Tajikistan’s parliament has passed a bill banning the hijab.

In stark contrast to fellow Persian-speaking nation Iran, where theocratic hardliners notoriously enforce the wearing of the Islamic headscarf by women in public places, Tajikistan’s regime has moved against the hijab—as well as other traditional items of Islamic clothing that officials associate with “extremists”—with legislation that takes aim at "alien garments".

The bill, which is focused on “national traditions”, will become law once signed by Tajik strongman Emomali Rahmon, who appears intent on counteracting the country’s growing image as a font of Islamic militantism. Following a series of terrorist attacks in countries including Russia, Iran and Turkey that appear to have involved radicalised Tajik nationals striking targets on behalf of Islamic State affiliates, many Western media outlets and politicians have taken to describing Tajikistan as a fertile recruitment territory for jihadist terrorists.

The legislation, voted through by the upper house on June 19 following lower house approval given on May 8, also bans traditional children's door-knocking and other children’s activities associated with two major Islamic holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, known as idgardak.

For those in public sector jobs, trading at the bazaar or in higher education, informal bans have long existed in Tajikistan on the wearing of hijabs by women and the wearing of bushy beards by men. The move to make the hijab ban formal will be seen in the context of the Rahmon adminstration’s floundering attempts to convince the outside world that it has Islamic radicalism under control.

Those efforts were dealt a massive blow in late March when more than 140 people were slaughtered in a terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in outer Moscow. Four Tajik work migrants, accused of being the gunmen who committed the atrocity in the name of Afghanistan-based Islamic State Khorasan-Province (ISKP, or ISIS-K), are in pre-trial detention.

Rahmon is renowned for tightening the screws of repression in the face of phenomena that threaten his authority.

All forms of religious expression have to conform with beliefs explicitly endorsed by the state. However, some analysts conclude that it is the lack of political pluralism and economic opportunity in what is Central Asia’s poorest state that typically drive Tajik citizens into the radicalising arms of terrorist and militant groups, rather than crackdowns on religion.

Writing for Foreign Affairs, Central Asia scholar George Washington University professor Marlene Lauruelle, lately contended that “social marginalisation” is a stronger driver of militantism among Tajiks than “religious fervour.”

A continuing crackdown on Islam in Tajikistan “will not end rural poverty, the humiliating lives that migrants lead, the lack of economic opportunities, the dissatisfaction of young people, or the difficulties migrants face integrating into host societies,” Lauruelle cautioned.