Tajikistan

UNIFEM: Needs Assessment of Rural Women on

Land Tenure Rights in Tajikistan

 

Specific Questionnaires given to:

*Village Leader

*Religious Leader – Mullah

*Women’s Group

*Households

 

Annexe 4

The Questions for Religion Leader

1.       How did you become a village elder/religious leader?

2.       How long have you been in this position?

3.       Do families in the village bring disputes to you? Do they include disputes over divorce and inheritance, and disputes over land?

4.       Do women ever bring disputes to you?

                •    What type of disputes (inheritance, divorce, abandonment, land disputes, etc.)?

                •    How often?

                •    If women bring disputes to you rarely, why do you think that is?

                •    Do they usually come with a lawyer, male relative, women friend, or by themselves?

5.       What is your decision making process like?

                •    Is each side given the opportunity to speak?

                •    Is the process public?

                •    How is the final decision made?

                •    Is the final decision written?

6.       Do women ever participate in dispute settlement?

7.       Do women attend public meetings or religious meetings? If so, do they speak out?

8.       When a woman is divorced, does she have any rights to land that she has used with her husband?

                •    Residential

                •    Arable

                •    Pasture

9.       When a husband dies, what rights does his widow have to continue to use land he and his family have been using?

                •    Residential

                •    Arable

        •    Pasture

10.   When a father dies, is there any inheritance of land or buildings for his daughters? Who does inherit, and in what proportions?

                •    Residential

                •    Arable

                •    Pasture

11.   If someone who dies leave a will that says to whom his land or buildings should pass, will it be honored? Will it be honored even if it goes against what is seen as normal?

12.   What do you base your decisions on? Written law? Customs?

13.   We understand that there are more religious marriages these days, and fewer legal marriages. Is that true in this village? If so, why?

14.   Does this have a negative impact on the rights of the wife if her husband dies or divorces her? What are her rights in such a case?

15.   Do people sometime appeal your decisions? If so, to whom do they appeal?

Do people prefer to get their disputes decided in the village, or by judges? Why?