Bukharians aren’t Sephardic; they’re Mizrachim, descendants of Persians. And thus, having them check a racial box that doesn’t apply to them is patently absurd and dishonest, especially since most of their surnames end in -ov or -ova, which are very Russian sounding.
A huge issue and problem is that the Ashkenazim and the rabbinical establishment they upheld in Israel basically lump together any Jews who aren’t Ashkenaz as Sephardic, which is grossly inaccurate.
Mizrachim are Jews who lived in the Near East since the time of the diaspora (70 CE).
Sephardim are those Jews who have a documented origin in the Iberian Peninsula. Halabi Syrians, Turkish, Greek, Western European Spanish and Portuguese, Bulgarian, and other Ladino-speaking Jews are Sephardic. Their roots are in Spain.
Persian, Bukharian, Gorskiy, Yemenite, Shami Syrian, some Morroccan, Libyan, and other Middle Eastern Jews are Mizrachim; they’re not of Spanish and Portuguese origins.
The greatest absurdity in the current 2-rabbi system is that Ethiopian Jews are considered Sephardic! (Which is an utterly ridiculous preposition to make).
And wallflower, having a paternal grandmother whose parents emigrated here from Aleppo, I can make such claims with full confidence and with full knowledge of the realities at play.