“Panorama Shymkenta”, 07/03/2008
E. Berdigalieva
Bishkek - Shymkent

   If the perception of Muslims of the once of the singing hero “Caucasian Captive” led to an ironic smile, the Muslim wives of today clearly do not laugh at this. Previously one of the forms of violence against women often talked about was socio-cultural violence, when women are denied their rights because of religious attitudes, traditions, and customs of their ethnic group; however, today physical, domestic violence has become disturbing trend associated with the proliferation of forced marriages in villages and polygamy.
   You should have seen how the critics handled themselves with Dilmurad IM, Manager of Osh TV, who recognized to the public of her bigamy family, where, she said, they happily co-existed and interacted peacefully.
   On one hand, Dilmurad is a vulnerable woman. On the other hand, who knows what motivated her choice.
   It was interesting to observe the reaction of representatives of various countries on this information. Galina Petriashvili, president of the Association of Journalists “GenderMediaCaucasus”, an active advocate of gender ideas, accepted what she heard as joke.
   Yes, the problem of “violence” of this type often involves the rights of women and children. It was difficult to experience it on a background of endemic poverty, as is firsthand knowledge in Tajikistan. This is what the professor and the head of the department of international journalism at Tajik University, Usmanova IM, says:
   - Poverty and migration are a heavy burden on a family. The migration of men in search of work has meant that in Tajikistan, the number of women as heads of households has increased. After the Civil War, many of them were widows. Men who left to work abroad often return in a year or even less frequently, and many lose contact with their families.
   Many issues concerning the rights of property or land can not be resolved in favor of women in the absence of their husbands. They can not sell their house, obtain a loan, etc. In these difficult circumstances the woman becomes the breadwinner and educator in the family, and often children are forced to leave school to help their mothers, some of which join the ranks of “street children”.
   “My husband has been working for 10 years in Uzbekistan. I have two children. We used to live long distance, but we shared the common expenses for the family, at the expense of communication and spiritual affinity”, tells Marhabo Zununova, editor of the weekly “Events”.
   M. Kurbanov, her colleague from the magazine, said that among are various forms of oncology. Many women have only dreamed about family, about children born in a happy marriage. In their eyes, polygamy and may provide an excuse. Meanwhile, while there have been coverings of topics of prostitution, sale into slavery, the fight against trafficking, the media has forgotten about the simple everyday situations, not least the evidence of abuse of women's rights. Coverage of these issues, with the words of Tajik journalists, and thus should be objective and balanced.

   The best way to understand the interests of women is to visit her. So Kyrgyz journalist ALMAZ Caleta did that and published in the online newspaper his diary monitoring the pregnancy of his wife. “According to my wife, I knew more about the child: the date and time of birth, weight, knew how to receive her confinement. Later I went to go speak with the doctor about the condition of my child and the doctor looked up at me very surprised. “Only women know this information! How do you get?” It seemed to both of us that both parents should be equally aware of their child…”, says Diamond.
   According to M. Dzhakupova, a lawyer at Shymkent’s NGO “Sana Sezim”, managers and law enforcement officials are not uncommonly blind to gender issues, when men beat their wives, marry several times, and generally disrespectful in dealing with other representatives.
   In short, “born to crawl, cannot fly”. In fact, most of them dream that their love is not for any merit, but simply for the fact that it is ... a woman. To be in a relationship not because of age and pregnancy, but simply out of respect for her as the personification of all the most beautiful and best in the land.

   Imagine that out of 2228.5 thousand people in the SKO 50.7% are women and 49.3% - men. Here is where our advantage is!
   Yuzhanok has a small role, but, at the top: from the 7900, 2764 are women civil servants. In leadership positions are: one woman - Deputy Akim, 4 women - Advisers Akimov cities and districts, 7 - akims rural counties, 1 - MP oblmaslihata, 15 - gormaslihata. Among the 217 government SKO to 55 - the leaders are women. And at the same time, nearly half of the 134 thousand business entities are headed by business women.
   Interesting details were revealed on the Status of Women in a survey on strengthening marriage and family in contemporary society. Of the 500 residents of districts and cities SKO 46,8% were in favor, that women can successfully combine work and household duties, 69.8% of respondents preferred to complete the type of family, 52,2% believe that with equal career opportunities to grow all the same man, and 44,8% did not deny that husband to putting the burden of responsibility if the quarry «light» wife. 54% of respondents were in favor of the traditional Eastern model of family where the head was the husband, and 31,8% - for the equal rights of spouses in the family.
   Judging from the responses, a gender lens will not be redundant and either men or women to the south feel the same ownership interests and concerns of each other.
   And most importantly, it is important that citizens be able to share their hopes and dreams, successes and defeats, triumphs and tribulations. The entire human race has responsibility for this.