A growing number of younger women in Tajikistan are marrying men of retirement age, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
A social affairs official from the Rasht district, Sobirjon Jonov, told RFE/RL that Tajikistan has seen a rise in marriages between women between 25 and 40 years old and men between 60 and 70. The main reasons: Tajik women are expected to be married before reaching middle age; those same women have limited job opportunities and many struggle to support themselves alone; and hundreds of thousands of Tajik men in the younger age bracket have left the country to find work abroad.
The result is that for many young women, senior citizens are the only available option for marriage and financial security.
Most of those marriages are taking place in eastern Tajikistan, where a local NGO called Nihol says it is concerned about the rising number of divorces.
A social affairs official from the Rasht district, Sobirjon Jonov, told RFE/RL that Tajikistan has seen a rise in marriages between women between 25 and 40 years old and men between 60 and 70. The main reasons: Tajik women are expected to be married before reaching middle age; those same women have limited job opportunities and many struggle to support themselves alone; and hundreds of thousands of Tajik men in the younger age bracket have left the country to find work abroad.
The result is that for many young women, senior citizens are the only available option for marriage and financial security.
Most of those marriages are taking place in eastern Tajikistan, where a local NGO called Nihol says it is concerned about the rising number of divorces.