UZBEKISTAN: Korans for the blind highlight lack of resources for the disabled

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

TASHKENT, 21 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - A new project being implemented by Uzbekistan's Board of Muslims (Muftyat) will give blind people access to the Koran through the Braille system and allow deaf people to take advantage of signed-translation of Friday prayers in the capital's mosques, religious officials said on Tuesday.

Under the project, 4,000 copies of the Koran are being printed in Braille. They will be distributed to special boarding schools, state libraries and blind or partially sighted individuals free of charge.

"The project is designed to support those people who particularly needs spiritual support from other members of society," Shoazim Munavarov, head of the committee for religious issues under the Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers, told reporters at a presentation in Tashkent.

"We can say with satisfaction that this is only the third project in the world to publish the Holy Koran in Braille. Two other projects were implemented in Tunis and Egypt in the mid 1980s," he added.

The project, which is costing US $48,000, was funded jointly by the international charity fund of Kuwait and Uzbek Muftyat. According to officials, the voluntary input of blind mullahs was enormous.

According to Abdurashid Bahromov, a prominent religious leader in Uzbekistan, under the project separate mosques have been established in Tashkent for blind and deaf people. "In the near future the practice will be implemented in other regions of the country and several imams are being trained to sign-translate the Koran," he said.

Though the project will meet a specific need among this group, according to the 35,000-strong Society of Blind People in Uzbekistan, most still long for the old Soviet times when special schools, factories and training facilities for blind people were common and enjoyed state subsidies.

"We had 46 factories subsided by the state with 4,000 workers manufacturing more than 50 products such as blankets, pillows, lids for cans and bottles, etc.," Bakhtiyor Abdujabborov, deputy head of the society, told IRIN.

"Since the collapse of the Soviet Union we have lost the benefits of all kind of communal and health services for blind people," Sobit Soatov, 71, told IRIN. The society lost its state subsidy and now has to earn money independently.

"We have called on the government and international organisations to help to solve the problems of the blind. The first problem is to provide blind people with special equipment to ease their everyday lives. We don't even have enough walking sticks for the blind, let alone other modern equipment such as computers," he continued.

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