EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - International Human Rights Law and Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

EURASIA INSIGHT

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND BRIDE KIDNAPPING IN KYRGYZSTAN
L.M. Handrahan 1/28/00

The following is the first of two-part series, outlining the history and current practice of "bride kidnapping," a serious human rights violation against women in Kyrgyzstan.

The phenomenon of bride kidnapping is not endemic to Kyrgyzstan. It is practiced throughout the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Asia. What makes Kyrgyzstan noteworthy is the rising number of cases of bride kidnapping. The practice was outlawed during the Soviet era, and remains illegal under the Kyrgyz criminal code. Conviction carries a prison term of up to seven years. Nevertheless, kidnapping has surged since Kyrgyzstan declared independence in 1991, largely because it is seen as a positive Kyrgyz cultural identity marker that was denied the Kyrgyz by Soviet rule.

In order to understand bride kidnapping it is necessary to consider the social context in which this human rights violation occurs. Kyrgyzstan is an impoverished country of dramatically confused identities. After seventy years of Soviet rule and intense Russification, modern Kyrgyzstan encompasses over fifty-one different ethnic groups. Indeed, ethnic Kyrgyz comprise only a narrow majority of the republic’s population, according to the latest, most reliable census data.

Standing at a crossroads between the East and the West, Kyrgyzstan has been subjected to the rule of a host of empires -- from the Mongol to the Soviet. This legacy has complicated contemporary efforts to determine �what it means’ to be Kyrgyz. In the absence of a clear notion of state and identity, cultural revival efforts have taken some bizarre twists � in particular the distortion of the "bride kidnapping" tradition.

More than any other �renewed tradition’ bride kidnapping has assumed the primary act defining Kyrgyz manhood. Bride kidnapping has become a means for Kyrgyz men to recapture their selfhood in a confused, desperate, and violent but definitive act. Another important aspect of bride kidnapping is that it is widely perceived to be an "authentic Kyrgyz tradition," believed to have developed over time in the remote regions of the Tien Shan mountain range.

Historically, the rituals associated with bride kidnapping were relatively well defined. They were devised, perhaps unconsciously, as a means to insure the development and continuation of a hearty population needed for the severe life style of high mountains nomads. The severe climate and lifestyle mandated capable and equal male-female partnerships. Nomadic life was authentically democratic and feminist in that both man and women’s competence and strength was paramount to survival. Therefore, men and women sought partners who could provide an above average chance for survival.

To a great degree, the tradition involved more of an effort to "capture," rather than "kidnap" a bride. When a man decided to marry a woman he would first ask her father permission to challenge the woman to a horse race. The woman would receive a fifteen-second start and a thick leather whip to beat off the man. The man then followed the woman and if the man could catch her and kiss her, despite her use of the whip and while on horse back, only then did the man win �the right’ to ask for the woman’s hand in marriage

Today, the tradition has been corrupted. Bride kidnapping often occurs when a man, 18 to 25 years old, either of his own decision, or acting our of peer pressure, decides it is time to take a wife. If he has someone in mind, he and perhaps three or four male friends get into a car, and go in search of the girl/woman. Alcohol is often involved. If he has no one in mind, the men may set off to find any girl/woman, searching the streets of their village or a nearby village until they find a women they deem attractive. At this point, when they have either found the woman in question or found any other woman, they might pull the car up to her and �kidnap’ her, dragging her by force, or by tricking her, into the vehicle.

In some cases she may be raped by the �husband’ to �consummate’ the marriage. In other cases, the man may already have a full wedding preparation waiting for his �new bride’ at his village home. He might bring her to a large feast with his family and village elders, and once she crosses the threshold, the oldest woman in the man’s family will place the jooluk, or scarf, on her head. There is debate as to when the girl/woman is considered married. Some say she is married when she has consummated the marriage. Others say it is when the veil is placed over her head. Still others claim if she spends one night at her new �husband’s’ home whether, intercourse has occurred or not, she is married.

In any case, should she choose to �escape’ her family and her village may reject her. Even though in many cases her family may not even be aware that she has been kidnapped. No permission is requested of her father. No test of strength demonstrated by the man. She does not have the right of refusal. Should she decided to reject the marriage, as sometimes happens, her family may considers this a dishonor. By rejecting the kidnapping she is often considered to have abandoned what it means to be a Kyrgyz woman. She may not be allowed back into her own home or village again. Many Kyrgyz, men and women, claim it is an honor to be kidnapped because it confirms that a woman beautiful, desirable, and worthy of being a wife. Bride kidnapping seems to be the ultimate confirmation of worth as a woman for many citizens in Kyrgyzstan.

In some cases, especially in the capital city of Bishkek, kidnapping occurs with the full consent of the woman and her family. Usually, in such instances, the man and woman have been dating for a considerable length of time. When they decide to marry they stage a pre-arranged �kidnapping’ whereby she will agree in advance to stage a �kidnapping’ while walking to work or doing other daily tasks.

The U.S. State Department 1996 Country Report for Kyrgyzstan notes, "violence against women is a problem which the authorities often ignore." Staged kidnappings, with the consent of both parties, seems to be the exception rather than the rule in Kyrgyzstan. However, there have been no statistics completed on the actual number of kidnappings. From the author’s doctoral research surveying of the entire country (1999) it is evident that kidnapping is habitual. An estimated one out of ten respondents answered that bride kidnapping was their tradition of choice when asked to name local traditions. Nevertheless, rigorous investigation into the exact numbers of women kidnapped is greatly needed.

The author’s views expressed in this article are based on nearly two years living in Kyrgyzstan and working on gender and human rights issues, including assisting a 1997, reporter’s research trip on bride kidnapping where the author was privy to a multitude of interviews by various village women. Further information was gathered during the author’s own US State Department-funded dissertation research conducted in every oblast in 1999.

Part Two of this article will examine the relevant international conventions, protocols, and covenants that Kyrgyzstan has signed with the objective of identifying international human rights law that protects women from the practice of bride kidnapping. It is hoped that this two-part series may encourage the government of Kyrgyzstan to fulfill its international commitments vis a vis women’s human rights and the international human rights.

Editor�s Note: L.M.Handrahan is director of The Finvola Group, a human rights and gender consultancy and is completing her dissertation, "Understanding Implications and Impacts of Gendered Ethnicity in Consolidating Democracy: The Case Study of Central Asia’s Kyrgyzstan," at the Gender Institute of The London School of Economics and Political Science. L.M.Handrahan has spent two years living and working on human rights and gender issues in Kyrgyzstan. The author can be reached at L.M.Handrahan@lse.ac.uk for questions or comments.

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