Abandoned Families in Tajikistan

One of the side-effects of mass emigration from Tajikistan has been the broken homes left behind when husbands decide to stay abroad not for the summer season of work, but forever.

“Many men forget about their wives once they’re away working in Russia, and say ‘taloq’ three times to them over the phone,” Zebo Sharifova, head of the Female Lawyers’ League, said, referring to the phrase that many in Tajikistan consider enough to constitute a divorce.

The women left to provide for the household often lack the resources and education to find paid work. Even if a husband divorces his wife only verbally, she will no longer be welcome in her in-laws’ house, and her own family may be reluctant to take her back.

The stress drives many to illness, and some even to attempt suicide.                                                                                                     

“The problem of abandoned and discarded wives is one of the most important things facing Tajikistan,” Amrokhon Safarov, an expert on family issues, said. “Thousands upon thousands of wives have been abandoned by their husbands, their children left fatherless.”

Bahriddin Sangmadov is an IWPR-trained radio reporter in Kulob, southern Tajikistan.

The audio programme, in Tajik and Russian, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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