“Yuzhnyi Kazakhstan”, # 77 (18.461), 30/06/2008
L. Kopzhasarova

   The tradition of discrediting the honor and dignity of women by bride kidnapping was recently the topic of discussion at a round table at the Shymkent information center to support democracy. The leaders of NGOs, and youth organizations, and human rights organization discussed the legal, moral, religious and other aspects of this, which is quite relevant to involved southerners. Stealing the girls has become quite a common method of marriage. Many do not even see anything criminal about the “tradition”. According to a questionnaire survey conducted among 120 young people, that is, at the marriage age (from 18 to 25 years), about 80 percent of respondents (70 of them - men) do not see the kidnapping of brides as a contradiction with the rule of law. In doing so, 67 percent of men said the kidnapping of the bride was a natural condition of a family.
   “Some steal the girl, with an idea to start a family in the twenty-first century, which is nonsense. This is a revival of feudalism,” says the Director of the Information Center to support democracy in the city of Shymkent, Rayhan Shaybekova, “Even in ancient times, this was equated to horse-stealing. And to be punished: for men in Central Asia they were dropped by the Minaret, or punished by a line of archers.”
   “The most unfortunate thing is that the “tradition” has passed from century to century, and is so ingrained in the minds of some that they it a custom and not a legal issue,” said the head of the Legal Center for Women's Initiatives “Sana Sezim”, Hadicha Abysheva, “In international law, the lack of consent to marry the girl and forcing her is considered a violation of human rights, and the Penal Code of Article 125 “Kidnapping”, which can bring a thief to justice.”
   According to Hadicha Abysheva, more than three thousand victims of various forms of violence against women appeal to their center for help, almost 40 percent of those had been stolen by their future spouses. And it began with the abduction and then the suffering and humiliation of the family. The roundtable identified a number of reasons why a bride is kidnapped, abducted, or are likely to be abducted: legal illiteracy of the population (as the boys, and girls), the dominance of some outdated tradition in the minds of a part of society, not loving their parents, their marriage, and the absence in the Penal Code of a separate article “Abduction of bride”.
   The common suggested result the unhappy tradition of bride kidnapping was the treatment that the participants should be send to the Regional Akimat and Majilis Parliament.