Recently BBCRussian.com published an article, titled “Tajiks are asked to put their golden teeth on the shelf” (Таджиков попросили положить золотые зубы на полку). The title of the article seems weird but it caused lots of discussions in the web. Many Russian websites just copy pasted the article without mentioning the source and the author of the article. If you google the title of the article in Russian, you will see a lot of websites which “borrowed” it. I bet the author Anora Sarkorova is upset and happy at the same time.

The article is about the new unwritten rule in Tajikistan which was initiated by president Rahmonov. In one of the visits to rural schools he met a teacher who had golden teeth and it disappointed him very much. He was disappointed because teachers are considered to be one of the poorest parts of population but there he could see an ordinary teacher who had a mouth full of golden teeth. I guess she was very much excited to meet the president and broadened out into a beaming smile and it became a spark for a new rule, which prohibits having golden teeth for teachers in the secondary schools. Recently it was extended to governmental officials.

Rahmonov gave an explanation to his initiative…

“We talk a lot about poverty reduction. Teachers are complaining about low salaries but they have golden teeth. How the representatives of international organizations can believe us that we are poor if the mouth of a teacher is full of golden teeth? It is not our culture and not our tradition. Imagine how difficult it is for students to look at golden mouth of a teacher for ten years.”

However as the author mentions, Tajiks are oriental people and they like gold and other shiny things. It is part of their culture and tradition. It will be difficult to eliminate this phenomenon in a day. The government of Tajikistan will have trouble in struggling against the “golden mouths”.

Probably, soon during the interviews for a job applicants will be asked to open broadly their mouths. Those who have golden smiles will have problems in getting a job, especially in schools. The admirers of yellow metal will need to take it out or look for another job in nongovernmental section.

Actually, says the author, the story with golden teeth had its beginning not in the school but earlier. The president was upset to meet a Tajik businessman in Switzerland who had golden teeth.

“Once I met a Tajik in Switserland” - recalls the president, “How did I know that he was a Tajik? Because he had shiny mouth. It was shameful. He thought it was beautiful. People in the world are laughing at us. It shows the lack of culture.”

Recently there was a case which shows a love of Tajiks for golden teeth. One Tajik who was coming back from Mongolia, where he worked, was detained in Novosibirsk (Russia) with thirty grams of gold hidden in the lighter.

The detainee claimed that three months he worked in Mongolia as a constructor and in order to save some money he lived an ascetic form of life. He even did not pair him an extra pair of socks. Before going home he decided to buy some gold for $150 US in order to put in golden teeth for his seventy year old mother (!).