Tajikistan

Women in Tajikistan Society

By some estimates, 90 percent of all Tajikistani husbands have more than one wife. Women are extremely vulnerable to societal factors that allow human trafficking and girls as young as 13 years old are forced to marry. Women's groups report that as many as 70 percent of wives are abused by their husbands and in-laws. Because women are economically dependent, they have limited opportunities for escape. Consequently, there is a high rate of suicide among abused women. Due to a tradition of arranged marriages, even women of high social standing have little say in whom they marry; often, they have only brief contact with potential spouses. Many marriages are informal agreements, leaving wives without legal protection. Except in the case of a legally married first wife, wives in polygamous marriages have no legal rights at all.

There is only limited access to employment in Tajikistan, and at least half of the labor force works outside the country. Wives are allowed to work only when their husbands agree. Nearly 75 percent of the population continues to live in rural areas, although only 23 percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture. The median age for Tajikistani females is 22.4 years. With an infant mortality rate of 35.91 deaths per 1,000 live births, females have a considerably higher survival rate than male infants, whose mortality is 45.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. That advantage continues into adulthood, and females have a life expectancy of 68.52 years compared to 62.29 years for males. Tajikistani women have a fertility rate of 2.99 children per woman.

Tajikistan ranks 132nd in the world in educational spending. The female literacy rate is 99.2 percent only slightly lower than the 99.5 percent of males. Girls [Page 1434]goes to school for only 10 years compared to 12 years for boys, and few women pursue higher education.

Shaodat Sharipova and her six children received emergency heating from a USAID-backed effort in Tajikistan.