 His poems, which promoted the new Tajik identity, and his work in popularizing the old traditions of the Tajik people, like the celebration of Nowruz (Persian New Year), faced some resistance in the Soviet era.His anti-government poem at that time was cited as one reason for his arrest, in particular of "promoting social discord".His secularist views and criticism of religion continue to stir people in a Muslim-majority Tajikistan and also in Iran and Afghanistan, where Tajik language and culture are practised.