Escaping abuse and violence
Nurgul Aruujan, Karakol
“Our organization promotes women’s rights, more specifically we are combating domestic violence. Why exactly this issue? Because it is considered the norm. I am an educated woman, I worked at school for so many years [...]. Despite this, I myself survived violence. My husband worked in law enforcement, and we lived together for 25 years. That entire time, I endured violence at home. In the Kyrgyz mentality there is no space for female solidarity. Hypothetically, if I told my friend that my husband beat me, then this would surely leak out immediately and everyone would
know. Violence survivors are rarely supported. Many of the women in the school I worked at experienced domestic violence. I was no exception. I was afraid to divorce my husband, because I was financially dependent on him like so many other women. I thought about what I would do if I divorced him. How would I even support my children? I always had this fear. Then my mind would wander to the future: the children will grow up, they will get married... what will I tell the in-laws? Why don’t my children have a father? El emne deit? 4 Then, at some point, I just saw the light, and made a snap decision. Let the children grow up. What will be will be. Then I started to thing about how much longer women will be forced to suffer?”
The tipping point for Nurgul and her colleagues was a case involving a biology teacher. She was beaten by her husband but was too embarrassed to call the police of her friends. She stayed at home to nurse her wounds, but she eventually died. The case was quickly covered up.
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Kyrgyz – What would people say?
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