Tajik women train to shoulder work men left behind

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: Wearing blue overalls, trainee mechanic Marjona Abdulloeva carefully examines a car chassis at a government-run training centre in Tajikistan, an ex-Soviet republic hit hard by the recession in Russia.

The 20-year-old hopes to be the first woman to earn a car mechanic’s diploma at the Dushanbe centre, as a growing number of women seek work to help make ends meet in the socially conservative and impoverished country.