The audience watches attentively during an ABA ROLI-sponsored play aimed at promoting women's rights in Tajikistan.
ABA ROLI-Sponsored Play Highlights Women’s Rights
March 2010
On March 4, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) presented a theatrical performance highlighting women’s rights at the Indian Cultural Center in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. About 200 people—including Tajik government officials, representatives of diplomatic missions and leaders of local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—attended the event, which is part of a U.S. Department of State-supported program on gender equality. The show, Three Stories, emphasizes issues affecting rural Tajik women. The first scene focuses on women’s right to education. The second scene shows the consequences of being in an unregistered marriage, and the third illustrates how mothers can get child support payments from their children’s fathers.
Prior to the performance, Amar Sinha, the Indian ambassador to Tajikistan, and Necia Quast, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, spoke about the importance of the fight for gender equality.
ABA ROLI’s gender equality program helps provide rural Tajik women with legal services, both consultations and representation, through its partnerships with local legal NGOs. It also aims to raise awareness among women and the local attorneys who represent them through trainings, public service announcements and other resources on the legal system.
To complement its public outreach efforts, ABA ROLI enlisted a well-known Dushanbe drama and dancing troupe, Theatre Padida, to do the show. To educate women and girls about their rights and about making the legal system work for them without being overly didactic, the play includes Tajik dance interludes between scenes. More than 600 people have seen the play in the three districts, or rayons, the gender equality program targets. The Dushanbe event allowed government officials and international community representatives to see the show, several of whom have since expressed interest in sponsoring future performances.
To learn more about our work in Tajikistan, contact the ABA Rule of Law Initiative at <rol@staff.abanet.org>.
