Azamat became a Christian in the early days of Uzbekistan’s independence, soon after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, when, he says, the country ‘was a much freer place than it is now’.
Azamat, now in his 40s with a wife and two children, talks about his long-running battle to keep his church going under severe oppression from the authorities.
‘I was born a Muslim, but I had some Christian friends. They had converted to Christianity. At first, they had been like me, drank and smoked, but they changed.’
