DUSHANBE, November 14, 2014, Asia-Plus — The Committee on Family and Women’s Affairs (Committee) under the Government of Tajikistan argues that prostitution is a growing problem.
Ms. Mahbouba Azimova, Representative of the Committee at the Government, notes that the number of female commercial sex workers has increased in Tajikistan in recent years.
“According to the statistical data from the Ministry of Interior, the current number of female commercial sex workers in the country is 2,500, including 1,300 women aged 18 to 30, more than 1,170 women over the age of 30 and 30 underage girls,” Ms. Azimova told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to her, some of women involved in prostitution are the abandoned wives of labor migrants. She noted that early marriage and subsequent divorces are also factors in the rise of prostitution in Tajikistan.
“I consider that Tajik men must give up immoral acts and stop using female commercial sex workers’ services,” Azimova noted.
She further added that the Committee over the last several months has carried out actions on propagation of struggle against immoral crimes.
Azimova says the Committee helps female sex workers find jobs. “A working group has been set up that is conducting training seminars for women both in Dushanbe and other regions of the country. The government has established free courses on dress making, needlework, and cookery especially for them,” she noted.
We will recall that Interior Ministry launched the operation in early June this year after Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda publicly expressed concern about the growth of “immoral crimes” in the country, including prostitution. Rahimzoda noted on June 5 that names, photo and fingerprints of those are detained for immoral crimes or venereal diseases will be entered to a special electronic database.
In a statement released on June 12, the Interior Ministry noted that sex workers who were detained in the operation had to undergo tests; the results reportedly showed that 450 out of 505 detainees were carrying some sort of sexually transmitted disease (STD). Several dozen were fined.
