 1999, 2006, 2013 and 2020 in votes that observers did not regard as free or fair. Since 1998 he has led the People's Democratic Party, and a 2015 law gave him the title Leader of the Nation with lifelong immunity.

His rule is widely described as authoritarian, with repression of opponents, sweeping restrictions on religious practice and relatives in senior posts, including his son Rustam Emomali. In 2007 he dropped the Russian-style ending from his surname.