VZCZCXRO9155
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHDBU #0743/01 1380705
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180705Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0280
INFO RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1970

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000743 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM EAID KDEM KWMN TI
SUBJECT: TAJIK WOMEN IN POLITICS?  AS LONG AS DINNER'S STILL ON THE 
TABLE... 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY:  Tajik women active in political dialogue 
and the public sphere have had mixed success in establishing a 
meaningful discussion group or changing the profoundly 
discriminatory culture.  In a meeting with visiting Central 
Asian Affairs Director Pamela Spratlen, members of the local 
non-governmental organization "Women Voters" debated the 
effectiveness of their monthly discussion clubs, noting that in 
some cases, they have raised awareness on important social 
issues, but in others, their recommendations gather dust in 
government ministries.  Women Voters provides a good example of 
the lack of capacity of local non-governmental organizations in 
Tajikistan.  Most U.S. funding is channeled through 
international non-governmental organizations who have been 
active in trying to stimulate local groups into action, but a 
real understanding of public activism or advocacy has yet to 
take hold.  The group reflects the weak political party system 
in Tajikistan, with only three of the eight registered parties 
participating in the monthly roundtable. The methods of the 
roundtable raise questions about its credibility and 
sustainability as a civil society organization:  the members pay 
the speakers an honorarium, and sometimes pay the press to 
report on their discussions.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (U)  On May 8, the Director of the Office of Central Asian 
Affairs, Pamela Spratlen, met with the working group of a local 
NGO, Women Voters, to discuss the role of women in Tajik society 
and politics.  Eight non-governmental organization and political 
party representatives participated:  Rano Akhunova, director of 
Women Voters; Solekha Akhmedova, member of the People's 
Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT); Takhmina Said-zoda 
(PDPT); Sharofat Khusain, member of the Islamic Renaissance 
Party of Tajikistan (IRPT); Zarafo Raxmoni (IRPT); Ma'rifat 
Shokirova of the Committee on Women and the Family; Roziya 
Tabarova, director of the organization "Orzu"; and Hurinisso 
Gaffor-zoda, director of the organization "Oshtii milli." 
 
¶3.  (U)  Akhunova, the director of Women Voters, opened the 
meeting by describing the group's purpose:  to expand the role 
of women in Tajikistan in order to achieve a democratic state. 
The National Democratic Institute originally funded the group, 
bringing together the "larger" political parties and women's 
non-governmental organizations in Tajikistan for a 10-day trip 
to Warsaw to study the role of women in politics in Poland. 
[NOTE:  Women Voters no longer receives NDI funding, but 
continues to receive resources from the National Endowment for 
Democracy (NED), and has received two Democracy Commission 
grants from the Embassy.  NED did not coordinate its funding 
with the Embassy.  END NOTE]  The group has continued to meet, 
conducting monthly roundtables in order to bring "the important 
questions of the day" to light, such as suicide 
(self-immolation), women in prison, polygamy, family planning 
and the new presidential decree banning hijabs and mini-skirts 
in schools.  Akhunova told the Director that the last 
roundtable, on the topic of traditions, was held May 3.  Women 
Voters selected the topic based on President Rahmon's recent 
spate of cultural decrees, including changing his last name from 
the russianized "Rahmonov."  Following every monthly roundtable, 
Women Voters drafts a letter outlining its conclusions and 
recommendations to the relevant government ministry or committee 
which deals with that particular topic. 
 
¶4.  (U)  Akhunova took a fatalistic approach to the 
recommendations that the organization produces after each 
roundtable, repeatedly saying that their influence ends once 
they pass on the document.  The group has achieved some small 
successes.  After the roundtable on women's prisons, the group 
heard from an Uzbek woman imprisoned in Tajikistan and 
successfully advocated for her transfer to Uzbekistan, where her 
family would be able to visit.  Another particularly moving 
example for the women present came after the roundtable on 
polygamy.  Women Voters had discussed the lack of legal rights 
for second and third wives in Tajikistan, and afterward learned 
of a woman, a second wife, whose child had been abducted by her 
husband and sold.  After an involved legal battle, the 
organization succeeded in securing the return of the child. 
Akhunova used these examples to point out once again that all of 
the themes of their roundtables come from "real life" and that 
they see the work of their organization as a small step towards 
democracy. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Of the eight currently active parties, only the PDPT, 
IRPT and the Democratic Party of Tajikistan are represented at 
the Women Voters roundtables.  When asked why this was, Akhunova 
told Spratlen that at the time Women Voters was formed, only 
five parties existed.  All five of those parties were invited to 
join, and at the time four did.  She further defended the 
organization's composition by saying that two of the three 
parties represented in Parliament actively participate (the NDP 
and IRPT; the Communists are missing), and that two relatively 
new parties, the Agrarian and Economic Development Parties, 
hardly participate in political life regardless.  Akhunova 
stressed that they continually invite women from unrepresented 
 
DUSHANBE 00000743  002 OF 002 
 
 
parties to participate, but have not yet had any takers. 
 
¶6.  (U)  PolOff's question regarding the governmental Committee 
on Women and the Family and its impact was met by a few seconds 
of uncomfortable silence as the NGO members looked at each other 
and Shokirova, who works for the Committee.  Shokirova defended 
the Committee, responding to group members' assertions that the 
Committee is just an arm of the government which does what it is 
told.  Other members rushed to her side, saying that the 
Committee has provided grants to organizations advocating for 
women's rights and that more than anything else, the personality 
of the chairperson of the Committee determines its relative 
success or failure. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Post will continue to report on 
non-governmental organizations' activism in the area of human 
rights, but notes that this particular organization - Women 
Voters - has yet to prove itself an effective champion of 
women's rights.  The members of the roundtable provided some 
insight on the role of women in Tajik society.  All of these 
women noted that while they are leaders in their respective 
parties or organizations, at the end of the day they return to a 
home life where traditional gender roles remain deeply 
ingrained.  Akhunova has previously told PolOff that she would 
prefer not to expand the working group to include additional 
political parties.  She has also described the financing of 
Women Voters.  Speakers at each roundtable receive honorariums 
of $50, and the bulk of their financing pays for hall rental and 
coffee breaks for 80-plus people.  Akhunova has also admitted to 
paying reporters to attend the roundtables for fear that the 
event would not otherwise receive attention.  Paying its own 
members to participate in an event they themselves are 
organizing, paying for media coverage, and consciously excluding 
certain parties raise grave concerns about the legitimacy of 
this self-described political discussion group.  END COMMENT. 
JACOBSON