apparently suspicious of Iranian proselytizing, has ordered the Iranian embassy school in Dushanbe to dismiss all non-Iranian students, the Tajik service of US broadcasting has reported. It quoted a Tajik Education Ministry spokesman as saying that under an agreement with Iran only Iranian nationals are supposed to attend the school, but it has also enrolled about 90 Tajiks and 150 Afghans. Tajiks speak Farsi, but state schools in Tajikistan use the Cyrillic alphabet while the Iranian school uses the Persian alphabet. A few months ago, Tajikistan ordered all Tajiks attending Islamic schools abroad to return home so they do not fall “under the influence of extremists and turn into enemies.”
