“Design Dushanbe 2010” fashion show aimed to attracting attention to the issue of violence in Tajik families, especially against women was held in Hyatt Regency hotel of Dushanbe on October 10. The organizers of the event were UN WOMEN, Swiss Office for the Development and Cooperation (SDC), Project on preventing domestic violence - AVEDIS, and the“Hyatt Regency” hotel.

“Sometimes it is more effective to speak about serious things during entertainments. Attractive combination of the elegant hall, beautiful costumes, models and educational exhibition will be more attractive for visitors and guests who wish to make a small contribution to fight violence against women through buying the ticket,” explains Marydean Purves, a producer and the main inspirer of the show.

“It was decided to transfer all money collected through the event to the Burn Center of one of the city hospitals and Crisis Center “Bovari“ (Trust) in Dushanbe because we’ve got very alarming tendency: a number of suicides (self-immolation mostly) is increasing and the most part of them caused by the family violence”, Nargis Azizova, UN WOMEN Gender advisor says.

All money collected during the event will become a support of the initiatives aimed at violence preventing in the family. This show will be a good support for local women working in the fashion area, those young girl students -future designers in their career growth and becoming successful entrepreneurs”.

Before the show start, an exhibition was organized where UN WOMEN staff with the support of volunteers out of students of Tajik universities, delivered the messages and collected signatures to support the Global Campaign of the UN Secretary General “UNiTE to end violence against women”. All visitors and guests of the show willingly signed the petition. Totally 105 signature were collected.

During the fashion show young Tajik designers and owners of boutiques in Dushanbe presented their new collections to the exacting audience. The audience exploded with applause when met charming models. And, of course, the special success was gained by the leading professional designer, Ms. Mavluda Hamraeva. Ms. Hamraeva is very famous not only in the country but abroad. She participated in more than 20 fashion shows in Tajikistan, Russia and Turkey. Mavluda Hamraeva was the one who designed a sport uniform for Tajik athletes- participants of Beijing Olympic Games.

“When I received the invitation to take part in this fashion show, I decided to participate without hesitation because I’m a victim of home violence myself”. - Mavluda says. “My ex-husband was dominating me for a long time. He didn’t believe that I could be engaged in model business. Though I’m a self-taught person, I could do it and now I feel it my duty to help other women who face violence in the family”.

Violence against women is a very timely problem for Tajikistan. Therefore it is in a focus of UN WOMEN activities in the country. Latest researches conducted by local women NGOs show that one third or even a half of Tajik women faced violence within the family. Young, often not educated women whose marriage registered through unofficial religion ceremony “nikoh”, are among high risk groups. Unfortunately, the authorities do not collect any reliable statistic data on this problem, and there is no such a law in the country preventing family violence. 13 crisis centers and shelters where women could get help and support were functioning in Tajikistan in 2009. All of them run by local NGOs and was supported by various international organization including UN WOMEN. Today most of them are lack of funding and resources.