Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
On a dusty road in northern Tajikistan is a new breed of rural activist.
Thirty one year old Gulbahor Rajabova is on the front lines of a country-wide effort:
helping people here mostly women, create their own farms and take better control of their
lives.
The land is the only source of income for women here. Their husbands are away working
in Russia, and women need to be able to start their own farms to better support their families.
Here, the government owns the land and determines who gets to use it. Gulbahor is not a lawyer.
But she knows the law. She learned it the hard way.
Four years ago, an influential businessman took half her farmland. Gulbahor responded
with the unthinkable she took him to court. All the way to the Supreme Court. And she
won, thanks to legal support made possible by USAID, the US Agency for International
Development.
This Tajikistan Land Reform Project reaches out to farmers through television, and radio,
and a monthly newspaper; teaching them about their rights and defending those rights in
court.
The project helps farmers to know more about law and not be afraid. And to go to the court
to protect their interest according to the law.
It worked so well for Gulbahor that she joined the project, determined to use what she learned
to help others.
I can’t sit around and watch women being disrespected and mistreated because they don’t
know their legal rights because they are afraid to fight. I want to support them and help
them to get what they deserve.
Gulbahor’s message to farmers is direct. You are not alone any more. You have allies
who will be with you through it all. And one by one, they come to her tiny office, with
questions. What are the all legal documents needed to create a farm?
What power does the local land committee have? How do you calculate land use taxes?
Gulbahor guides each on what to do, and brings in project lawyers when necessary.
She’s relentless. She’s fighting until the end and always in the practice I notice
with Gulbahor gets very good results.
In all, this USAID Land Reform Project has trained more than thirty four thousand farmers
throughout Tajikistan on their legal rights.
For Gulbahor, this effort is a source of immense pride, and a powerful lesson to her two daughters.
I want to show them through this experience and this project that they have nothing to
fear. That they can achieve their goals if they don’t give up, that in life it is important
to fight for what is right.