No to violence
Women’s Initiatives work in four directions: combatting violence towards girls and women, defending women’s economic and political rights, and combatting human trafficking.
Avazkan Women’s Initiatives, Osh
“We fight violence against women and girls. For the past two years we have been working on early and unregistered marriages. Now the big problem with unregistered marriages is that it is just a religious marriage, as a result, women and children suffer from (the lack of official legal protections). When we say that it is necessary to register a marriage, men immediately say, ‘why do you want to take my property?’”
WHEN A WOMAN IS TRAINED IN POLITICS, SHE WILL SPEAK. “We do not work during campaign season, but rather before and after the election. For example, female candidates are identified, activated, trained and prepared. We prepared gender budgets for many, many ayil okmotu. Last year, we even succeeded in having more funding directed at municipal services to help victims of violence. We worked to get standards adopted at the local level that do not exist anywhere else in Kyrgyzstan. When a woman is trained in politics, she will speak.”
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