Bride Kidnapping: Reclaiming Kyrgyz Culture at the Cost of Gender Equality
Kyrgyz society is forced to confront what they value more: the rights and protection of women and girls or preserving an abusive practice that is falsely revered as a cultural tradition.
By Elizabeth Lewis, Analyst
Slogans like “Shame! Shame!” and “How many of us have to die before the kidnapping stops?” rang out in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on April 8, 2021 after Aizada Kanatbekova joined the list of women who have lost their lives to bride kidnapping and poor policing. Ala kachuu, the Kyrgyz term for bride kidnapping or bride abduction, is defined as the act of abducting a woman for the purpose of marriage. Kyrgyzstan outlawed “kidnapping a person for the purpose of marriage against their will” in its Criminal Code in 1994. Despite this ban, impunity is the norm and rates of bride abduction have only increased — currently, one-third of ethnic Kyrgyz women in Kyrgyzstan have been married as a result of bride kidnapping.
Despite this ban, impunity is the norm and rates of bride abduction have only increased — currently, one-third of ethnic Kyrgyz women in Kyrgyzstan have been married as a result of bride kidnapping.
This increased rate of bride abduction following independence can be linked to an increase in consensual bride abduction during the late Soviet period. Young couples in Soviet Kyrgyzstan would agree to stage a mock kidnapping as a way to circumvent parental oversight in their choice of spouse. According to Russel Kleinbach, a scholar on marriage practices in Kyrgyzstan, the rise in consensual bride kidnapping during the Soviet period also resulted in a simultaneous rise in non-consensual bride kidnapping. This is the result of consensual kidnappings having the same appearance as non-consensual kidnappings, which led to society slowly becoming accustomed to bride kidnapping. However, other scholars argue that the two central reasons for the renewed interest in bride kidnapping following Kyrgyzstan’s independence are: bride kidnapping has offered a way to reclaim Kyrgyz cultural heritage that had been stifled under the Soviet regime and bride kidnapping removes some of the prohibitive costs of marriage, i.e. paying a bride price.
This article uses media sentiment analysis to explore how different terms are used by the Kyrgyz media to evoke different attitudes toward bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan.
The Vocabulary of Bride Kidnapping
In Kyrgyz media, there are three main terms that are used to discuss bride kidnapping over the ten year period from 2010 to 2020: ala kachuu, bride kidnapping, and kidnapping of girls.
Of the three terms, “kidnapping of girls” is used most often in Kyrgyz media, with it appearing in 47.3% of articles about bride kidnapping. It is important to note that the term “kidnapping of girls” does not always mean girls who are under the age of 18. Articles that use the term “kidnapping of girls” in Kyrgyz media tend to refer to girls between the ages of 16 to 25. The second most common term in Kyrgyz reporting on the topic is “bride kidnapping,” which appears in 32.8% of Kyrgyz media articles. The Kyrgyz term ala kachuu is also commonly used in Russian language reporting on bride kidnapping and appears in 19.9% of Kyrgyz media articles.
Sentiment is Generally Positive, But Varies Based on the Term Used
Media sentiment toward the different terms used to report on bride kidnapping was generally positive from 2010 to 2020. However, sentiment toward the terms showed consistent differences and exploring which terms were mentioned more or less positively can provide important insights.
Sentiment was least positive toward the term “kidnapping of girls,” reaching a peak of 0.27 in 2014 and a nadir of -0.07 in 2016. Kidnapping of girls is generally used in Kyrgyz media to describe instances of bride kidnapping that fit the following criteria:
- particularly violent instance,
- those brought to the attention of the police or court system,
- those involving a large age difference between the woman and man who kidnapped her,
- the woman who was kidnapped is a minor.
In contrast, sentiment toward the term “bride kidnapping” was higher, ranging from a lukewarm 0.47 in 2019 to an almost entirely neutral 0.1 in 2017. Kyrgyz media tends to use the term bride kidnapping to place an emphasis on the legal issues surrounding it, often using the term to discuss instances when the police or courts get involved.
Finally, the Kyrgyz term ala kachuu, was mentioned most positively, ranging from a peak of 0.75 in 2014 to an all-time low of 0.11 in 2017. Generally speaking, the use of the term ala kachuu in Russian language articles invokes a sense of tradition and Kyrgyzness, with multiple articles across all news sources including an explanation of the traditional nature of bride kidnapping when using this term. This allows the term to maintain positive sentiment.
The use of the term ala kachuu in Russian language articles invokes a sense of tradition and Kyrgyzness, with multiple articles across all news sources including an explanation of the traditional nature of bride kidnapping when using this term.
Declines in Media Sentiment are Tied to Actions by the Kyrgyz Government and International Community, not Violent Incidents
Sentiment toward ala kachuu experienced steep declines twice, in 2013 and 2017. The 2013 dip in sentiment is likely a result of how a change to the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, which imposed tougher penalties on the perpetrators of bride abduction, was received by Kyrgyz society. The change to the Criminal Code increased public attention to the issue of bride kidnapping and domestic violence in Kyrgyzstan, with the Ministry of Social Development commenting that Kyrgyz society needs to work on developing a culture that condemns violence against women. In some areas, the change in the new law sparked civic outreach in the form of education programs in Jalal-Abad Oblast, resulting in calls for greater government involvement in stopping the continued practice of bride kidnapping and forced marriages.
The drop in sentiment toward both terms, ala kachuu as well as bride kidnapping, in 2017 is tied to the increased attention to women, women’s rights, and domestic violence against women in Kyrgyzstan following the release of a scathing Human Rights Watch report that called on the Kyrgyz government to make major positive changes to protect the rights of women. The international attention that ala kachuu garnered, led Kyrgyz media to examine the validity of the data that exists on bride kidnapping. This examination resulted in the realization that reliable information only exists in instances reported to the authorities. The challenge is that ala kachuu is rarely reported to the authorities. The Kyrgyz government addressed some of the concerns of the international community with amendments to the law “On the prevention of and protection from family violence” that were introduced in 2017 to ensure the protection of women. Although this law does not directly address the issue of bride abduction, there is a link between bride kidnapping and increased rates of domestic violence in marriages that were the result of bride kidnapping.
The most shocking trend, exhibited by the sentiment toward the various terms used to describe bride kidnapping, is that positive sentiment did not decline in 2018 despite the murder of a victim of bride kidnapping highlighting the cruelty that underpins this practice. On May 27,2018, Burulai Turdalievu was brutally murdered by a man who had kidnapped her for marriage while they were in custody at a police station. Burulai’s murder sparked global outcry amongst women’s rights defenders and international Human Rights Groups, but a similar attitude is not visible in media coverage of bride kidnapping following Burulai’s tragic death.
The most shocking trend, exhibited by the sentiment toward the various terms used to describe bride kidnapping, is that positive sentiment did not decline in 2018 despite the murder of a victim of bride kidnapping highlighting the cruelty that underpins this practice.
Implications
Despite some variation in sentiment toward the various terms used to discuss bride abduction, sentiment remained positive overall. With a growing number of articles favoring the term ala kachuu to bride kidnapping, Kyrgyz society is perched precariously. Society is forced to confront what they value more: the rights and protection of women and girls or preserving an abusive practice that is falsely revered as a Kyrgyz cultural tradition. The Kyrgyz government has the potential to make policy that has life altering ramifications in the lives of Kyrgyz women and girls, and must proceed with caution. Public outcry and disapproval from the international community is not enough to enact lasting change. Rather a brighter future for Kyrgyz women and girls can come from civic outreach and educational programs, addressing the importance of consent and improving understanding of preexisting avenues for legal recourse.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Lewis is an analyst at Hillhouse Analytics. A graduate student at Georgetown University, studying Eurasian, Russian, and East European Affairs, she has particular interest in the way conceptualizations of nationalism have developed in post-Soviet states. She speaks Russian and previously spent one year teaching at Belarus State University in Minsk, Belarus as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant.
ABOUT HILLHOUSE
Hillhouse Analytics specializes in data driven analysis on issues related to sustainable development, infrastructure, and energy in frontier markets, helping organizations understand today’s challenges and opportunities. We bring world-class expertise to regional challenges by combining the best of international academic and research practices with a rigorous and informed local perspective, delivering the best of both worlds. We achieve this through our custom-built Hillhouse Sentiment Analysis Tool that tracks opinion trends across local news media. Our tool was a finalist for the World Bank’s Global Disruptive Tech Challenge 2021. To learn more about retaining our team for custom analysis and reports, please click here.
