Tajikistan gets tough on violence against women

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TAJIKISTAN – An awareness-raising campaign entitled “Sixteen days of active efforts to tackle violence against women” has begun in Tajikistan and was timed to coincide with the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women at the end of November.

Gulrukhsor Orzu Ganiyeva, an executive director of a women’s NGO, said that this year’s awareness campaign is under the slogan: “’The fight against violence is our civil duty!’ since violence against women is not only an infringement of human rights, but also a crime.”

Since 1996 the association Women of Science of Tajikistan has conducted sociological surveys across the country regarding that issue. Analysis has shown that violence against women is regarded as an acceptable form of behaviour by 30 percent of single men 30 years old or younger, 29 percent of married men 30 or younger and 20 percent of married men over 30.

“Patriarchal stereotypes asserting male superiority persist in many sectors of Tajik society, and are violations of women’s civil rights,” says president of the Association Mukhiba Yakubova. “It is worrying that a large segment of young men still adhere to these outdated feudalistic views.”