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Cardinal changes in the society took place owing the parties and just they are the carriers of the new political power.
If to speak about the peculiarities of the Kyrgyz political parties then they are characterized with confusing position, program vagueness, the methods made at large to realize assigned tasks and the lack of the concrete social base. What is the reason of the party underdevelopment in Kyrgyzstan? The problem is that our society has no experience in plurality. Besides, Kyrgyzstan is preferably agrarian country; two-thirds of its population lives in the countryside but a political movement is intensely in progress in the countries with the developed industry and a large number of the citizens. It's known that the mentality of the farmers is in that they aren't politicized to a great extent. There isn't also a middle class. According to the international experts about 60% of our population is below the poverty line. One should also state that the country is uncultured politically because democracy isn't only a form of government - it's, first of all, a style of life. The plurality can't be mature without the mature political culture.
"Istoricheskoe prostranstvo", M., 2009, N1, p. 201-205.
Khalimakhon Khushkadamova, cand. of sciences (sociology) FAMILY AND MARITAL RELATIONS IN THE POST-SOVIET TAJIKISTAN
The family structure has undergone both quantitative and qualitative changes during the period of the Tajik society transformation. A large broadened family, i.e. a family including more than two generations traditionally predominated in Tajikistan. The soviet state pursuing a policy to improve women's position followed a view of a woman as a worker and a mother. The concrete conditions
were created to combine these roles: there were the nursery schools, holidays were paid out and etc. The Tajik women made considerable progress in the different spheres of the public life. In the public health the women accounted for 83,7% of all the workers, in offices of culture - 56,8%, in the system of education - 50%. In 1991 the women accounted for about 40% of the working force.
This model fell to the ground after 90-s. On the one hand, the reason was a migration "village-town". The official statistics indicated that from 1990 to 1997-ss the incomers in the towns exceeded the number of those having left but one could observe quite the different trend in the countryside. On the other hand, economic crisis and difficulties of the transit period bring to that the traditionally large families including several generations break up. Nuclear families are formed of two generations. Besides, chaos period, control relaxing from the party of the corresponding state structures, religious-cultural order revival were the reason to form some freedom of views for marital relations and the family. More than 60% of the families in Tajikistan are created without a registration in the registry office. The weddings are celebrated as usual, the families are created but without legal execution in the registry office. A marriage is canonized according to the norms of the Moslem law - sheriat. In Unlike "civil marriage" in Russia and in Europe where it has a legal status it's illegal in Tajikistan.
During the soviet period the marriage in Tajikistan was also entered into according to a religious custom "nikokh" but without a document confirming a registration of the marriage in the registry office it was prohibited to officiate. According to experts the patriarchal structure and family and marital relations weren't broken in Tajikistan in spite of the women participation in the paid work, policy of destroying a religious custom and emancipation of women. At present a
percentage of religious marriages without a registration in the registry office are high enough.
The tradition of the early marriage is revived in the republic; such marriages are traditionally canonized only according to the custom "nikokh". The girls under age from the large family are married and a pride price is supposed for them. This form of ransom occurred during the soviet period but it was automatically considered as a feudal lordbai survivals. It was openly published only in 1986 during the period of democratization and glasnost. And the scientists addressing the family and marital issues are to take it into account. According to experts poverty is the reason of this social and living phenomenon revival in the modern Tajik society. The parents themselves choose a husband for daughters in order to improve economic conditions and set the other children to their feet. According to data UNIFEM, in 2006, approximately 5% of the married women are without their consent but the parents chose a husband for their daughter in 65%.
In 90-s one raised a problem in the parliament of Tajikistan to permit plural marriage officially. In Russia this problem was also discussed because plural marriage is practically legalized in some regions of the Northern Caucasus. T. Tajuddin and R. Kadyrov also suggested legalizing plural marriage in Russia.
One of the reasons on this problem is women's dependence on men. The results of two public inquiries in the different districts of the country in 200 and 2001 confirm it. For the question: "Is economic dependence of the women the main reason for plural marriage distribution in the country?" (2000) answered positively 44,9% but in a year - 63,9%.
The marital relations in the republic are regulated by its Constitution, the family, criminal and civil codes of the Republic Tajikistan. Only marriage causes the rights and duties of the married
couple registered in the registry office. The Article 170 of the criminal code of the Republic Tajikistan prohibited plural marriage being determined as "living together" with two or several women keeping house with them". One is punished by paying a fine up to 2000 of minimal salaries or correctional works up to two years or limitation of freedom up to five years or arrest from 3-6 months if to break the article. In cases of plural marriage the wives hav e no reason to go to arbitration as the court can't solve the problem on economic responsibility and duties of the parties because such family relations aren't legally confirmed. In 2002 criminal proceedings were instituted against 30 persons for plural marriage but in 2003 - 567. According to experts one of the reasons is labor migration of men, especially the young ones. Annually more than 700 thousands labor migrants come only in Moscow and mainly they are of marriage age. One can observe obvious unbalance in the society: women are more than men.
Plural marriage distribution in Tajikistan is associated with the civil war consequences. During the period 1991-1992 more than 24 thousands women became widows. There are many widows with children without bread and butter after the civil confrontation in Tajikistan during 1992-1997. During this period the parents married off the girls under age of 13-15 years in order to save the family honor. After the war many young men of a marriage age went off the republic in search of a living. At present according to unofficial data about one million of the citizens of Tajikistan went off in search of living and they are mainly the men.
The Tajik expert of the second wives problem M. Khegai divided conventionally such women into two groups. The first group is mainly the village women or town women having a low level of education, without own income divorced with the first husband or are widows,
sometimes with the children of the first marriage. Only neighbors and the relatives know who has several wives.
The second group of the second wives is the town women with a high level of education, divorced widows or sometimes the women who have never been married. Usually they are the second wives in order to become a mother or just love a married man. These relations differ from the first ones that the relatives don't know about it and as a rule they are unfamiliar with the first wives. There are many prejudices relatively polygamy in Islam. Islam admitting a limited polygamy doesn't encourage it. According to experts the second marriages are a mystery for the first wives in many cases. The first wives learned about the second ones occasionally sometimes many years ago. All the requested women answered that the wife must be only one. The men having had the experience of polygamous family relations also considered that it's better to have one wife because it's difficult to support everybody and the wives always had scandals. There existed such situation in the Tajik society that a religion, in the given case Islam serves for the men as a cover of their manipulations over the women.
During the soviet period in Tajikistan only 0,5% of the men and 0,8% of the women at the age of 50 years have never been married, i.e. mainly the men could have no family in the European part of the country being once the united country but in the eastern and the southern parts of the country including Tajikistan - the women. According to experts the reason is one - only a man has a traditional right for a choice. Besides, some educated girls had no family in some regions of the republic because one preferred uneducated or undereducated girls. The educated girls seek to exercise their right for a choice: have love-match or have no family choosing a carrier. In the countryside and the monogamous families are formed without a
registration in the registry offices. "Nikokh" is a confirmation of the family status of such families for the community and it's enough to pronounce a word "talok" three times for a divorce. This word means a divorce according to the Moslem tradition. A migrant goes off in search of a living in Russia where he meets somebody and is getting his divorce with a wife by a phone. In spite of the fact that our state is secular many men use the religious laws. It's a serious problem now. A woman can't continue living in the husband's family and she must leave his home practically empty-handy because all the property is registered for the husband's parents.
There were also ideas on age for the girl marriage increasing. According to the Family code the marriage is permitted from seventeen years. But according to experts there are cases of the early married life girls of 13-14 years old especially in the countryside.
In Tajikistan strengthening of patriarchal and modernization trends influence on mutual relations of the sexes in the family and in everyday life. The men continue to be considered by the Tajik society as "breadwinners", however, there are families where the wife's income (24%) are mainly the same with the comparison with the husband's income but 19% have even more. In the most poor and underprovided families a woman has economic power in contrast to well-to-do households. She finds means to support a revenue-short family. In a word, non-traditional forms of family and everyday life emerge in the Tajik society. Some women in spite of the everyday life complexity managed to get used to circumstances and difficulties and began playing a considerable role in socio-economic sphere.
"Sotsiologiya vlasti", M, 2010, N 3, p. 74-88.
