Lauryn Oates
Independent Consultant – Voluntary
Sector Services
& International Human Rights,
Development, and Gender Equality
lauryn.oates@gmail.com
Tajikistan: On the Road to Extremism and Misogyny
SUMMARY
by
Lauryn Oates
One
of only two double land-locked countries in the world, Tajikistan is one of the most mountainous countries in the world.
Most Canadians would be hard pressed to find it on a map. A country of extreme
geographic isolation, Tajikistan is also a post-war country that is financially strained
and has little interactions with the outside world.
In
the northern city of Khojand lives Muhiba, a 21-year-old university student. When I
meet her, Muhiba is wrapping up a degree in translation studies and working
occasionally as an interpreter. When she was a child, she recalls that a woman
who interpreted from German to Russian was once a guest for dinner in her
family home. Hearing one language transformed into another sounded like poetry
to her ears, and from that day on, it became her dream to become an interpreter.
Growing
up, marriage remained low on Muhiba’s list of priorities. However her parents
recently proposed a young man to her as a marriage partner. Muhiba inquired
with a few classmates about the potential fiancé and was told that he came from
a good family and just finished studying economics. A classmate who lived next
door to him assured her he was good-looking.
Muhiba
met her fiancé once and assessed him as reasonably open-minded. She has agreed
to the marriage, believing that other candidates might be less likely to permit
her the freedom to work as an interpreter or to further her education. Walking
through Khojand’s bazaar, Muhiba wanders into a few dress shops, fingering the
bright white Western-style wedding dresses with half interest. I ask if she is
happy about the marriage and she answers with an unhesitant “No.”
A
Soviet republic for the better part of the last century, Tajikistan is in the midst of recovery from Soviet governance. For
women, the 17 years since the country’s independence have meant a spiral
downward in their status that has been accompanied by a reversion to cultural
traditions that are turning back the clock for women.
Tajikistan is home to several ethnic groups, including Tajiks (of
Persian heritage), Uzbeks and a dwindling population of Russians. Tajik is
coming back as the lingua franca, but Russian still dominates in government and
among the elite. Tajikistan remains of little interest to global powers--a poor
country without oil that produces mainly cotton and agricultural products, a
legacy of the Soviet economic order.
Officially a democracy, post governments have nonetheless retained some
of the worst remnants of Sovietism, such as a cumbersome bureaucracy which
makes Kafka’s “The Trial” seem like a fairy tale. Corruption is endemic,
salaries low and foreign trade thwarted by unwelcoming bureaucratic procedures.
At
the same time, progressive Soviet traditions, such as a network of community
libraries which reached every village in the country, a dependable social
security system and reliable healthcare have eroded since 1991 and all but
disappeared today.
Still,
Muhiba holds out hope that she will be her husband’s only wife. Polygamy is on
the rise; it is estimated that over 90 percent of marriages in Tajikistan include more than one wife. While not legally sanctioned,
authorities turn a blind eye to the practice--even cabinet ministers have
multiple wives. Second, third and other later wives hold secondary status in
the household and are expected to help take care of the other kids and are
denied privileges which the first wife may have. Only first marriages are
technically legal, so subsequent wives have a minimum of legal protections,
suchas custody over their children in the event of a divorce or the right to
inheritance, and are less likely to report abuse or desertion.
I
turned to a leading women’s organization, Modar, to find out what organized
women’s groups are doing about polygamy. The director, Gulchehra responds abruptly, “Nothing.”
She
explains that for many women, polygamy is viewed as an economic necessity. Tajikistan’s seven-year civil war that followed its independence
killed enough men that there is a significant disproportion of men to women.
And with few money-making opportunities available to women, they feel they have
little alternative but to depend on husbands to support them, even husbands who
may already have another wife.
The
alternatives aren’t necessarily any better. With few economic options, many
Tajik women are vulnerable to be trafficked and forced into prostitution.
And
yet in Soviet times, women’s participation in the workforce was promoted and
large numbers of women studied to become engineers, doctors, lawyers and other
professionals. Many studied in Moscow, bringing home doctorates and sometimes even a Russian
husband. Primary education reached every corner of the country and Tajikistan still has an extremely high literacy rate relative to its
GDP. Tajik citizens did not enjoy the
freedom of multi-party elections, but women were less confined by patriarchal
interpretations of their culture and of Islam. Women occupied a sizable portion
of the intelligentsia and the political elite.
Today,
more girls stop their education after high school, and fewer enter school to
begin with. Many young women have continued the tradition of going on to study
for the five-year bachelor degree in one of the country’s poorly resourced
universities, but many end their careers before they begin. The reason is pressure
for early marriage. Marriages are now hastily arranged by parents stretched to
keep supporting one more dependent, and anxious to secure their daughters’
financial futures. The average marriage age has declined in the last five years and contrary to other countries, is
getting younger in urban areas despite the legal age for marriage being set at
18 for girls. Many girls in the capital, Dushanbe, are married at 15 these days, while the average marriage
age in rural areas remains 20-22 years.
On
the surface, Tajik women appear to have little in common with their sisters in Afghanistan. There, the burqa blends women together as ghostly,
anonymous figures. Tajik women wear a patterned and colourful national dress,
short-sleeved, ending above the ankles and comfortably billowing in the rare
breezes of the gruelling summer heat, reaching upwards of 50 degrees. The
fabrics come in endless variety, bought and then sewed in a single pattern,
worn by almost all women in the city and countryside alike. Women who wear a
scarf tied it up around their heads, keeping the dust off their long hair
without fabric trailing about as they go about their day. Unmarried women don
thick, dark eyebrows, filled in generously with make-up if their natural
eyebrows can’t manage to meet in the middle, a distinct sign of beauty and a
signal that a woman is single. Glittery, bohemian-style earrings of gold or
silver are worn by young and old women alike. Tajik women are tall, sun-kissed
and strong.
Like
Afghanistan, Tajikistan is a post-communist country where a new form of
fundamentalism is pushing women’s progress backwards. Reports of wife abuse
have increased and there are few shelters in a country where women are unlikely
to go to notoriously uncooperative authorities. Their only option, to return to
their birth families, is not always desirable as they would be adding another
mouth to feed in families where incomes are small and families are large. Most
women opt to stay in the marriage and endure the violence, women’s advocates
say.
Tajikistan is also facing a crisis in human trafficking, as women are
exported to countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Russia, China, Japan and Western
Europe. They are forced to work
as strippers and prostitutes, and are commonly held in sexual slavery. Modar
has carefully documented case after case of girls as young as 10 who have been
kidnapped and forced into prostitution rings, both domestically and
internationally. Once they leave the country, it becomes almost impossible to
rescue them.
In
a country that touted secularism for over 70 years, fundamentalist religion is
gaining in popularity. The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan received the
second highest number of votes in the last election. Muhiba and her friends
roll their eyes as at the mention of the party. Yet many worry that as long as
the country remains poor and isolated, more will turn to conservative religious
parties.
A
handful of international humanitarian and development organizations have a presence
in Tajikistan. Tajik women, like those in Afghanistan, may not need “saving,” but more support would be
welcomed. One idea being discussed is micro-credit and small business start-up
schemes for women. Such projects could promote economic self-sufficiency and
can be an alternative to polygamous or violent marriages as a livelihood.
Muhiba
and her university friends took me the Khojand Public Library one humid
afternoon to show me a portrait of Sairam Isoeva, a revered Tajik actress and
writer at the height of her fame during the Soviet era. We went on to see the
Greek-style theatre she works in now as Artistic Director, and we happened to
meet Sairam herself in the street outside. The young women were beside
themselves and giggled with excitement, seeing their role model in the flesh.
As
women’s rights quietly recede in a country largely off the radar screen of the
international community, I can’t help but wonder whether women like Muhiba will
have a chance to become as strong and influential as the women of the previous
generation that they so admire.
I
worry that the answer is no. That, as long as viable economic opportunities for
women remain elusive and interest in Tajikistan from the international
community remains fleeting, that as long as corruption in government is endemic
and fundamentalist movements quietly seep into politics, that women’s rights
and their voices will increasingly be shut out of public and political life.
And yet, with outside support, Tajik women may just be able to create a new
place for themselves in society, transforming gender roles to honour Tajik
culture while also embracing progressive views of women’s status and roles.
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