Challenging narratives on bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan: the case of women’s non-governmental organisations
Date
2023
Authors
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
As bride kidnapping has grown associated with Kyrgyzstan, so has the literature on this issue
in academia. The rich existing body of work, however, in focusing on political-elite driven
reinforcement of tradition in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan’s search for national identity, often
overlooks the societal narratives that justify the practice through the promotion of
conservative discourses. It also ignores the important and relevant question of how to end
bride kidnapping and who could lead this social change. This thesis, therefore, in order to fill
these gaps, studies the narratives articulated by local women’s Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGO) working on the issue of bride kidnapping. It does so through interviews
with nine representatives of seven Bishkek based-women’s NGOs. This research aims to
reveal whether these local actors challenge dominant narratives on this practice, and if so,
how and for what purpose. In finding that women’s NGOs largely comply with theoretical
assumptions of counter-narrative theory, this research suggests that they can be considered
actors of contestation and change on the issue of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, as long as
the political context allows them to operate on the ground. Overall, this study brings to the
fore the up until now invisible social forces that are local women’s NGOs.