From labor migration to starting her own private company: how a 30-year-old Mavzuna broke stereotypes and became a famous car mechanic.
It is difficult for women in Tajikistan to break gender stereotypes and earn on a par with men. The more valuable is the experience and aspiration of those of them who are not afraid to challenge the patriarchal society and, overcoming stereotypes, establish themselves in non-traditional professions for women.
Tajikistan is considered a country with a high level of poverty due to the fact that not only women but also men find it difficult to find work in the country. According to the World Bank, because of this, every fourth citizen of the country goes to work in labor migration, mainly to Russia.
According to the World Bank’s Gender Development Index, women in Tajikistan are more likely to be unemployed than men – 69 percent of working-age women are unemployed compared to 49 percent of men.
Mavzuna Sanginova spent eight years of her life in labor migration in Russia. There she worked as a laborer, doing hard work on construction sites along with men. But after returning home, she decided to learn a “man’s” profession, bringing daily income to her family.
Today Mavzuna is known as Usto (master) Mavzuna in Khujand, the center of Tajikistan’s northern province of Sughd, and beyond. The drivers, her clients, whom she has been fixing cars for a year have given her this name. She works as a car mechanic, a profession most often attributed to men in Tajik society.
For Mavzuna, 30, locksmithing is not just a hobby but a necessity in life. She was 18 when she married. From the first days of married life, she and her husband lived in a rented apartment, and in Tajikistan, everyone wants to have their own place. There was not enough money, so she and her husband had to go to work in Russia, in labor migration.
She says that in labor migration, too, she was mostly engaged in “male” occupations.
“For 8 years of working and living in labor migration I got used to all kinds of work. It was mainly day labor. I worked with our migrants on construction sites, dug trenches for drinking water. Wherever I was, I earned my bread by honest work. But life in migration is hard. I made a decision – though I will work day jobs, I will live – in my home country”, – says Mavzuna.
By the time she returned to Khujand in 2020, Mavzuna already had two young children. That’s when she decided that in order to realize her childhood dreams, she needed to get a specialty.
When she came to apply to Vocational School No. 44 in Khujand, she was offered courses in sewing and design. But she dreamed of becoming a car mechanic. Her father, who had worked as a car mechanic all his life, was an example to her. When Mawzuna was young, she loved to watch her father work. It was at that time that she had a desire to learn her father’s trade.
A young woman was in a group with 29 young men. This was the first time in the history of the college. According to Mavzuna, no one believed she would stay true to her chosen profession. But after a year of apprenticeship training, Mavzuna’s male classmates were now learning the finer points of the craft.
“When I started studying, the children were young. Besides, it so happened that all the provision for the family lay on my shoulders. There was no work, no income either. But I set a goal for myself to become an entrepreneur, to find a decent place in life. In the morning I went to school, and after class I cleaned people’s houses and got paid for it. That’s how I graduated,” Mavzuna told CABAR. asia.
“I kept thinking I had to get a job before I graduated from college. But not every craftsman would trust a woman to give her a place in his workshop. With the support of my professors, I wrote a project and submitted it for a presidential grant. Fortunately, the committee accepted my project. I got a grant of 40,000 somoni (about $4,000) to buy modern equipment and set up a workshop. June 6, 2022, was my first day of work in this workshop,” she says.
Every year, the country holds a competition for presidential grants and grants from provincial, city and district leaders for talented women. Gulnora Gadoybekova, chief specialist of the Sughd Oblast Department for Women and Family Work, said that in her practice, many women artisans have submitted their craft development projects to receive such grants. Among them were women engaged in blacksmithing, copper embossing, engraving and painting. However, in the history of the competition, only Mavzuna Sanginova submitted a locksmithing and machine shop project for this grant.
“Today she is an example for many women and girls in Sughd province. Because regardless of various life problems and stereotypes in traditional Tajik society, she realized her dream and got what she wanted,” Gadoybekova said.
Mavzuna’s workshop is located in a row of workshops where only men work.
“On the first day of work, three men brought in their cars and looked at me with suspicion and mistrust. But when I repaired their cars well, they all became my regular customers,” says Mavzuna.
By now, Mavzuna has built up her own customer base, and her reputation as a good mechanic has spread beyond Khudzhand. Male drivers treat the woman’s master with respect.
One of them is Bakhodur Pulotov, a cab driver with 20 years of experience. Eight months ago, on the recommendation of his friends, he turned to Mavzuna to repair his car’s engine. According to him, responsibility, conscientiousness and quality performance of repairs made him a regular customer of Usto Mazuna.
“There are craftsmen to whom you take your car for repair, but they fix it so badly that you have to take the car back to the repair shop two days later. But Mavzuna, despite the fact that a locksmith is a man’s profession, is dedicated to his job. The quality of her work is the best, I fully trust her work,” Pulotov says.
The men’s colleagues recognize Mavzuna as a skilled craftsman and respect her for her professionalism. One of them, Amir Atohujaev, 35, said during the conversation that Mavzuna has talent from God.
“She repairs cars with great skill and enthusiasm. And she is not afraid of hard work. She is devoted to her profession. Not every woman chooses this profession and remains steadfast in her choice,” he said.
Currently, Mavzuna’s clients come to her workshop from all cities in Sughd Province, even from Dushanbe.
In just one year of activity in her workshop, Mavzuna has already taught the profession to seven young men, who have continued this work in labor migration. Currently, three girls have signed up to learn the nuances of motor mechanics as apprentices at Mavzuna.
In the future, usto Mazuna plans to expand her workshop and train other women and girls in her profession. She dreams of setting up a large workshop where only women would repair cars and make a living at it.