“Why do many women accept the system of male dominance?” asked one of my professors from the United States. Even though, in Tajikistan, it is widely spread that males have more authority than females, this question had never came up to my mind before.

Indeed, even though women fought/fighting for gender equality, there are number of women who still accept the system of male dominance. A short survey among Tajik females showed the reasons why some accept and some do not.

Throughout the history patriarchy was seen as a natural order of the society, and it is still so in many parts of Tajikistan. Seems while accepting the system of male dominance women usually bargain with patriarchy. For instance, it is widely believed that women’s honor is highly dependent on their husbands, therefore, often times, women are subordinate to their husband. Moreover, most of the women need protection, material and emotional security. This may be the reason they do not resist to males being dominant, because in return to their subordination women receive security.

Those women who have more responsibilities than men do not usually accept this system. They try to create autonomy. If a woman is responsible for her own life, as well as for children’s upkeep and education, she gets very little when she bargains with patriarchy or accepts the system of males’ dominance. Therefore, they openly start to resist such system.

Than it means that if males want females to be obedient and accept the system of male dominance, they better be able to provide women with economic and emotional security. Women are usually soft and small, and most of them like when males take care of them.

If it is indeed so, it is very interesting for how long the system of male dominance will exist with many women getting education and start working.

Cross-posted at Global Voices

The International Women’s Day is a public holiday in Kazakhstan, and while happy bloggers-office workers get a break from their offices and blogs, congratulate their mothers, wives and daughters, we are presenting the latest roundup of blog entries by women and about them.

On Beauty

Slavoyara, neweurasia‘s author, blogger and photographer from Pavlodar, has won the title of the most beautiful woman among the owners of Livejournal in a competition organised by blogger megakhuimyak. Congratulations!

She writes (RUS): “I am strict when in comes to assessing a woman’s beauty: yes, there are physically attractive and non-attractive women. But this is not a criterion for assessing personality… Beauty is just a promise of happiness, as someone said”.

On Work
Read the full story »

This is a translation of the article that Inga posted on Russian neweurasia.

Do you think that it is easy to be a woman in Kyrgyzstan? Apparently it is not. ‘An island of democracy’ also has certain problems when it comes to gender equity. As it was discovered during the special campaign ‘Against gender violence’ every second woman in Kyrgyzstan faces domestic violence on almost a daily basis. Comparing to men women are more affected by unemployment. Women’s salaries account to only 70% of what men generally earn.

Kyrgyz employers don’t support the idea of promoting women on their workplaces. In parliament there are no women-representatives. In the government only 20% of stuff is women. There is only one woman who managed to make it to the ministerial position on the ladder.

Should we than give up thinking about gender equity?Anara Niyazova is a presidential representative in parliament. She deals with the issues of gender equity and she doesn’t seem to be extremely happy with the current situation. She comments:

‘Women are almost non-existing when it comes to their representation in decision making. To balance the situation we need to introduce quota. I think this step should be made and men shouldn’t be fearful when it comes to quota ’

But men are fearful. How else can we explain the fact that exactly in the middle of campaigning for gender equity Kyrgyz parliament failed to pass a legislation aimed at counter balancing patriarchate in official bodies. If those amendments were passed we could faced expected yet another small revolution. Women’s revolution this time as suggested amendments were about introducing quota so that to ensure 30% of women’s representation in parliament and government.

‘MPs probably decided that there was no chance to find so many smart women take those positions and that’s why they decided against passing that draft. Men politicians are generally very suspicious when it somes to women’,- one of MP’s advisors told us with a laughter.

After this discussion I realized that women in Kyrgyzstan hardly have many chances to interfere with traditionally male decision making. But the problem is not only in not allowing women into politics. It is deeper and more complex. The problem is that the society that happened to be working in accordance with male rules is only ready to embrace women who comply with traditional stereotypes. I talked to several men about their opinions and I was not extremely encouraged, to tell you the truth.

Jakshilyk 50 : ‘She first has to bring up 3-4 sons and only than think about doing carrier. If she is still capable to do so. ’
Sergey (father of two): “I think women should stay at home and take care of kids. Why do they need this quota?”
Anonymous (state servant): “I’m still not sure how we are supposed to deal with this gender imbalance. On the one hand, it seems that something should be done. On the other, if everyone is pretty comfortable now, why should we change the rules of this game? ”

Toktokan Boronbaeva used to be a member of parliament. Now she is a chair of the presidential committee on gender equity. She mentions that she used to suffer some severe gender discrimination. She recalls :

“We once had an argument with one of my male colleagues about my legislative initiative. He was screaming at me: “If the draft is not passed you’ll be deserving nothing more but sitting and home and wearing a head scarf.”

Though, during the current campaign on the promotion of gender equity it turned out that there are still spheres of public activity and bodies where women tend to prevail. It was discovered that women are extremely successful in shadow business and … in the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Though, it should be emphasized in both spheres women can hardly catch up with their male colleagues when it comes to their salaries and promotions.

“You can have 2 Masters’, know several languages and be extremely hard working. Though, it still will not guarantee that you get equal promotions with men. According to our stats women get leadership positions much later, ”- says an expert of the Agency of Social Technologies Zulfia Kochorbaeva.

Here’s an interview with Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi on the issue. Iran is a bit outside this blog’s reach but the issues are nevertheless also relevant for the region that it does covers.

In Iran the number of educated women is higher than men. According to the latest figures that were released this year, more than 65 percent of Iran’s university students are girls. But, unfortunately, women haven’t had the opportunity really to demonstrate their capabilities, and more men have entered the labor market. The unemployment rate among women is three times higher than among men.

In my opinion, it is the patriarchic culture that gives men priority in all issues. (…) We need an interpretation of Islam that recognizes women’s rights. (…) With a correct interpretation of Islam, we can have equal rights for women. But the problem is that there are wrong interpretations of Islam, which cause discrimination against women. That is why the situation for women in various Islamic countries is different. For example, in Saudi Arabia women can’t even drive, but in countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh women have been able to become prime minister or president.