Gender Equality Only Skin-Deep

Even though a new study shows that Tajikistan does fairly well on female representation in politics, experts say the gender divide remains as great as ever and steps should be taken to tackle discrimination against women in the workplace and at home.



This week, the International Parliamentary Union published statistics on the number of female parliamentarians around the world with Tajikistan, where women hold 17.5 per cent of seats in the legislature, coming 62nd equal with Uzbekistan out of a list of 185 countries.



By comparison, neighbouring Kyrgyzstan has no women in parliament while Kazakstan and Turkmenistan have 10 and 16 per cent, respectively.



Kimmatgul Aliberdieva, deputy head of the Tajik government’s Committee for Women’s and Family Affairs, says that Tajikistan beats it neighbours on gender equality in parliament because of a strong legislative base, conformity to international standards and commitment to equal opportunities projects.



However, sound laws do not go far enough to achieve real equality in other areas of life as well, she says.



“Gender inequality is most noticeable in the economy,” she says. “The world of female labour still differs from the male in terms of job type, pay and position. This phenomenon, known as ‘the feminisation of poverty’, clearly applies to Tajikistan.”



Aliberdieva says that the fact that girls in rural areas are not even given the opportunity to complete secondary education remains a major problem.



“Girls attend school until the ninth grade, then they get married or just sit at home hindered from getting an education by parental decision, established tradition and prejudice. With no education and no awareness of their rights, these girls face a lot of problems,” she said.



Guljahon Bobosadykova of the NGO Association for Gender Equality and Preventing Violence Against Women points out that the latest alternative gender report, which was submitted to the United Nations along with the official government report, sets out problems where women’s’ groups could make a contribution.



The alternative report says women are not involved sufficiently in the decision-making process, levels of female education are falling, levels of violence against women are rising, and polygamy is becoming more common. There are more and more cases of women drawn into prostitution, drug and human trafficking, women are receiving less access to medical treatment.



“There are successes, but there are also problems, which have been flagged up in the alternative report. We will not stop at what we have achieved - we will move forward,” said Bobosadykova.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)