DUSHANBE, October 20, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Over the past ten years, some 7,000 Tajik women have served their terms in jails for different crimes, an official with the Committee for Family and Women’s Affairs announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 20.

“445 women aged 14 to 74 are currently held in a female penal colony in Norak,” said the source, “Last year, 804 women were held in this penal colony.”

The majority of women currently held in the penal colony in Norak have been convicted of drug trafficking – 66, 58 women have been sentenced to imprisonment for killing, 56 others are serving their terms for thefts and 36 women have been sentenced to imprisonment for fraud.  Besides, one woman is serving her term for keeping bawdy house and four others are serving their terms for robberies, the source said.

Over the last six years, women have committed some 9,000 crimes in Tajikistan; of them, 1,335 crimes, including 11 intended killings and five minor trafficking attempts, have been committed over the first eight months of this year.

To prevent female crime, with support from the UNIFEM CO Tajikistan the Committee for Family and Women’s Affairs has set up a rehabilitation center for problem girls, the source added.