Turkmenistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Myahri Byashimova met with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Gender Advisor Leyla Sharafi in Ashgabat.
"Turkmenistan’s commitment to its obligations under the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women of 1996 and its Optional Protocol of 2009 was stated," the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
The parties emphasized that Turkmenistan is pursuing an active gender policy aimed at strengthening the principles of equal participation of women in all spheres of social and political life.
Earlier, Byashimova noted that she highly appreciates the UNFPA's work in helping to prepare a national sample survey on women's health and family status in Turkmenistan. The survey was conducted in the country for the first time. About 3,000 women were interviewed in Ashgabat and in five regions of the country.
The results showed that 41.1% of the respondents at least once in their lives encountered one type of controlling behavior from their husbands/partners.
The survey showed that a common form of control is a ban on working or studying outside the home. Every fifth woman (20.7%) among the survey participants experienced a situation where her husband or partner forbade her to work or study if this meant she was outside the home.
At the same time, restriction on a woman leaving the house, and her access to public space, is the most common form of control. It was experienced by 22.1% of the respondents.
"This prohibition not only makes a woman more dependent and, consequently, more vulnerable to violence, but also significantly limits her ability to seek help and protection from the actions of an aggressor." Every eighth woman in Turkmenistan, married or in a relationship, has experienced domestic violence.
Eziz Boyarov
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