To spotlight the much needed empowerment of women that The International Women's Day has triggered,I would like to share an article with you. Those of you who are familiar with the hell the experience I have gone through in my recent trip back to Uzbekistan, will not be shocked by the article below. However if you have not read my "I swear off prostitution" plea, please feel free to read it here. Although I have signed the below mentioned documents, at the point my feelings were those of urgency and I wanted nothing more than to get out of Uzbekistan and come back home to Oman. I was ready to sign any paper they put in front of me out of sheer desperation. Did I feel offended that I was forced to even commit to such claims on paper? I definetly did. Now that I read the fine print, I am furious and embarrased over these measures- surely there must be laws and ethics that are being violated here? Lo and behold the brillant measures Uzbekistan is currently taking to minimize prostitution. Apprarently "pinky promise" pretty much convinces the authorities!
Exports of prostitution from Uzbekistan, apparently got such momentum that the local authorities began to require all women aged 18-35 years intending to travel to countries with which the republic has set a visa regime, to give a written undertaking not to engage in prostitution abroad, and do not sell yourself into slavery. Told Fergana became known discouraged attendees from Tashkent OVIRov (service entry and exit, and registration of citizenship - VViOG, former visa department - a department of origin and registration. - Comm. Aut.).
Wanting to find out exactly how the document by the representative of authority, requiring such commitments, the conditions under which Uzbek women are now allowed to leave the sunny republic and that it is necessary to provide for permission to travel abroad, I appealed to the OVIR Yakkasaray district of Tashkent city, and visited the same regional division, where to go citizens of Uzbekistan who have permanent residence in the regions. I was told that for women was the main is a special letter from her attorney, Kojima may be made by her husband or parents, who said that commit themselves to take and bring the citizen at home, and are also responsible for the appropriateness of its behavior for abroad.
"If a woman has no special invitation from relatives and friends of the country where it is going, and generally there are no invitations - for example, from a place of work, study, and so on - then it must be accompanied by a person. But all this is done formally, she did not have anybody pay for travel and forced to carry with them, they just take responsibility for it ", - explained the employee of the regional OVIR. - "Men and boys are not concerned, this measure only applies to women and girls and is associated with the fight against human trafficking and prostitution" - she added.
In the Local Police Department on a bulletin board where various pieces of legislation are posted, the corresponding decision or order is not, however, all preparing to exit the citizens were aware of this additional measure, introduced in early 2011. On my request to show the demanding obligations of the guarantors document service employee entry and exit have reacted very nervously, saying the order had been lowered from above, its author is unknown to them, and brought to their attention only verbal instructions manual. Perhaps, they suggest, the author is head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, since the document refers to the fight against prostitution.
Sneak employees OVIR understandable: such legislation if it really exists, violates the 28 th article of the Constitution of Uzbekistan, which provides citizens the right to freely enter and exit from the country, that is - does not depend on instructions and orders of any state official.
Meanwhile, it emerged that such a rigid requirement applies, for the most part, women who are not registered in the capital, and in the region. Apparently, the capital of girls and women trust more - are not required to give bail, it is enough to write the most commitment to the following lines: "I, Name, Citizen of Uzbekistan, 19 .. year of birth, apprised of the situation by selling people into slavery and prostitution. Leaving the limits of their state, I undertake not to engage in prostitution, not to sell people and themselves into slavery. "
"Cloudy decree! Did he somehow stop these people? That prostitutes come to its senses and stop selling your body? Such measures need to be addressed differently: to publish articles in the media, conduct interviews in schools, after all, employ women. What do you think they are of a good life to work as prostitutes go? "- Commented on the situation one of the visitors OVIR.
Among the pending passport with stickers permissive entry, allowing for two years to go abroad, I met a few athletes, fighters. They said that faced with a similar ban for several years: "A couple of years ago our female coaches to fight in Thailand in the competition went to work as Visa and Registration Department did not issue them visas. The reason is not officially explained, but hinted that Thailand - the country with the development of sex tourism, and, supposedly, no one is sure whether they go there with good intentions or plan to make money with your body ".
One of our interviewees - a student of the Tashkent University - said in January this year, tried to leave for Dubai on a tourist visa, but could not get permission to travel. "Too faced with these problems. Filed an application, but a refusal. It was necessary to an invitation from relatives or friends. I had to do so. They say that in Muslim countries is off limits: go out of our country, they say, go only to the young prostitutes, and canoes, filling your luggage TVs, computers and other technology "- shared the girl.
With regard to the penalties that will apply to these imaginary or "guide" in the case of foreign Fall women - they are still not reported. Probably, "guarantors, the accompanying" better just to pretend that they know nothing, though, because otherwise they themselves could be accused of pimping or involvement in the sale of sexual slavery.
Number of people going abroad of citizens of Uzbekistan as guest workers is growing every year. It has already become a tradition in which young people who have reached the legal age, go to work in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and other countries where heavy physical labor demand and, by Uzbek standards, well paid. Hopelessness break morale, and the women in the absence of social protection often go to great lengths to feed themselves and their families, some deliberately go to work in the country with a developed sex industry. Those of young women who decide alone or with a girlfriend to go there to relax and see the beauty from thence, upon returning home at risk of being maintainability oblique views and gossip.
The fact that prostitution among people in Uzbekistan in recent years has received an unprecedented scale, suggests carefully skryvaemayakriminalnaya statistics according to which the article for "pimping and brothel organization" (Article 131 of the Penal Code) in 2007 there were 1.202 cases of convictions, and in 2008 -m - 1.316, an increase of 9.5 percent. Is convicted under this heading is many times greater than, for example, for: "Forcing a woman to marry or obstruction of marriage" (Article 136) - 37 cases in 2007, 41 in 2008, " Rape (st.118) - 321 and 365, "sexual intercourse with a person under 16 years" (Article 128) - 197 and 214, respectively.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Staff members of airports in Uzbekistan regularly catch the young women who are serving alone or in little groups in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. This is confirmed by our interviewee from Yakasarayskogo OVIR: "We have a police department on the first floor, often whole colonies of girls are brought straight from the airport. Track there somehow, catch, but whether this method of struggle - it is difficult to judge. "
I should add that, according to Central Bank of Russia, in 2010 in Uzbekistan only from the Russian Federation was transferred 993 million dollars, in 2009 it amounted to 669 million. Obviously, the country's economy largely rests on the money sent by Uzbek migrant workers. What part of them earn decently, but some - no, we can only guess
I would just like to add:
No comments:
Post a Comment