BBC’s featured story on life in the Central Asia nation of Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, where almost half of the population live below poverty line.

Children selling apples by the side of the road

Two young girls in a traditional mudhouse in a village

Young women picking tomatoes in a field

Nurek power plant, which provides much of Tajikistan’s power

Children loading containers of water onto a donkey

Guljakhon, a teacher, outside of her house

Children chat in Dushanbe, near an apartment building unaffordable to most

A man finishes tiling outside the presidential palace
Photos by Abdujalil Abdurasulov, BBC News (with detailed texts).