Turkmenistan is a repressive authoritarian state where political rights and civil liberties are almost completely denied in practice. Elections are tightly controlled, ensuring nearly unanimous victories for the president and his supporters. The economy is dominated by the state, corruption is systemic, religious groups are persecuted, and political dissent is not tolerated.

• The authorities intensified a crackdown on personal and social freedoms during the year, including through enforcement of a restrictive law on abortion that was originally passed in 2015 and implemented in 2022; media reports suggested that even the law’s narrow exceptions for legal abortions were being ignored, resulting in what amounted to a blanket ban and forcing women to resort to bribes or unsafe methods. In February it was reported that officials in Balkan Province were subjecting female high school students to mandatory “virginity tests,” with results reported to the police. A revised family code adopted in March made divorce more difficult, prioritizing spousal reconciliation, and beginning in April police reportedly harassed, detained, and intimidated young couples for holding hands or showing affection in public.
• The government continued to restrict freedom of movement through the confiscation of passports. In addition to barring travel for university students and known activists or journalists, officials reportedly began seizing the passports of government employees and individuals with bank loans in September and October. Separately, authorities in Balkan Province introduced an unofficial 9 p.m. curfew in February, with violators facing arrest or loss of state employment.
• In July, some previously blocked virtual private networks (VPNs) became accessible to internet users in the country, but experts warned that they could be subject to monitoring by the security services. Social media users who visited the accounts of independent media or exiled opposition groups continued to face interrogation and confiscation of their devices, and it was reported in October that citizens who used social media to request medical or financial help had been visited by police and forced to take down their videos, presumably to suppress evidence of the hardships faced by the population.
• Corruption, extortion, and forced labor remained significant problems. There were reports that citizens had to pay bribes to obtain a job, admission to a university, a new passport, and even a pardon for jailed family members; in Balkan Province, public-sector officials and business managers were compelled to buy wristwatches bearing the president’s likeness. In August, market traders in the city of Yoleten broke into the office of the central market administration to protest illegal extortion by its director, and 11 of the traders were arrested. Despite an official ban on minors working in the cotton harvest, cases of schoolchildren and public employees being forced to pick cotton continued to be reported.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.