A/HRC/7/10/Add.2 page 9 older than 7 years old and furthermore only allow one mosque for villages that have a population of between 200 and 2,000 people. During her country visit, the Special Rapporteur was informed by several government officials that the draft law was currently being worked on and that the comments received would be taken into account during the reworking process before a text was presented to Parliament. V. RESPECT FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF A. Overview 18. The Constitution declares that Tajikistan is a secular State and that no religious ideology may be established as the State ideology. Religious organizations are separate from the State and may not interfere in the affairs of State. While religious organizations and their employees are prohibited from engaging in political activities or standing for election to legislative bodies, the 1999 amendments to article 28 of the Constitution introduced the right for citizens to participate in the creation of political parties, including parties of democratic, religious and atheistic character, and to voluntarily affiliate with or leave them. 19. In terms of the religious demography of Tajikistan, an estimated 95 per cent of the population of around 7,320,000 citizens consider themselves Muslims, although the degree of religious observance varies widely. The vast majority of Muslims (about 90 per cent) follow Sunni Islam; however, the Pamiri population of the autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan are mainly members of Shia Ismaili Islam. The Minister for Culture indicated that there were currently 255 grand mosques and officially 2,842 regular mosques, while emphasizing that nobody could exclude the possibility that some active mosques had not yet submitted their registration. According to estimates by non-governmental sources, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 mosques operating in Tajikistan. 20. About 3 per cent of the whole population in Tajikistan is Christian, mainly Russian Orthodox. Other registered organizations included Baha’is, Baptists, the Grace Sunmin Church, Hare Krishnas, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Seventh-day Adventists and Zoroastrians. Each of these groups was estimated to total less than 1 per cent of the population. Currently there are 86 non-Islamic religious organizations registered, 35 of which are based in Dushanbe. 21. By and large, the Government respects the freedom of all religious communities and individuals, although they face challenges, mainly concerning the situation of the Muslim community and acts of intolerance and other forms of discrimination with regard to religious minorities, as detailed below. Specific mention will be made of the issues of registration, proselytism, places of worship, the situation of women, conscientious objectors and counter-terrorism measures. B. Situation of the Muslim community 22. Most of the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors from the Muslim community talked positively about their situation with regard to freedom of religion or belief. It was repeatedly stressed that Tajikistan was the only Central Asian country where a religiously affiliated party was allowed to operate and be represented in the national legislature.