With great interests I read through the snapshot provided by you on gender and irrigation in Tajikistan. I encounter many similarities with my own research conducted in the Pamir region, which focussed on gender and irrigation. I indeed observed that rural women were increasingly engaging in irrigation activities, in particular de facto female headed households. Yet, they are excluded in water management domains (at all levels!). At the same time, the sustainability and survival of these irrigation systems and livelihoods, will strongly depend on women's engagement in water management, in particular in light of the growing male out migration. Yet, I find it also interesting and hopeful to read that various women are starting to take up roles of Dekhon farm managers. This might be an opening - and forms an example of how gender roles and practices are altered as during the Soviet period such positions were foremost fulfilled by men. At the same time, I also encountered women who already had a very heavy work burden and were actually happy that they didn't not have to take part in irrigation meetings or canal maintenance activities... At the same time, other women fell that they could not voice their water concerns. As many irrigation systems are managed by the communities, with little to no state intervention (at least in the Pamirs) I think that it is important to extend our insights on these questions and develop participatory methods with communities to seek ways on how to engage women and together explore different ways on how they can voice their concerns and struggles as well as possibilities to engage in water management activities.
With great interests I read through the snapshot provided by you on gender and irrigation in Tajikistan. I encounter many similarities with my own research conducted in the Pamir region, which focussed on gender and irrigation. I indeed observed that rural women were increasingly engaging in irrigation activities, in particular de facto female headed households. Yet, they are excluded in water management domains (at all levels!). At the same time, the sustainability and survival of these irrigation systems and livelihoods, will strongly depend on women's engagement in water management, in particular in light of the growing male out migration. Yet, I find it also interesting and hopeful to read that various women are starting to take up roles of Dekhon farm managers. This might be an opening - and forms an example of how gender roles and practices are altered as during the Soviet period such positions were foremost fulfilled by men. At the same time, I also encountered women who already had a very heavy work burden and were actually happy that they didn't not have to take part in irrigation meetings or canal maintenance activities... At the same time, other women fell that they could not voice their water concerns. As many irrigation systems are managed by the communities, with little to no state intervention (at least in the Pamirs) I think that it is important to extend our insights on these questions and develop participatory methods with communities to seek ways on how to engage women and together explore different ways on how they can voice their concerns and struggles as well as possibilities to engage in water management activities.
In case you are interested to read more about this topic please find here the link to the article: https://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-13-00087.1