Turkmenistan’s government continued to severely restrict civil and political rights, including freedom of expression, association, religion, and peaceful assembly. There is no independent media, and internet access remains tightly controlled. Authorities routinely target civic activists, government critics, and their families, including those in exile, with harassment and politically motivated prosecutions.
Authorities continued to arbitrarily interfere with citizens’ right to freedom of movement. The government refuses to renew passports through consulates abroad, requiring citizens to return to Turkmenistan, where they may face travel bans. Activists returned from abroad risk arrest and persecution.
Many remain behind bars on what appear to be politically motivated charges, and the fate of dozens of victims of enforced disappearances remains unknown. Turkmenistan continues to criminalize adult consensual same-sex conduct between men and imposes broad restrictions on women and girls.
Freedom of Movement
Turkmen authorities continued to bar its citizens from boarding international flights, under various pretexts such as unclear passport stamps, document misprints, or infractions of host countries’ immigration laws.
In February, migration officials twice barred a 40-year-old woman from flying to Türkiye claiming she could not leave because her children were in Turkmenistan.
On October 29, following several court reviews, including a July decision to overturn a lower court’s travel ban, a court in Ashgabat ordered migration authorities to provide the legal grounds for the travel ban of journalist Nurgeldy Khalykov, previously imprisoned on fabricated fraud charges. At the time of writing, the authorities have not responded. Khalykov remains unable to travel.
Authorities imposed arbitrary travel bans on the brother and sister of wrongfully imprisoned activist Murad Dushemov in apparent retaliation for his activism.
Turkmenistan continued to deny exit to citizens who voluntarily returned to Turkmenistan for passport renewal. After returning in summer 2024 to renew her passport, Zulfiya Kazhyr and her minor daughter, a Turkish citizen, were barred from flying to Türkiye in September 2024. Only in July 2025, did Turkmen authorities allow them to leave Turkmenistan.
Government Critics and Activists
Turkmenistan continued to surveil and harass civic activists and government critics including those in exile.
Dissident bloggers Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov, known for their online criticism of the Turkmen government, have been missing since July 24, 2025. In April, Turkish authorities detained and held them in deportation detention on national security grounds. In May, Türkiye denied them international protection. Umidajan Bekchanova, another dissident, has been detained in a Turkish deportation center since May 30 over alleged security threats and faces deportation to Turkmenistan. Turkish authorities cancelled her residence permit in October 2024 allegedly at Turkmenistan’s behest.
On April 3, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, urged Turkmenistan to investigate the alleged November 2024 poisoning attempt of 75-year-old independent journalist Soltan Achilova, who claimed it was intended to prevent her from traveling abroad. Following the failed attempt, authorities forcibly hospitalized her, claiming she had an infectious disease. Achilova remains under constant government surveillance.
Political Prisoners, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture
Dozens of individuals arrested more than two decades ago remained forcibly disappeared in the Turkmen prison system. Authorities refused to provide information on their whereabouts to the public or to allow families and lawyers to have contact. The fate and whereabouts of at least 21 individuals whose prison sentences expired between 2017 and 2024 remain unknown. In early 2025, authorities disclosed the whereabouts of 12 forcibly disappeared individuals who had served criminal sentences; five were confirmed dead.
In June, Turkmen authorities failed to release Murat Dushemov, a civic activist, when he finished serving his initial four-year sentence, instead holding him in pre-trial detention for three months on fabricated allegations of assaulting another prisoner. On September 16, a court in Turkmenabad sentenced Dushemov to an additional eight years in prison in a closed trial on unknown charges. On July 29, Lawlor called for Dushemov’s immediate release.
Many others wrongfully imprisoned remain behind bars on bogus, politically motivated charges. They include Mansur Mengelov, Saddam Gulamov, and Myalikberdy Allamuradov.
According to reporting by Turkmen.news, a Netherlands-based outlet, Turkmen prisons are overcrowded and plagued by poor conditions. Impunity for torture and other ill-treatment of detainees persists. In August, a forensic expert affiliated with Physicians for Human Rights, a non-governmental group, reviewed postmortem photos of Allamyrat Hudayramov, who died in police custody in 2023, and found his injuries were not self-inflicted, contradicting official claims. In April, the UN Committee against Torture raised concerns about Turkmenistan’s lack of efforts to prevent torture in custody.
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
In 2025, Turkmenistan failed to ensure the right to an adequate standard of living and to food. Independent reporting indicated that high food prices and shortages of certain staple goods undermined access to food in the country. Prices for certain staple foods rose significantly in January. In February, Ashgabat authorities reportedly forbade private shopkeepers from selling sunflower oil and chicken under threat of fines.
Systemic forced labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton harvesting persisted. Authorities continued to compelpublic sector employees to harvest cotton. In Dashoguz province, authorities reportedly extorted money from individuals who refused to work in the fields to hire replacement pickers.
Freedom of Media and Information
Turkmenistan maintained one of the world’s most repressive media environments. Independent journalism is banned, and the government systematicallyblocked internet access, reportedly to promote state-controlled Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Authorities targeted VPNs, online games, antivirus updates, and thousands of IP addresses. On February 23, WhatsApp reportedly became accessible without a VPN, but was blocked five days later.
In September, security officials in Dashoguz province sentenced a woman to 15 days in jail for allegedly posting “indecent” photos on TikTok and reading “anti-government” websites. In August, National Security officials in Lepab province reportedly pressured mobile phone vendors to install and sell agency-developed VPN systems and servers.
On February 15, authorities in Balkanabad warned public sector employees and residents against visiting foreign media websites critical of Turkmenistan. Police summoned one man who disagreed publicly, held him overnight, questioned him, and searched his phone before releasing him.
Freedom of Religion
Religious freedom remains tightly controlled. Unregistered religious activity is banned, and the state heavily regulates religious materials and education. Turkmenistan offers no alternative to compulsory military service. In January, in two separate cases, authorities sentenced Jehovah’s Witnesses Agabek Rozbaev, 20, and Arslan Vepaev, 21, to 18 months and two years of corrective labor, respectively, for conscientious objection.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Women and girls continued to face pervasive restrictions on the exercise and enjoyment of their rights. Turkmenistan bans voluntary abortions after five weeks of pregnancy. Access to legal abortions is limited by the few reproductive health clinics that are certified to provide such procedures. The public education system lacks comprehensive sexuality education in its curricula, focusing instead on promoting abstinence until marriage.
Turkmenistan has no law on domestic violence, does not criminalize it as a standalone offense, and lacks adequate protections for survivors.
In June, the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, an exile-based human rights organization, raised concerns over online harassment and hate speech targeting women.
In March, authorities in Ashgabat reportedly introduced an informal dress code in the public sector, requiring unmarried women to wear yellow headscarves at work and married women to wear yellow dresses, threatening dismissal for noncompliance.