Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that Tajik lawmakers think they may have found answer to destitute divorcees — making prenuptial agreements mandatory and legally binding for marrying couples.
The proposed change was reportedly sent to parliament in November as an amendment to Tajikistan's family law and the bill is widely expected to pass.
Tajik authorities say the bill — initiated by the state women's committee — is designed to ensure women's financial well-being after divorce. But officials also insist that men's rights will be protected, too.
The state statistics committee has reported that some 9,000 divorce cases were recorded in 2016, a 4.4 percent increase over 2015. And as the number of women divorcees has risen, so have concerns that they and their children are being left without shelter and income.
Young married couples in Tajikistan often live with the husband's family, or, if the family is particularly well-off, in a separate home provided by the husband's parents and registered in the husband's name.
While family courts commonly order husbands to pay alimony and child support, in reality there is no guarantee that such payments will be made.
Compounding the problem is that many Tajik men work as undocumented migrant labors in Russia and elsewhere abroad, making it difficult for courts to get an accurate assessment of husbands' incomes.
The idea to make prenuptial agreements compulsory was first floated in 2010 as a means of combatting prostitution. It resurfaced in 2015 and gained traction when a 23-year-old woman divorcee was stabbed to death by her former father-in-law following arguments over her living arrangements.
The woman and her two children had reportedly been living in her former husband's family home near the southern city of Kulob because she had nowhere else to go. The former father-in-law was reportedly furious with a family court ruling that said the woman and her children should continue residing in his house.
In 2011, Tajikistan introduced compulsory prenuptial contracts for marriages between Tajik citizens and foreign nationals. “Prenups” for such marriages are drawn up by the authorities and include provisions for children and the Tajik national's living arrangements in the event the couple parts ways.
Prenuptial contracts involving Tajik couples are otherwise extremely rare, with the authorities estimating there have been only three or four such contracts in recent years, all of them initiated by women entering a second marriage. The women reportedly indicated they had faced financial hardship after their first marriages fell apart.
While the idea behind making prenuptial agreements is primarily aimed at protecting women divorcees, potential grooms should not be discouraged by the prospect of having to sign a prenuptial agreement.
The parliament's family-protection committee says it hasn't yet been finalized whether the marriage contracts would be written by officials or by the marrying couples within guidelines set out by the government.
Although no date has yet been set for debate, the legislature is known to approve legislation proposed with government backing.
