The issue of returning to the Persian script or the ancestral alphabet has become hot again in Tajikistan.

The issue of returning to the Persian script or the ancestral alphabet has become hot again in Tajikistan.

The Persian script and language are symbols of the national identity of the Tajiks, and many of them see the need to revive the Persian script in Tajikistan in the current conditions of the region and the world.

The recent order by Imam Ali Rahman, the president of Tajikistan, to strengthen the teaching of the ancestral alphabet, or Persian script, has led many Tajiks to hope that the Persian script may soon replace Cyrillic.

Sohrab Zia reports from Dushanbe.