Economic Crisis Cited in Tajik Suicide Cases

Economic hardship resulting from the global financial crisis is to blame for a spate of suicides in the northern Tajikistan region of Soghd, victims’ relatives and experts say.



A mother of three who lives in the provincial capital Khujand said her car-dealer husband committed suicide after some of his clients failed to pay him.



“He was in the business of buying and selling imported cars. He took loans, a lot of money. He did not tell me about his problems but I understood that he had been simply let down,” she said.



On top of her bereavement, the woman has had to deal with some of her husband’s creditors, “Now they come to me and demand that I repay his debts.”



“Where do I get this kind of money? If I had been working I would have tried to pay it back little by little. It is good that others have cancelled his debts.”



A mother of two from Bobojon Gafurov district not far from Khujand lost her husband of 11 years.



They shared a house with his two brothers and their families. While her husband was working they managed to make ends meet but things changed when he lost his job.



“His brothers did not like it and told us to move out. My husband did not see any way out and hanged himself,” she said.



“After the 40-day mourning period, they [the brothers] threw me out of the house. It was a terrible time for me. I went to live with my relatives, and then with my sister. Kind people gave me a helping hand and found me a place in a hostel. I found a job to feed my children.”



The Soghd region, traditionally better off than other parts of the country thanks to its industry, has been hit hard by the economic downturn.



The crisis has not only cut local incomes and the number of jobs but also remittances from thousands of labour migrants. Some 150,000 seasonal workers from Soghd are working abroad, mostly in Russia but also in Kazakstan, according to official figures.



Najiba Shirinbekova, who heads a non-governmental group called Law and Prosperity, told IWPR, “The latest information indicates a particularly high level of poverty in the region. This is because factories are standing idle because of the financial crisis and the winter energy crisis.”



In the first six months of the year, labour migrants from Soghd sent home more than 200 million US dollars, compated with last year, when the figure for the same period was more than 300 million dollars.



There are no official records of how many suicide cases are directly caused by the economic crisis, though police sometimes note “financial problems” when recording deaths.



From January till the end of June, the number is given as 15. However, the figures do not distinguish between those living in long-term poverty and those whose dire financial situation has been compounded by the economic slowdown.



The interior ministry office in Soghd said that in the first six months of the year police registered 92 cases of suicide and 52 attempted suicides, 25 more than the figures for the same period last year.



Despite a lack of clarity in suicide statistics, there are some indications that people are taking their lives under the stress caused by the economic crisis.



There are more men than women who committed or attempted suicide - 84 and 78 respectively. Many men are of working age and the country has more women than men because of the numbers working abroad.



An expert in gender issues, Rano Bobojonova, said financial problems are often the cause of suicide in men whereas among women the leading cause is domestic violence.



Men carry the responsibility of being the breadwinner and are expected to be able to provide for the family, “Society is used to seeing in a man a strong, brave person who takes care of his family.”



But in times of economic crisis they struggle to fulfil this role and that can make them depressed, according to Bobojonova.



“They are not supposed to cry or show weakness. They have nowhere to turn and that is why they may take such a radical step,” she said.



Six suicide cases in the last month involved unemployed men aged between 22 and 60, the local interior ministry office said.



Commenting on suicide statistics, the coordinator of the crisis centre Gulrukhsor, Mavzuna Hokimboeva, said there is a widespread perception - and law enforcement bodies are no exception – that suicide is linked with mental illness.



“According to our information, to a large extent it is financial difficulties in the family that lead to the rise in this phenomenon,” Hakimbaeva said.



Medical doctor Malika Saidalieva said that psychological illnesses tend to emerge against the backdrop of various factors including financial problems, “This could be the loss of a loved one, losing a job and a number of other reasons.”



She explained how the economic hardship could lead to suicidal thoughts, “Constant stress, a weakened immune system and nervous breakdown will lead to neurasthenia. [This brings] persistent thoughts including a desire to commit suicide.”



Neurasthenia is a condition whose symptoms include fatigue, anxiety and depression.



A 45-year-old resident of Khujand who gave his name as Samad told IWPR how he was driven to the brink of suicide when he lost his job.



He tried to find work but failed to get a stable job and earnings from temporary work were meagre. In his desperation, Samad turned to alcohol. He and his wife quarrelled constantly.



“I was ready to take my own life and even pictured in my mind how to do it. But one evening my youngest daughter sat on my lap and said, ‘Daddy, I love you very much’,” he said. “I felt reborn and realised that there are more important things than one's own worries.”



The decline in remittances puts a strain on people who have used funds sent by family members working as labour migrants as collateral to take out loans. Microcredit organisations accept a bank’s letter confirming monthly transfers from a relative abroad as a guarantee for repayment.



The head of crime prevention among minors and young people at the interior ministry, Lieutenant-Colonel Rahimjon Abduvaliev, told IWPR that this year’s suicide statistics included cases of men who took their own lives because they had problems repaying a loan. He was not able to give the number.



Barbara Kreuter, a consultant with the German Development Service advising the Tajik Association of Microfinance Organisations, confirmed that many people are struggling with loan repayments.



“This year delays in repayments have risen four times compared to 2008,” she said.



The rise in suicides has been noted in the Soghd region over the last couple of years but the latest increase in attempts has attracted the authorities’ attention.



The local government in the northern region of Soghd last month decided to set up a special commission to work on how to prevent suicide attempts.



The head of the department for social and cultural affairs and interethnic relations in the city administration of Khujand, Zulfia Umarova, said the commission plans to organise meetings and talks. Members of the commission will include a deputy of the Tajik parliament, a psychologist, a cleric, a police officer and a writer.



The administration is enlisting the help of mosque leaders.



“They will be asked to talk in their sermons about being patient and thinking of responsibility towards the family,” Umarova said.



Bakhtior Valiev is an IWPR-trained journalist in Tajikistan.