Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea? Tajik Women Coping with the Post-Soviet Reality

Abstract

The role of a Tajik woman had been impacted by two contrasting factors. On the one hand, the Soviet period created equal citizens that “knew no gender or social class”. Women were provided identical access to education, health care and a right to work professionally outside of home as men. The traditional Tajik culture, however, regarded woman as a center of the family home, installed in the private sphere, exclusively caring for the children and the household. Position of women in contemporary Tajikistan depends largely on the influence of geographical and cultural factors as well as religious traditions and deeply rooted mentality. The processes of transformation are at full speed, but the time needed to provide education, overcome poverty and the traditional gender role stereotype may be longer-lasting than in other nations with less culturally rooted customary roles.

Full text: http://bazhum.muzhp.pl/czasopismo/589/?idno=14762