New York – Tajikistan in Focus

Christy Turlington Burns Talks Women’s Empowerment with Feed the Future – YouTube

Feed the Future caught up with maternal health advocate and model Christy Turlington Burns at the recent launch of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Christy is founder of Every Mother Counts. She attended the Commission as part of the U.S. delegation. We asked for her thoughts on the importance of advancing opportunities for women and girls worldwide. A transcript is available at feedthefuture.gov/media-gallery.

http://youtu.be/xqTa6-U4V6U

via Christy Turlington Burns Talks Women’s Empowerment with Feed the Future – YouTube.

In Russia, unknown attacker stabs exiled Tajik journalist

New York, January 13, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday’s attack in Moscow on Dododzhon Atovulloyev, exiled publisher and editor-in-chief of the Tajik pro-opposition newspaper Charogi Ruz.

On Thursday evening, Atovulloyev, 56, was at a restaurant in Moscow when an unidentified man approached him, stabbed him twice in the stomach, and fled, witnesses told the local press. Atovulloyev underwent surgery, and, according to his doctors, his life is no longer in danger, news reports said.

Charogi Ruz (Daylight) is known for its sharp criticism of the Tajik government, particularly of Emomali Rahmon, the head of state since 1992. Atovulloyev has repeatedly criticized the Tajik ruling elite of corruption and embezzlement of international aid aimed at helping the development of the poor Central Asia state. When Atovulloyev’s newspaper was banned in Tajikistan in 1992 in retaliation for his criticism of Rahmon’s policies, he moved it to Moscow a year later. He continued to publish Charogi Ruz from exile. The paper’s website can still be accessed online in Tajikistan, local news reports said.

Human Rights Watch Report on Tajikistan

Tajikistan shares a 1,200 kilometer border with Afghanistan and is one of the countries identified by military planners as a possible base of U.S. military and humanitarian operations in the region. Tajikistan has been a low priority for U.S. foreign policy makers since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Suddenly, it has become a strategic partner in the U.S. government‘s counter-terrorism campaign following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.. It is also a potential haven for tens of thousands of displaced people seeking to flee Afghanistan.

Read the report