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Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan women met to combat loneliness, then tackled government

Zobnina, now a social worker, lives in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan. It is a city that today is booming with the trappings of modern Asian success - glass skyscrapers and motor exhaust fumes. Some residents are cashing in on the oil wealth of a country the size of western Europe, and one that has the highest-known hydrocarbon deposits in the Caspian region of Central Asia. Many aid agencies, however, report a growing gap between rich and poor.

Rise of the civil society

Margarita Zobnina works with self-help groups, the first in Kazakhstan of a chain of what many describe now as "civil society". These associations, says Zobnina, have shown that they are not just places for women seeking company, but that those who belong have the guts to fight for their rights in a region where in a region said to lag behind many countries in respecting women's rights. One group Zobnina works with took on the postal ministry over the exploitation of women employees, and this in a country that some human rights groups say can be authoritarian. The women won.

Self help groups in Kazakhstan empower the women to solve the problems of poverty, inequality and unemploymen they face, after Kazakhstan gained independence from Soviet.

"A friend of mine told me about an NGO (non-governmental organization) for lonely women. In the Soviet days we didn't have NGOs, and some people might shun such a group. But I don't believe there's any shame in being lonely," says 58-year-old Zobnina, a product of the post Second World War baby boom in the Soviet Union.

Kazakhstan is made up of about 54 percent Kazakhs, and has a 30 percent Russian, and Russian-speaking, minority, to which Zobnina belongs.

At the beginning, Zobnina explains, the group for lonely women was called "The voluntary organization of single mothers”. For us who had everything organized for us in Soviet times, such a thing as involvement in a self-help group was a big step into the unknown.

Independence unraveled the safety net

"Our women's association was founded originally in 1993. That was just after Kazakhstan gained its independence. While we were part of the Soviet Union there was a system in place for dealing with many social issues. Also, many women were employed.

"But that had disappeared overnight, and there was nothing to bridge the gap from the old system that people saw taking care of everything they did, to having to do it individually in a market economy," Zobnina told Ecumenical News International. She was attending a conference of self-help group workers in Bishkek, about three hours' drive from Almaty.

"There's a lot of poverty, especially it seems among women," Zobnina explained. "Our organization gets them going with self-help groups, helping them improve their confidence to deal with problems themselves, and to either demand, or lobby the authorities to deal with their problems."

The grouping to which Zobnina's self-help group belongs is called Moldir. The women's groups that make up Moldir are supported by Christian agencies such as the Netherlands-based InterChurch Cooperation Organization (lCCO), DanChurchAid from Denmark, Norwegian Church Aid, and Britain's Christian Aid.

About 47 percent of the 15 million population of the country are Muslims, and about 40 percent are Christians, many of whom come from the 30 percent Russian ethnic minority in Kazakhstan.

Succes for female postal workers

Women at the market. Though the economy in the major cities is booming, this doesn't benefit the majority of Kazakhstani single women, who are hit hard by poverty,

Zobnina recalls with delight how a women's self help group she works with, now called "The Public Union Association of Women" had a big success. In Soviet days female postal employees were given hostel accommodation in post office apartments. After independence, however, they had to begin paying fees for services to post office heads.

"The problem was the women could not afford to pay their employers on the salaries they were receiving," says Zobnina. "We had to take it to the top management and tell them what they were doing was unfair and wrong, and that they would put their own employees out on the streets." Now, the postal workers can afford to live in their accommodation as the rates are in line with their salaries.

Kazakhstan has a constitution that states, "No one shall be subject to any discrimination for reasons of origin, social, property status, occupation, sex, race, nationality, language, attitude towards religion, convictions, place of residence or any other circumstances."

The International Women's Rights Action Watch says that in practice, however, distinctions made on the basis of gender lead to women's greater representation among the unemployed, and thus an increased risk of them living in poverty, and lower representation in high political office. Women also bear the bulk of the burden of household responsibilities. The rights action group also notes that, as in other countries in the region, domestic violence is a major problem in Kazakhstan.

By Peter Kenny