Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment: Update

Property rights and Access to resources

although legislation grants women and men equal rights to property ownership, significant gender disparities remain. Most residential houses are acquired through inheritance, which traditionally favors men over women. the family home usually goes to an elder son who stays with his parents, while the daughters leave for the groom’s house after marriage.

Significantly, female-owned real estate accounted for 424,783 (29.4%) of all registered real estate transactions (excluding the city of tashkent) in 2016. However, the value of property registered to women is considerably lower, accounting for only 22.3% of the total value of property registered with the national real property registry and cadastre system.⁵⁹

⁵⁵ data provided by the State Committee on Statistics to adB in april 2018 for this CGa update.
⁵⁶ State Committee on Statistics. 2017. Uzbekistan: Demographic Yearbook 2017. tashkent. Uzbekistan.
⁵⁷ article 125-1 of the Criminal Code and article 47-3 of the administrative Code. Both amendments were made in 2013.
⁵⁸ Since 2014, the WCU has held 1,568 such events. these were attended by 186,160 people, including 156,351 women and girls. (From data provided by the WCU to adB in November 2017, for this CGa update).
⁵⁹ Objects in the real estate register in 2011[en dash]2016 had a total value of SUM8.7 billion. Only SUM1.9 billion worth was registered in women’s names. (From data provided by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to adB in September–October 2017 for this CGa update).
Crosscutting Gender Equality Issues 17

Rural households are traditionally headed by men; accordingly, most real estate is registered to men. additionally, other assets (e.g., cars, agricultural machinery, equipment, and livestock) are traditionally owned by men. an exception might be property purchased by a man who already owns other real estate, cars, or other property and wants to avoid any potential tax liability.⁶⁰

Family finances accumulate with an elder male member of the household, usually the father, who supervises the family budget. Women’s limited access to finance and assets has

implications for their economic opportunities because most women cannot provide collateral when applying for a loan from a bank or financial institution if joint (family) property is registered in the man’s name.⁶¹

In a survey commissioned by adB, most female respondents lacked legal ownership of any real estate or equipment.⁶² the few who did were hesitant to use it as collateral for fear of losing it if their enterprise failed.

⁶⁰ adB. 2016. Social and Gender Survey: Housing for Integrated Rural Development Program. Tashkent.
⁶¹ d. alimbekova. 2002. Women Entrepreneurs: Uzbekistan. tashkent.
⁶² N. Nayar and d. tadjibaeva. 2012. Gender in Small and Micro Enterprise Development Projects. preliminary report prepared for the asian development Bank. Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. Frankfurt.

1.