Gender Equality

A common pattern across all Central Asian countries is the prevalence of various restrictions being placed on women and girls. Gender hierarchies permeate all aspects of society, including family structures. This manifests itself in widespread violence against women and harsh gender norms which saturate and structure daily life. Even though several of the countries in the region have ratified the Convention of Eliminating all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration, women continue to be discriminated against both in public and in private. It is not uncommon for young girls to be pressured into marrying a stranger, or to be kidnapped and then forced to marry the abductor. For many, marriage at a young age forecloses educational and professional opportunities later in life.

In Kyrgyzstan, where CAG has several years of experience working with local women’s and feminist rights activists, violence against women has not only increased but also become normalized and more widely accepted. Around 30% of women in Kyrgyzstan, and nearly 20% of women in Kazakhstan, have reported that they have experienced some form of gender-based violence. This rate is highest in Tajikistan, where 58.2% of women have been victims of gender violence. While there is no official data available on genderbased violence in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, reports suggest that the issue is a major problem in these countries as well. In all countries, the actual figures are expected to be higher, since data is limited and the likelihood that many instances of gender-based violence are underreported. This is mainly due to social norms and the widespread idea that domestic violence is a family matter, even by police and other civil servants.

In Central Asia, independent women’s movements are not welcomed by the state officials. Furthermore, such movements are blamed for the introduction of so-called “westernized values” and thus encroaching on the traditional values of Central Asian society. Discourses containing terms such as ‘domestic violence’, ‘non-discrimination’ and ‘gender topics’ are thereby discredited for breaking more traditional principles of the country.

Online Feminist Festival

Feminale in Bishkek

In 2020, CAG supported the regional Feminist Festival, organized by the Almaty-based organization FemAgora. The Festival has been running for three years, and each year it has been innovating new forms of engagement and expanding its thematic and sectoral outreach. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Festival went online and multiplied its outreach and impact. Based on FemAgora’s analytics, the Festival engaged up to 5,000 participants through Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

During 2020 the Festival diversified speakers, participants and audiences from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan by meaningfully engaging representatives of various communities, including migrants, rural women, people with disabilities, women former prisoners, women living with HIV, women who use drugs, sex workers, LGBTIQ and non-binary people. Both digital and physical forms of engagement were used with their audience by diversifying the formats of activities. Along with online events, 16 open panel discussions, two registration-only workshops, and one closed-group seminar for community members, FemAgora launched two brand-new creative projects: Feminist Paper Dolls and Digital Multimedia Book of Central Asian Poetry. Both are available at www.femagora.org.

CAG supported the 2019 edition of The Feminale of Contemporary Art – the Biennale of Feminism – by financing the creation of a virtual exhibition space documenting all the different artwork originally exhibited at the Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek. The virtual exhibition can be found here: http://bishkekfeminists.org/ru/feminnale The Feminnale was dedicated to the theme of women’s economic freedom and available for 17 days (November 27 – December 15), with 50 artists from 22 countries participating. Every day events and workshops about economic freedom, emancipation, feminism, mental and physical health were held. The 2019 Feminnale sparked controversial public debate in Kyrgyzstan, leading to partial censorship of the exhibition. After negotiations with the Ministry of Culture, some of the exhibits were taken to a private coworking space.

Online training sessions in Russia

In October, the Swedish organization MÄN (Men for equality) conducted a two-day online training session with our partner in Russia, Children of St. Petersburg (CSP), as part of a larger collaborative project funded by the Swedish Institute. With this collaborative project, CAG and CSP aim to promote the right of education for children, youth and families with migrant backgrounds. We also address issuses related to gender inequaility, discrimination, and human rights, as well as raising awareness about relevant issues through art among the public and decision-makers. Artistic methods and interactive exercises play an important role in this project – such as creating theatre plays, coloring books and video clips – as does organizing public events for the general public and decision-makers, creating theatre plays and creating coloring books and video clips.

The online training session was the first activity of the project, that aimed to explore new methods of working with youth and children with our partners that will be integrated in further activities of the project. Sessions included, among other activities, learning about interactive methods such as “small and big room” to provide a space for young men to share their experiences and reflections and Role Plays methods on how to engage young men to address sensitive topics, and many others. Moreover, the sessions contained informative videos about masculinity and stereotypes.

Information campaign about domestic violence

IF NOT US, WHO?!

An information campaign was organized together with our partners, which resulted into a video clip about domestic violence. It was broadcasted for one month on a local TV channel in Southern Kyrgyzstan. The clip reached a broader public and raised awareness about domestic violence and provided contact details of hot lines and a number of shelters. In total, the campaign lasted for three months and consisted of one conference, 3 peacetables, fundraising activities, sessions about domestic violence, dinner discussions about abusive relationships, attracting local youth to participate in activities by handing out flyers and posters, and social media publications.

Stories of the Feminist and Women’s movement: CAG financially supported the creation of Feminist dialogues – Kyrgyzstani feminist and women movements’ stories - an 80-page publication documenting 7 years of activism in Bishkek Feminist Initiatives and activist voices all over Kyrgyzstan.