Spousal support crisis in Tajikistan: fathers refuse to provide for their children

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Out of the 95 thousand spousal support payers in Tajikistan, only one thousand officially have arrears in payments. However, experts say the authorities are downplaying the statistics, and in fact, about 90 percent of those payers in Tajikistan don’t fulfill their obligations to support their children.

Gulizor (name has been changed) from Sarband in the Khatlon region, got married at 19. She graduated from school not much earlier before, and her husband is 9 years older than her and had been married before. He never officially divorced his first wife, so they had a religious marriage ceremony with Gulizor. She says that from the first days they started living together, her husband began to go to Russia for labor migration and came home only once a year.

Nine years later they had their first child. And after the second one was born, her husband started a relationship with another woman in Russia. None of the children have birth certificates. It is difficult and expensive to obtain any documents in Tajikistan, especially in rural areas. It is also impossible to conduct a paternity acknowledgment procedure in the physical absence of the husband.

They got divorced a year ago, and the 33-year-old Gulizor returned to her parents with her two children. She has received neither specialized secondary education nor a profession. Currently, she works as a waitress in a canteen where her daily wage is only 30 somoni, or 3 US dollars.

After the divorce, Gulizor’s ex-husband stopped helping to support the children and she turned to law enforcement agencies for help. She also applied to the court for the debt recovery of spousal support or allowance from her ex-husband two months ago.

“We haven’t registered the marriage officially, the children don’t have birth certificates, and my husband had gone away to earn money. I have no idea when I will get the support for my children”, Gulizor has complained.

9 out of 10 don’t pay spousal support

The data provided by the Committee on Women and Family Affairs shows that about 13 thousand families break up each year in Tajikistan. More often than not, caring for children after a divorce becomes the woman’s sole responsibility.

On average, people in Tajikistan get married when they’re 21-22 years old. Most of the girls don’t obtain higher or specialized secondary education, so they lose economic support after a divorce and in many cases even a roof over their heads, since there’s a high chance the husband’s family will evict them from the house, while their own parents won’t welcome them back. Without having a degree, women take up low-skilled, but also low-wage jobs.

According to information from the Enforcement Service, as of today, there are almost 95 thousand court decisions on spousal support payments to minor children in the hands of court officials. And only a thousand of those who don’t pay spousal support, according to data for 2022. Criminal cases were initiated against 538 of them, while 398 people have been declared wanted. However, there are actually many more of those who don’t make payments for their children, according to Shokhsanam Karaboeva, an expert on social issues and an employee of Ghamkhori, an NGO that works with women who have been subjected to violence.

“Based on my experience and the experience of my clients, I can say that in 90 cases out of 100 women don’t get paid spousal support. However, the statistics of those who do not pay child support are usually understated for a number of reasons. For example, it has been said that when fathers don’t pay spousal support, it indicates that city and district bailiffs don’t work well,” Karaboeva added.

On top of that, the levels of legal literacy in the country are low and many women simply don’t even know how to apply for spousal support allocation. Others don’t want to deal with bureaucratic paperwork or the fact that criminal cases against their ex-husbands would be opened, so they prefer not to go to court.

Even if the court does decide in favor of receiving spousal support, it doesn’t guarantee that the women will receive them. It is often the case that the husband is away on labor migration, which makes receiving financial support very hard.

Forcing a father to pay is something the court also can’t do since it only believes the official income statements, not wanting to hear from the witnesses or believe the statements regarding the father’s property.

The Criminal Code of Tajikistan has a separate article № 177 for deliberate refusal to provide for one’s children. According to this article, those who don’t pay spousal support risk facing imprisonment for a period from six months to two years, undergoing correctional labor, or paying a fine of 6,400 somoni, or about 600 US dollars.

Last year 31 fathers who refused to pay spousal support in the cities and districts of the Khatlon province were sent to prison. A total of 100 fathers were also sentenced to forced labor, 76 were sentenced to correctional labor, and another 15 were fined.

“If they willfully fail to pay spousal support, they will be fined, but they will not be exempt from paying said support. They’ll have to pay the money anyway. Those sentenced to forced labor or imprisonment must pay the accumulated sum after they’ve been released,” Islomiddin Kholzoda, a court official in the Khatlon province, said in a press conference in early February.

The court is not a panacea

Making fathers provide for their children on equal terms as their mothers or bringing them to justice is not an easy task. Seven years ago, Nodira, a resident of the Kushoniyon District, obtained a court verdict requiring her ex-husband to pay support for the three children they had together.

“I have appealed to law enforcement agencies to get him to care for the children many times. But all appeals were unsuccessful, seeing as the children’s father has no fixed place of residence, and they simply can’t find him,” says Nodira.

For the first few months, he was sending her 100 somoni (about 10 US dollars) for each child, but then said he was unemployed and stopped paying altogether. In 2021, she appealed to court again and her ex-husband was arrested for six months. But after he got out of jail, he still hasn’t started paying spousal support.

Nodira is renting an apartment in Bokhtar now, as well as working as a waitress in a nightclub, and having a part-time job as a cleaner in a public restroom.

Before 2010, the minimum alimony amount was 60 somoni (about 6 US dollars) per month, but over the past two years, the amount has increased to 200-250 somoni (about 20-25 US dollars), according to Safarzoda Abdurahim, head of the Khatlon region Execution Service.

“It depends on the income of the payer. Recipients of spousal support can send the application asking to increase it or, in turn, spousal support payers can ask to reduce it,” Safarzoda added.

Under Tajik law, men who have a permanent job are required to pay 25 percent of their salary to support their child.

In Tajikistan, obtaining spousal support is a serious problem for women who are left with one or more children after a divorce. Bibirokiya Abdulloeva, a family issues expert from Bokhtar, says that in most cases men do not take responsibility for being a father after divorce:

“Some men who divorce their wives completely forget their responsibilities towards their children. They ignore that they have to help the child who has been left with the mother by the rule of the law,” Abdulloeva added.

She also said that children in the custody of a parent who has a right to spousal support usually have hard lives and are vulnerable in terms of their development.

How do you apply for spousal support?

 Fathiddin Pirov, a lawyer from the Ghamkhori NGO, explained the procedures for collecting the support: