BBC News Online: Despatches

New hope for women in Tajikistan

It's hard to believe this beautiful mountain land has seen such bloodshed.

These days the anguish of war is subsiding but beneath the surface, Tajikistan is riven with uncertainty.

Many women in this village have lost husbands and sons. Now they are desperate for peace.

Here at the hospital the new enemy is poverty. Doctors struggling to cope with post-war epidemics like typhoid and diphtheria depend on foreign aid for supplies.

Women are especially badly hit. It is common here to bear 10 or more children. Death during childbirth and infant mortality is on the rise.

"Our building is damaged; it is falling to pieces," one doctor told me. "We need medicines, we need food, we need everything."

Doctors in another clinic are dealing with sheer despair. A new patient has been brought in, a young mother who has set fire to herself because she couldn't afford to feed her children.

The doctor says she treats a new case like this every day. Nobody knows how many more never reach the hospital.

But there are signs of recovery too. A school is being renovated and children come to lessons every day, girls as well as boys. In class they feel free to talk about the war.

Looking back is all part of reconciliation and a way of helping understand the political deal that has made peace possible. The essence of this pact is a an agreement between Islamic groups and the government.

The idea is to create a state true to Tajikistan's Muslim faith that is also democratic and fair to all.

The future of millions of women here partly depends on what kind of country the new Tajikistan will be.

The new government now emerging aims to combine a mixture of Islamic and secular ideas.

More and more women come to the mosque these days. Many find consolation in prayer yet many also go out to work.

Some are professionals like the doctors at the hospital. Women here are proud that they have been able to keep this delicate balance between tradition and the needs of the modern world.

The great thing now is for peace to last.

Many of these women saw their men off to war once. The lucky saw them return. Nobody wants the same for their daughters.

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Internet Links

A history of International Women's Day
Tajikistan: CIA World Factbook
Tajikistan Resource Page

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