Domestic Violence Driving More Women to Suicide
Domestic Violence Driving More Women to Suicide
Domestic violence and poverty are the main factors which drive young Tajik women to suicide, say NBCentralAsia experts.
On August 20, the Women’s Committee in the Vosey district of the Hatlon region said that increasing numbers of young women are committing suicide.
Suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam and 90 per cent of Tajikistan’s population are Muslim.
According to the ministry of internal affairs, 151 people took their own lives in Tajikistan during the first half of this year and one third of them were women.
However, NGOs say that these statistics do not provide an accurate picture because many families try to cover up the suicide of a relative, claiming their death was accidental.
NBCentralAsia experts say that domestic violence is the main reason why many girls and young women commit suicide and are calling for the government to intervene in family affairs.
Orzu Ganieva, executive director of Gulruhsor Women’s Center in Hudjand, who has researched the subject, says that most young women take their own lives because wives and daughters-in-law are generally treated as “servants and property”.
Women find it very difficult to leave their husbands, she says. Not only are they completely dependent on their husband’s family for financial support, they are also frightened that their community would shun them for leaving.
Those without relatives and close friends willing to help them leave are often driven to suicide.
Domestic violence is not a criminal offence in Tajikistan and Ganieva asserts that this has to change.
The government must also start interfering in domestic affairs and working with NGOs to set up a wide network of social workers to support the victims of violence, she adds.
Lawyer Dursilton Shonazirova explains that the police are often deaf to complaints from women about domestic abuse, saying that family matters should be dealt with privately.
“Domestic violence may have even more regrettable consequences if families and relatives do not receive support and the militia does not interfere,” said Shonazirova.
However, a source in the public order department at the internal affairs ministry told NBCentralAsia that an order has been issued under which law enforcement agencies can be fined for failing to respond quickly to incidents of domestic violence.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
On August 20, the Women’s Committee in the Vosey district of the Hatlon region said that increasing numbers of young women are committing suicide.
Suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam and 90 per cent of Tajikistan’s population are Muslim.
According to the ministry of internal affairs, 151 people took their own lives in Tajikistan during the first half of this year and one third of them were women.
However, NGOs say that these statistics do not provide an accurate picture because many families try to cover up the suicide of a relative, claiming their death was accidental.
NBCentralAsia experts say that domestic violence is the main reason why many girls and young women commit suicide and are calling for the government to intervene in family affairs.
Orzu Ganieva, executive director of Gulruhsor Women’s Center in Hudjand, who has researched the subject, says that most young women take their own lives because wives and daughters-in-law are generally treated as “servants and property”.
Women find it very difficult to leave their husbands, she says. Not only are they completely dependent on their husband’s family for financial support, they are also frightened that their community would shun them for leaving.
Those without relatives and close friends willing to help them leave are often driven to suicide.
Domestic violence is not a criminal offence in Tajikistan and Ganieva asserts that this has to change.
The government must also start interfering in domestic affairs and working with NGOs to set up a wide network of social workers to support the victims of violence, she adds.
Lawyer Dursilton Shonazirova explains that the police are often deaf to complaints from women about domestic abuse, saying that family matters should be dealt with privately.
“Domestic violence may have even more regrettable consequences if families and relatives do not receive support and the militia does not interfere,” said Shonazirova.
However, a source in the public order department at the internal affairs ministry told NBCentralAsia that an order has been issued under which law enforcement agencies can be fined for failing to respond quickly to incidents of domestic violence.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
