Tajiks attitude towards Russian women. Izvestia: Tajiks change their wives for Russians Tajik wives what they are

Tajik Savsan lives with me in the same house. A woman in her fifties, speaks Russian poorly, wears dressing gowns, prays a lot and chats on the phone. She looks after her grandmother. For work, sort of. Savsan likes to chat. Today I talked about the Tajik custom of having several wives. She herself was the second wife for 26 years, gave birth to four children.

Many men in Tajikistan take second wives. Several conditions are needed. First, the first wife should not object. E If you object, you can hide it. If the wife is from the city, then it will not work, in the city everyone knows everyone, and the village woman to the cityshe won’t go on her own - she’s afraid of her husband. Secondly, it is necessary that parents are not opposed. Everyone knows everything, everyone knows everyone. AT-thirdly, the husband fully provides for the second wife and her children. Buys or rents an apartment, buys bags of food, gives money.

The second wife can be a young girl who has never been married, and even an adult who has children, no one will even say a word. The husband now lives with one wife, then with the second. But the second has more. Savsan's husband lived with her for several months, then he left for the village for a day to visit his first wife. And sometimes Savsan took with him. He said the second wife smelled bad. How is she supposed to smell? In the village, life is simple: look after the cows, take care of the household, bake cakes. If the daughter-in-law lives in her husband's house, all households are on her. She gets up at 5 in the morning and begins to wash, wash, cook, and run the household. It's hard in the countryside. Savsan is urban, it is easier for her. Cakes are sold in the store, hot and cold water flows from the tap, gas is supplied, you can go to work - the husband will not say a word. It is clear who smells what.

I still did not understand which wife to be better: the first or the second. The second one is more jealous. The first one is also jealous, but silently, inheart, and the second boils.

Savsan's husband in the evening will come home later than usual, she will eat quickly, clean up everything and sit in a chair puffed up.

Janym...

Janym...

Hey dude, what is it?

What? Did you have a good walk? Were there many girls?

Ay, janym, well, what kind of walk? Allah sees!

And he doesn't talk to him. And he walks around the apartment and does not know where to put himself. Tired, wants to sleep, but can not. Lie down - everythingwar in the morning. So he walks: either he turns on the TV, then the tape recorder, then he will wash his sticky eyes with cold water. And shespecially does not lie down and does not say anything. It hurts. As soon as he sits down in an armchair, falls asleep, his janim grabs a pillow and goes to sleep in the next room. Husband behind her, put up.

Savsan had 2 admirers: a Tajik and an Uzbek. It seems like he loves one, like the second. Something needs to be decided. Savsan cooked a cauldron of pilaf, brought them together, introduced them. I want, he says, an apartment. And a car. Whoever buys me, I'll stay with. The Tajik says: "There will be a car, but an apartment... I'll try... I'll have to see." Apartments in Dushanbe are expensive, a two-room apartment costs $56,000. "What do you think?" - to the second. "I'll buy an apartment. And I'll buy a car. I'll sell mine, I'll buy you." And bought. Apartment and car. Savsan married an Uzbek, lived in a new apartment, raised four children. She was engaged in business: she sold shoes at the market and sometimes brought various goods from Moscow. Either vodka or something else.

Now Savsan lives two hours by train from Moscow. She divorced her husband a long time ago, got a new admirer here, also a Tajik, works as a security guard in the store. He is jealous of her.

Run the household, - he says, - and look after your grandmother. Here's your business. And don't go outside. Why are you on the street?

Calls Savsan to marry, but she does not go. With a new husband, she would also be a second wife, but there is nothing to take from him. Yes, and Savsan does not need anything: there is an apartment, left from her last husband. And being a daughter-in-law is not an enviable business, and health is no longer the same. No matter how the whole family of the groom persuades her, she does not agree. Why does a free wealthy girl need a husband? No need.

Her husband, a labor migrant working in Russia, recently admitted that without marrying a Russian woman and obtaining citizenship, he would not be able to earn a living and legally reside in a foreign country. “For several years my husband insisted on divorce in order to marry a Russian woman. I didn't agree. But recently he came from Russia practically penniless. He showed the checks, almost half of the money he earned was spent on preparing documents and on a patent, ”says the interlocutor.

According to her, after her husband spoke about all the problems that he had to face in a foreign land, she finally agreed to an official divorce. “Jealousy faded into the background, I felt very sorry for my husband,” Mavlyuda explained her choice. The father of the family has been leaving for work since 2006, and provides for his family and children. But recently it has become difficult for migrants to earn a living, and here the cost of a patent has also increased and migration legislation has been tightened.

Recently, Mavluda's husband left for Russia as a bachelor. A woman hopes for a temporary marriage of her husband. But somewhere in the depths of the heart, no, no, and anxiety will flash, what if the husband does not return to her and the children?

12,000 Tajiks get married in Russia every year

Marriage with Russian women has become commonplace for Tajik migrants, who thus hope to arrange their lives in a foreign land, as well as legalize their stay in Russia.

According to the Office of the Civil Registry Office of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, about 12 thousand citizens of Tajikistan get married in this country every year. However, before entering into a marriage, the Russian authorities require the overseas prince to present a confirming certificate stating that he has no family in his homeland.

This certificate is issued in Tajikistan by the Ministry of Justice. Every Tuesday and Thursday, migrants, their wives, sisters and mothers gather at the department to get such a certificate and take one more step towards obtaining Russian citizenship.

"I didn't get married!"

However, one cannot say that all marriages of Tajiks in Russia are arranged. The majority of Tajik migrants are young people aged 20-28, and there are cases of concluding marital unions out of great love.

Anvar Bakoev, a representative of the Tajik diaspora in Russia, married a Russian girl 14 years ago. “Many people think that Tajiks marry Russian women solely for the sake of citizenship or registration. But it is not always the case! For example, I married my wife out of great love. When I found out that she was carrying my child under her heart, they applied to the registry office. Now we have three children and I am happy,” he says.

Polina, Anvar's wife, said that despite the difference in culture and religion, she and her husband live in mutual understanding and harmony. She appreciates diligence, fidelity and calmness in her husband. As a sign of respect for religion, the couple gave each other volumes of the Koran and the Bible.

Liability for fictitious marriages

Larisa Nikonova, deputy head of the registry office for the Sverdlovsk region, says most Tajiks divorce their Russian wives after receiving Russian citizenship.

According to her, only in the first half of 2017, 38 applications were received from citizens of Tajikistan with a request to dissolve their marriage. Previously, such applications were extremely rare: 1-2 applications in 5 years.

At the end of last year, a deputy of the Kaluga region proposed a bill to the State Duma on toughening liability for fictitious marriages: in the form of fines of 300 thousand rubles or 3 years in prison. But the draft law was not supported, and if a fictitious marriage is revealed, it will simply be annulled.

Thin, small, in ragged pants and dirty feet - not a man, a dream. Moreover, women from different countries - at least two. At 34, he already has a gray head, a bunch of hungry relatives and there is always no money. Another would drink in his place, and the Tajik Nigmatullo asks to call him Sanya and exudes such unshakable confidence in his own irresistibility that you involuntarily cease to be surprised at his male demand both in Tajikistan and in Russia.

“I don’t love my wife, I love Fatima! St. Petersburg is the best city in the world!” - he shouts to the whole yard on the outskirts of Dushanbe. “Yes, yes, she doesn’t like it, everyone knows that,” the neighbor nods, “only every year she gives her a child and goes back to Russia to Fatima.”

There are about a million labor migrants from Tajikistan in Russia. They lay asphalt and tiles, clean streets and entrances, work in supermarkets, build dachas and dig vegetable gardens. Their remittances to their homeland make up 60% of the country's GDP - according to the World Bank, Tajikistan ranks first in the world in terms of the ratio of remittances to GDP. Tajikistan also broke into 1st place in another ranking - in terms of the number of abandoned women. Previously, the “country of abandoned wives” was called Mexico, also famous for its cheap labor force, now it is Tajikistan.

Before the collapse of the Union, the Tajik diaspora in Russia was 32 thousand people, now it is seven times larger and growing by leaps and bounds. Last year, according to official figures, Tajiks played 12,000 weddings with Russians. “Every third Tajik who leaves for work in Russia will never return home,” the IOM (International Organization for Migration) researchers came to this conclusion. 90% of Tajiks settle in Moscow and the region, 5% in St. Petersburg, the rest go to the Volga region and the Far East.

Fatima, beloved woman of the Tajik Sani, is actually called Sveta. She is 29, works as a nurse in a children's hospital, lives in St. Petersburg with her mother. “She helps me in Russian, and I live with her for this,” explains Sanya, “I want a residence permit for Peter, and her mother, Lyuda, is evil, doesn’t want me.” He has been in St. Petersburg for eight years already, living a little less with Fatima-Sveta. Over the years, she converted to Islam and moved to his rented apartment. After work, he cleans up and cooks not only for Sanya, but also for his uncle and brothers - there are eight of them in the "three rubles".

Once a year, Sanya visits Dushanbe, to his legal wife and children - he has four of them, the last one is only a year old. There are no children with Fatima. “Ah-ah, she wants to,” the Tajik rolls his eyes languidly and kisses the photo of his dark-haired lover on the phone. Sooner or later they will get married and have children, Sanya has no doubts, and "evil Luda" will register him in her apartment.

Sanya is a decent man: every month he sends home transfers for 5-7 thousand rubles, calls regularly and, albeit rarely, comes. And he is well, and his wife is happy. Most Tajik women, knowing perfectly well about the second "Russian families", once again seeing off their husbands to work, are waiting with horror for an SMS divorce. “Talaq, talak, talak!” - and everything is free. SMS-divorces swept the country, and politicians were divided into two camps: some demand to recognize such a divorce as legitimate, others - to ban it as disrespect for a woman and Sharia laws: according to the canons, "talaq" must be spoken personally.

Love with a spark

Abandoned women - thousands. Someone from hopelessness and self-doubt becomes suicidal. Someone goes to Russia for her husband or tries to get at least alimony. 28-year-old Latofat from Dushanbe filed a lawsuit against her runaway husband and is now waiting for an absentee decision on alimony. “He left to work 1.5 years ago,” she says. “At first he called, then he was imprisoned in Russia for six months for theft, but a few months ago he disappeared altogether.”

Latofat lived with her mother-in-law - according to the old tradition, a husband always brings his wife to his parents. According to the new tradition, while the husband is at work, a disgruntled mother-in-law can easily kick her daughter-in-law with children out into the street - just call her son and say that she does not like her.

Before the wedding, Latofat did not know her husband - their parents betrothed them. “He turned out to be a drug addict, he beat me constantly, and when he left, his mother-in-law began to beat me,” the woman recalls, lowering her eyes. As a result, she returned to her family with two children. She cannot get a job - she graduated from only four classes of school. “Then the war started, they were shooting day and night, and my parents stopped letting me go outside,” says Latofat. “They reasoned that it would be better for me to be alive than educated but raped or dead.”

“There are thousands of such girls without education in the villages,” says Zibo Sharifova from the League of Women Lawyers of Tajikistan. - They are all disenfranchised slaves of mothers-in-law, they endure as much as they can, and then - into the noose. Recently, the sister of one such suicide turned to us for help. In the morning I got up, milked the cows, cleaned the house, cooked breakfast. And then she went into the barn and hanged herself. Husband in Russia, two children left.

In the north of Tajikistan, a canister of gasoline is used - there are more and more people who want to set themselves on fire to spite their abandoned husband or hated mother-in-law. About 100 such suicides pass through the burn center in Dushanbe a year, half of them are the wives of migrant workers. 21-year-old Gulsifat Sabirova was brought from the village three months ago in a terrible condition - 34% of her body was burned. After six plastic surgeries, she is still scary to look at.

“He tortured me, beat me, and then he said: either you will kill yourself, or I will strangle you,” she barely whispers with burned lips. After another quarrel with her husband, she went to the barn and poured a can of gasoline over her head, and then threw a match.

Husband Gulsifat also worked several times in Russia and by all standards was a prominent groom. Gulya is the youngest of eight children, the most beautiful and modest. He had just returned from another job, when he saw her in the village reading the Koran, he fell in love and sent matchmakers. “Though she will not starve,” said her parents, giving her in marriage. Five days after the wedding, the husband again left for Russia, and Gulya stayed with her mother-in-law. Then he returned, but together they did not live even two months. Already in the hospital it turned out that Gulya was pregnant.

“He really loves her, and when he comes, she becomes so joyful, active,” says Zafira, the head nurse of the department. - For 14 years that I have been working here, for the first time I see that my husband takes care of the patient like that. He is waiting for her from the hospital, making repairs in the room, and her parents - in none. They think he should be jailed."

Nurses, despite her terrible appearance, even envy Gulya: marriage for love, even if it resulted in such a monstrous tragedy, is still a rarity in Tajikistan. Most unions fit into a simple scheme: they got married - children were born - went to Russia - left.

Husbands for hire

The farther from Dushanbe, the more often donkey-mobiles drive towards you instead of cars. The wagons are women and children. The road is in perfect condition - it was built by the Chinese, on credit. Now, to get from Dushanbe to Khujand (former Leninabad), you have to pay - there is simply no free alternative. In the fields with freshly blooming cotton, there are only women.

“Thank you Russia for giving our husbands a job!” - the oldest of all shouts to us. One did not see her husband for five years, the other three, most - at least two. For a month of work under the scorching sun (45 degrees on the thermometer), they will receive a bag of potatoes, onions and carrots. The salary will be enough for exactly two kilograms of meat. But there is still no other work, so everything is in the field.

In kishlaks, which in a modern manner are called jamaats, men have long been out of number. Alovedin Shamsidinov from Jamaat Navgilem 72, sons have long been in Rostov-on-Don, after the death of his wife, daughter-in-law Makhin with children returned back to look after him. In Russia, she lived with her husband for eight years, worked as an operating room nurse in a hospital, then decorated cakes.

“In every way, we tried to get citizenship - no matter what they lie on TV, they don’t give it,” Makhina says, taking a flatbread full of heat from the tandoor. - The only sure way is to marry a Russian, so there are a lot of fictitious marriages. On the other hand, all Tajiks living in Russia have local girlfriends. And many other marriages - Muslim, "nikoh" is called.

Mahina wants to go back to her husband. “I want to leave, I really want to - but my grandfather won’t be!”, and you can’t leave him alone - relatives will peck. And the husband has nothing to do in the village. Navgilem is located 2 km from the city of Isfara, before there were factories - chemical, hydrometallurgical, distillery, and factories - sewing and spinning. And now there are 100 jobs for the entire district. And it’s bad without a husband - and you don’t want your own people to be cursed if they leave their father-in-law.

“We still have wild customs here, no one knows their rights,” Suyasar Vakhoboeva, deputy chairman of the jamaat for women and family affairs, sighs heavily. She is like a justice of the peace - in case of family conflicts, she calls the parties for negotiations and explains that the daughter-in-law is also a person. - No matter how hard the authorities try, girls in the villages are still not allowed to go to school and are married off at the age of 14-15. And then - a vicious circle: he will come for a short time, make her a child - and back to Russia. “Maybe they would let the girls go to school, but often there is not even money to buy a uniform and assemble a satchel,” says Mavlyuda Ibragimova from the association for the protection of the rights of women migrant workers.

"Straw Wives"

“A woman without male affection languishes and becomes like a dried apricot that grows in our garden,” 46-year-old Vasila waves her hand in the direction of a tall tree. Vasila's face is round, smooth, her sides are dense - not like her friend Malohat, from whom her husband left for Russia many years ago, also started a family and has never been in the village since then. “Our neighbor returned from the Hajj, I went to him without asking, for five minutes - and because of this, he divorced me, and was left alone with four children,” Malohat sighs heavily. There are half a village like Malohat, and Vasila is the only one in the whole district.

Vasila from the Chorkuh Jamaat was fed up with the fact that her husband was always at work, and sent crumbs of money, and when he came to visit her, she simply locked him in the house. “He worked in Syzran, in Ivanovo, I tortured him all the time: do you have anyone there? He is not! And then, when I threw a tantrum on him and said that I wouldn’t let him go anyway, his “wife” started calling me and demanding him back, here’s the dog! - Vasila - hands on hips, golden teeth shine in the sun - a fighting woman, with a higher education, a foreman in the field, she bought and drives a "six". She has not let her husband go for three years. “My daughters won’t get enough of dad, I took him to my brigade - well, let him earn almost no money and moan that he wants to go to Russia, but I’m with a peasant.”

Chorkuh rests against the mountains, a muddy ditch runs along the low dusty houses, in which the entire population of Chorkuh, women and children, washes dishes and feet. Elders sit near the ancient mosque - they make sure that the girls, going with buckets to the pump, do not look too much around. One of their words - and if a groom appears in the village, he will never look into her yard.

In the village of Shakhristan, in the north of Tajikistan, morals are not so harsh, and there are even fewer peasants. Here the work is even worse, and the only way to survive is to go to Russia. Mavluda Shkurova wears a dark dressing gown and a white headscarf, she is in mourning - six months ago her husband Rakhmat was hit to death by a minibus. He was 44 and left four children. Three more men returned to Shahristan last year in coffins.

“Rakhmat was standing at a bus stop in Shchekino near Moscow, next to the cold storage facility where he worked and lived,” says his brother Nemat. “Alexander Sukhov knocked him down, he didn’t even give money for a coffin - anyway, he said, they’ll put him in jail.” In the nine years that Rakhmat was in Russia, the old house fell apart completely, and he never made money on the new one. Now his eldest son has gone to work shift - he is not yet 17, he just finished the 9th grade. “The only hope is for him,” Movlyuda almost cries. The second son walks nearby - he is a disabled child. - I called the other day - they worked with the guys at the Armenians in the country, but they were not paid. He was crying out of resentment, I was crying too.”

Khabiba Navruzova, a Russian language teacher, has been living without a husband for six years with five children. The younger son never saw his father. She gave her eldest daughter in marriage - according to all the laws, this should be done by the father. And the mother-in-law herself buried - the husband, although he calls sometimes, says that there is no money to come. Even for funerals.

“Traditions, on the one hand, are still strong, but on the other, they are being desperately violated,” says Zibo Sharifova of the League of Women Lawyers of Tajikistan. “Before, it was impossible to imagine that our parents were abandoned, but now the elderly themselves turn to us for help - to file a lawsuit against their son for alimony in a fixed amount.”

Khabiba, on the other hand, firmly believes that a little more - and her husband who has gone on a spree will return. “I called recently, now he promises in September,” Khabiba convinces us. “He will return, wait until he becomes quite old and useless!” - tease her neighbors. She is not offended - there are "straw wives" in every yard.

Fatima-Sveta from St. Petersburg is preparing for a Muslim wedding - "nikoh" - Sanya-Nigmatullo proposed to her by phone. Soon the “uraza” (post) will end, and he will return to St. Petersburg again. “Tajiks are responsible, they don't leave their own,” Fatima is convinced. She does not worry at all that she will be a “second wife” - the main thing is that she is beloved, she says.

Tajkistan / Society / Seven habits of Tajik wives that any man will like

To be a real oriental woman, it is not enough to be born in this side of the world and have a characteristic appearance; to meet this definition, a woman is supposed to follow strict rules of conduct.

Asia Plus partner Open Asia Online has collected some of the habits of Tajik women who traditionally have Eastern wives in our region.

Refers to her husband as "you"

Almost all Tajik women, with rare exceptions, address their spouses as “you”, and call their husbands not by their first names, but “master”, “father of my children”, etc. However, in the north of Tajikistan, both men and women turn to “you” to everyone without exception, even to their small children.

Any Tajik can cook well

A Tajik woman who does not know how to cook, and not just cook, but create real culinary masterpieces, is nonsense. Any Tajik woman does an excellent job with the dough and can cook delicious pilaf. Mothers from childhood instill in their daughters a love of cooking, because if a young girl comes to her husband's house without these skills, then shame will fall on her entire family.

By the way, Tajik women also masterfully cope with other household chores, whether it is ironing clothes or cleaning the house.

The bride's family buys clothes for the groom

Buying an outfit for the groom for the wedding ceremony is the responsibility of the bride's family. Moreover, all household belongings necessary for family life, including furniture, are also purchased at the expense of the bride's parents; from the groom only housing is required. Therefore, often before the wedding, the girl's relatives, inviting guests to the ceremony, order gifts for them. For example: the Iskandarov family - a carpet, the Ismoilov family - a food processor, etc.

Never be alone with another man

Even if this man is a relative. A Tajik wife will let a man into the house only on the condition that she is not alone. Otherwise, even the husband's brother was barred from entering the apartment: "wait for the owner." And until now, at any event, women and men in Tajikistan traditionally sit at different dastarkhans, in different rooms. And men are engaged in serving the male dastarkhan (serving dishes on the table, cleaning dirty dishes).

Lives with mother for 40 days after birth

From the maternity hospital, the Tajik wife goes home to her mother, especially if the first child is born. Here she will live exactly 40 days, during which the mother will teach her daughter all the intricacies of dealing with the baby; in addition, the woman's family will purchase everything necessary for the firstborn at their own expense. After such a master class, the husband will never see the helplessness of his wife in dealing with the baby, because taking care of the child is the direct responsibility of the woman.

Does nothing without the consent of her husband

Early marriages in the Tajik city of Garm are not uncommon. During the years of the armed conflict, armed detachments of the Tajik opposition were deployed here, in the Rasht Valley.

According to official figures, more than 26,000 women were widowed during the war years, and many of them do not even have a secondary education. Young widows and divorcees cannot support themselves and voluntarily become second wives.
It is impossible to pass unnoticed through the narrow streets of the old mahala in Gharm. I'm wearing pants and no hat. This is not quite the usual clothes for the local woman.
Rukhshona's house was refused to be shown to me for a long time. Almost all the neighbors in the mahalla know that she is the second wife, but they are afraid to speak openly. Moreover, Rukhshona's husband, according to residents, is some very important person "from the authorities."
She greeted me warmly. Rukhshone, 33, is a widow. She left two sons in her husband's family: it is difficult for a woman who graduated from only four years of high school and has no specialty to feed her children.
"Good wife"
She lived in her father's house in Garm for several months and agreed to the proposal of her current husband. “I had to agree to get married,” Rukhshona recalls. “It became unbearable in my father’s house. I didn’t work and felt like a burden. the second wife is definitely not a wife. Always wait for him and be afraid that the day will come and he will leave you, and you will again be left without a livelihood. "

Rukhshona is one of 26,000 Tajik women who lost their husbands during the country's civil war. In the Rasht Valley in the east of the country, a region with a strong Islamic tradition, girls often drop out of school after completing primary school. Here it is customary to marry off daughters early. If parents are having financial difficulties and they are thinking about which of their children to continue their education, preference is usually given to boys.

A good wife, according to Rukhshona, should keep house and take care of her husband. Earning money and studying is the duty of a man.
Now Rukhshona is very sorry that she cannot read and write. She does not like to talk about her husband's first wife. "Personally, I don't know her. He offered me to go visit her, but I'm afraid of this meeting," she says.
I ask what she will do if a third wife appears.
“It’s impossible,” she replies. “I believe that he loves only us. I won’t quarrel with my third wife, and with him too. Perhaps I’ll put up with it. After all, in this case he is the master of the situation.
Rukhshona didn't seem to like my question: she became thoughtful and began to rush me. Dinner time was approaching, and Rukhshona's husband was due to come home any minute. He himself is from a distant village, but works in the district center, and it is very convenient to have a wife here.

"What does he lack?"

Rukhshona's neighbor, 60-year-old Samad-aka, told me about this. He is a widower. He dreams of getting married, but the children are against it. Hope to convince them. Bigamy is treated as a useful thing: "My children do not understand anything about the benefits of polygamy. Now, if the wife is pregnant, what should a man do? You have to marry the second one in order to wait until the first one gives birth."
His young sister came to visit Samad-aka. What if her husband had a second wife? My question annoyed my interlocutor: she clearly did not like this prospect. "For what reason, what does he lack? There is always hot food in the house, things are washed. No, I trust my husband. He will not do that."
The number of women in the district exceeds the male population. The wives of labor migrants also remain without husbands; they go to Russia and often forget about old families, creating new ones.
For my other interlocutor Kamol, his second wife is a real pride. She works, according to him, in a good place and holds an important position. Which one, he refused to say. But the men themselves, who have second, and sometimes third wives, are wealthy people, often working in government structures.
A poor man without the necessary connections will not dare to do anything, Kamol shared with me: “The second wife is good. Their husbands are always clean and well-fed. I come to my second wife, she asks: what did the first cook for you? runs to the kitchen and prepares roast meat. My wives know each other. There were never any quarrels. They even lived together at one time. In general, I am satisfied. "

"I only saw her once"

In the local council, the hukumat, I asked a question about bigamy to Davlatpocho Mirzoev, deputy chairman of the Garm council. The question seemed to take her by surprise: Mirzoyeva said only that they had not received such complaints.

Polygamy in Tajikistan is criminally punishable, but so far such cases have not been considered in the country's courts.
Proving a second wife is not easy, lawyers say. Women tend to hide this by protecting men.
"Early marriages are also not uncommon in Rasht," admits Mairam, a resident of the city. Her son recently married a girl who just turned 17 years old.
“In Garm, it is customary to marry at the age of 17 or 18,” she says. “It doesn’t matter to us whether she has an education, it’s easier with a young woman: there is a chance to raise her the way we want. 20-year-old brides are at risk of being left without a husband."
Young Iskandar is pleased with his choice. It does not bother him that the girl is uneducated. Most likely, it will remain so, since Iskandar against educated wives: "I do not want her to work. It will be unpleasant for me if other men look at my wife. She is obliged to stay at home. Housekeeping is her main job."

I ask Iskandar if they knew each other before the wedding, if they met. " I saw her only once, we said hello - and that's it., he replies. - I told my parents about my choice, they married the bride. But, of course, we did not have any meetings, what are you talking about! In Garm, this is impossible: gossip about a girl can go, and she will be dishonored. No movies or ice cream."