Why we felt the need to create this zine
This zine consists of personal stories, thoughts, emotions, essays and dreams of different generations of activists. It also draws from our own reflections on activism, on activist relations, and on BFI. In order to present the wide variety of initiatives, opinions, and work being done, we decided to collect the stories of girls, young women and women activists from different parts of Kyrgyzstan: Karakol, Osh, Naryn, Jalal-Abad, Chui, and Bishkek. We hope documenting our history will help us understand how the movement developed and changed over time as well as answer questions of why we engage in activism, what role we play in society, where we are, and where we are going. The zine primarily focuses on the grassroots experience of BFI from 2012 to March 2019. These dates are important, because this is the time period in which we were personally involved in BFI activities. In April 2019, the composition and structure of the BFI changed.
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This publication reflects our personal experiences and, of course, does not reflect all the events and opinions that occurred during the timeframe of our own activism. Everyone, including ourselves, has her own picture of what a decent life without violence and discrimination looks like. Each of us does everything we can to build our own alternative life without violence, and we use different methods to achieve this. For some national traditions played a large role in our search for rights and freedoms, for others the desire to seek opportunities for women was driven by our religion. Some activitists were inspired by feminist heroines — writers, activists and the broader feminist movement that influenced their worldview. Activists do not have one single vision of liberation, but we do have one shared mission – achieving justice and equality, a dignified life without violence, the expansion of their possibilities, freedom and peace.
