In Tajikistan, women are repudiated by SMS

DUSHANBE - "Talaq, talaq, talaq", an Arabic word repeated three times in a text message, and Nodira, a young woman of 29 from Tajikistan, has seen her world crumble: it tells her that her husband, left for Russia work to support his family, decided to divorce.

•     In Islamic tradition, this formula launched by a husband to his wife just in theory, is enough to end the marriage, leaving the mother sole responsibile for his two children in this former Soviet republic in Central Asia.
  
      "I was in a state of shock after reading this message. At first I thought it was a mistake or a joke of bad taste. Then, I had dirty thoughts, I wanted to hang myself, sink or drink vinegar," tells Nodira.
  
      "What have I done wrong? This question tortures me, I took care of the parents of my husband, I was cleaned the garden, I did laundry, cooking for the whole family," she laments.
  
      Far from being an isolated case, the nightmare experienced by Nodira is the case of many women in Tajikistan, a country mired in poverty, and hundreds of thousands of men left to get a job in other richest countries of former USSR to sustain their families.
  
      Over time, some of these migrants living abroad separated from their wives for years, use instant messaging to dissolve a marriage.
  
      However, this "modern" method of divorce is not recognized as valid by the religious, because the husband is supposed to pronounce the words "talaq, talaq, talaq" in the presence of his wife, said Kobildjon Boïev, Head of the Department of study of Islamic decrees of Islamic Studies Center in Dushanbe.
  
      "Divorce his wife by SMS is not acceptable and is in contradiction with Islamic law," he insists.
  
      The casualties of this process are unknown, but they could be many thousands of women who have little recourse, first because many marriages were never registered and secondly, because the Tajik society, very traditional places man in a position of dominance.
  
      "All the girls do not have registration documents of their marriage, but the law should protect them in case of divorce, they get support for children and that the property be divided between the spouses", says Dorsoultan Chonazirova, a lawyer specializing in defending women.
  
      For her, it was the clergy and parents of the husband to call for respect for the traditions of Muslims, it is clear that SMS, email or phone call is not sufficient to religious point of views and to abandon his wife.
  
      For now, the civil and religious authorities do not seem to have taken the measure of the problem, and women must often fend for themselves.
  
      Khalima Chamsova, 24, had not seen her husband for nearly five years, and had to endure during this time bullying of the parents with whom she lived when she received the fateful message.
  
      "It was scary at first having to raise my child without his father. But by the grace of God I have my hands and my legs and I'm going to work," she said.
  
      "I will not allow my daughter to marry young. I do not want her to suffer what I experienced. She will study and have a profession," promises Khalima.
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.