The Vagina Monologues in Bishkek
Galina Toktalieva for die Wiener Nachrichten
A stage productions of the Vagina Monologues by Eve Enslerin in Kyrgyzstan was to serve goals of the Central Asian women�s rights movement.
It is an episodic play based on interviews with over 200 women relating how they view their bodies, sexual experiences, sexual abuse and sexual violence. Central Asia is not known as a region where women have tried to assert their rights. Of the 22 cast members, the overwhelming majority are young women born and raised in Central Asia.
“Kyrgyzstan, like many other Central Asian countries, is a very masculine and patriarchal society where women, youth and children are often repressed and invisible,” – said Selbi Djumayeva, the manager of Bishkek production, – Gender norms are rigid and mostly assign a secondary and devalued role to women”
Traditional practices such as bride-kidnapping have proven resilient even as a more austere Islam has taken hold in some regions, and many here feel that what little progress women have made in direction of obtaining equal rights.
“Women want to talk about these things but they don’t have the space,” � told Selbi Djumayeva.
Dominated for two centuries by Tsar Russia and then the Soviet Union, this vast land of mountains, steppe and conservative tribalism was flooded after independence by foreign Muslims intending to re-introduce Islam, while Kyrgyz traditions that date back to ancient nomadic times are strong in the country.
A large proportion of marriages in Kyrgyzstan are still the result of bride kidnapping, where a prospective husband and his family steal their chosen girl with or without the agreement or her family. Often the fact of rape and defloration prevents girl from coming back to parents, because she considered from now on to be unclean and must belong to her offender.
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At least 63 percent of Kyrgyz women kidnapped for marriage
24.kg-At least 63 percent of women aged from 16 to 25 years are kidnapped for marriage. The information was voiced at the round table discussion on Improvement of legislation in the sphere of marriage age and implementation of religious marriage customs (introduction of obligatory state registration of marriage) which took place in Osh on May 26, 2009.
The rate is higher in the depth of the country. According to leaders of some non-governmental organizations, about 80 percent of marriages are registered as a result of bride kidnapping in rural areas.
As to initiator of the discussion, deputy of the Kyrgyz parliament Orzubek Nazarov, the rite kyz ala kachu (to take bride and flee) is still widespread owing to parents of girls who, “hope that such marriage will bring them financial and social benefits, reducing family’s burden.” Such mothers and fathers amount to 27 and 18 percent respectively.
About 268 statements about forced marriages were made by women for 2006-2008 years. At least 71 criminal cases against 98 people were initiated.
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