The change in behavior of Rano Mahmurodova’s husband was nothing short of a “miracle.”
Married at 18, the 42-year-old had spent more than two decades being physically and verbally assaulted by her husband, who was fueled by drink, drugs and unemployment.
Her five children would flinch and cower when their father was in the house, flying into violent rages. Their only respite was when he traveled to Russia for work.
Illustration: Mountain People
However, then came Mahmurodova’s miracle. Her village, in the southern plains of Jomi, was selected for a pilot project aimed at reducing Tajikistan’s appalling levels of violence against women.
Mahmurodova’s family was selected by community elders to take part. Not only did her husband agree to participate when he returned from his latest stint in Russia, he gradually stopped drinking, stopped the abuse and apologized for causing her 22 years of pain.
“My husband is very grateful towards me,” Mahmurodova said, sitting on a patterned rug on the floor of her neat, one-story home, a white ceiling fan offering a slight cooling breeze on a stifling day.
“He said: ‘Thank you for tolerating me. I didn’t recognize how difficult it was to live with me.’ There were several attempts before from the community to talk to him and try to persuade him [to stop the abuse], but it didn’t work. But this time, I wonder how, it happened. It’s a miracle. I’m very happy that he changed,” she said.
Villages in Jomi and in the northern district of Penjikent were targeted for the Zindagii Shoista (Living with Dignity) project, implemented by five organizations — International Alert and Cesvi, together with local partners Farodis, Women of the Orient and Action, Development and Prosperity.
It was funded through the British government’s What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls initiative, a £25 million (US$32.38 million) global project launched in 2014 to collect evidence about the scale and impact of violence against women and girls, as well as potential ways to stop it.
Fourteen projects across Africa and Asia — ranging from couples’ counseling in Rwanda, to introducing school play time in Pakistan — are being funded through the What Works program, as well as research into the drivers, prevalence, and social and economic costs of violence.
The British Department for International Development wants the research to inform global projects and drive more money toward tackling the global pandemic.
The WHO estimates that one in three women worldwide — nearly 1 billion in all — will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, mostly from an intimate partner.
While men are not immune from abuse, globally women are more likely to be killed by a partner than men.
According to Tajik government figures, about one in five Tajik women who are in a partnership will experience some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
However, rights groups say that, if all women and incidences outside the home were included, the figure would be much higher.
Shame and stigma prevent women from reporting abuse.
A mountainous country wedged between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China, Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet Union republics.
Its high unemployment rates mean many men tread the well-worn path to Russia in search of work. The country is heavily dependent on remittances, which contributed almost one-third of Tajikistan’s GDP last year.
Less than half of girls complete secondary school and, according to UN statistics, about 59 percent of women work outside the home, compared with 77 of men. The vast majority of those who work are in low-paid jobs.
Arranged and early marriages are common, and married women are required to live with their husbands’ families. The man is considered the head of the house, but, if he is working abroad, wives will fall under the authority of their mothers-in-law.
Research in Jomi and Penjikent in 2016, before the project began, found that about 60 percent of women had experienced sexual, physical or emotional violence in the previous 12 months, with the highest rates recorded between 18 and 24-year-olds. Depression and suicide were both common.
All the villages involved had high rates of unemployment, poverty and food insecurity.
The Zindagii Shoista program, conducted over 18 months, took a two-pronged approach. It offered relationship counseling for women, couples and extended family members, alongside training in setting up small businesses that would bring in some much-needed cash.
The results of the pilot, published at the end of last month, have been astonishing.
After 10 weekly group and individual counseling sessions and 10 weeks of skills training, followed up with mentoring from local mediators, levels of violence against women have almost halved — dropping from 64 to 34 percent. The percentage of men who said they were violent fell from 47 to 5 percent.
Family relationships have become more equitable and the mental well-being of both women and men has improved significantly. Suicide rates for women fell from 20 percent before the project to 9 percent. Among men, rates fell from 10 percent to nil.
Women’s earnings increased four-fold, and their savings 10-fold. The proportion of women experiencing severe food shortages fell from 56 to 19 percent.
“It’s a very good start,” said Shahribonu Shonasimova, project manager for International Alert in Tajikistan. “In these communities, no one talked about violence against women and girls, but people had the opportunity to talk for the first time.”
Shonasimova said the economic aspect of the project was essential — financial problems are a contributry factor in violence.
Giving women earning power eases money worries and gives them greater independence.
Shonasimova hopes funding will be found to expand the project.
The Guardian spoke to a number of women from the pilot villages. They spoke of how their husbands would lash out when money became tight and they had been drinking, about the abuse meted out by their in-laws, and of the startling transformation.
Marqhuba Mahmadqulova, 27, from Penjikent, said she sank into depression after her in-laws threw her out of the marital home because she could not conceive — as the woman, it was seen as her fault.
Through the project she has gained sewing skills and has set up a tailoring business. She dreams of becoming a fashion designer.
Mohrukhsor Alieva, 33, from Jomi, married her cousin, who was often out of work, high on drugs and drink, and was seeing other women. Aged 18, she had to move into the home of her mother-in-law, who controlled the household and was dismissive of Alieva.
“I had a very bad life in this family,” said Alieva, sitting on a friend’s bedroom floor. “Because my mother-in-law is my aunt, how can I dare complain?”
While Alieva’s husband “could be nice,” he became abusive when drunk.
“When I told my aunt [about the abuse] she blamed me and said I was lying,” Alieva said.
The project “came at the right time,” she said.
It gave her “an opportunity at the beginning to share the pain I have had. I couldn’t go to anyone,” she said, wiping tears from her face.
Officials involved in the project managed to persuade her husband and mother-in-law to attend family counseling sessions (they were given a meal if they did), and things began to change.
Alieva said her husband now drinks less, is not as abusive and has a job.
Her mother-in-law is taking more interest in their children and showing her more respect.
Alieva suspects this is probably because she is bringing in some money from a small rental business she set up on the back of the program.
Right now, life is good, Alieva said, joking that she has put on weight since the project started “because I am happy.”
Her 10-month-old baby girl might also be a contributory factor.
She said a huge burden has been lifted from her shoulders. She is confident the family will not drift back to old ways.
“He [her husband] is good, but if he does something wrong, I remind him about the sessions and it wakes him up and it prevents him from doing things,” she said.
“Now I am feeling like a wife and he is treating me better. I feel we are a family now. I didn’t feel that before,” she said.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.