History of Kyrgyzstan
Soviet Socialist Republics
By 1936, under Stalin's reign, Central Asia was divided into Soviet Socialist Republics: Kazakh SSR, Uzbek SSR, Turkmen SSR, Tajik SSR, and Kyrgyz SSR. With a culture founded on Islam, traditional adat laws and religious shariat laws governed the lives of the indigenous Central Asian people. However, with the "sovietization" of the region, strong attempts were made to remove Islamic influence and assimilate Central Asians into the Russian population. As "oppressed" members of a Muslim patriarchal society, women were the main targets of this assimilation under an ideology of gender equality and female emancipation. A new legal and judicial system was implemented across the Republics to weaken the control of women by male relatives, banning practices such as arranged marriages, polygamy, and the payment of a bride price. Attempts were also made to unveil women in order to remove the physical evidence of the practice of Islam, including restricting veiled women from participating in the labor force and forcing men to unveil their wives with the threat of unemployment. Another tactic of assimilation was the Communist Party's institutionalization of the Zhenotdel, the Women's Department of the Central Secretariat, in order to educate and mobilize women. The Zhenotdel set up women's clubs to raise political consciousness through social activities such as reading circles and literary classes. Though it played an important role of providing education and skills to attend schools and universities and obtain employment, the Zhenotdel promoted an "outsider" philosophy of sovietization.
Despite efforts of sovietization, Central Asians largely preserved their Islamic-based culture in the private sphere, through methods such as the sole recognition of marriages by Islamic law (rather than civil law) and the ostracization of acculturated women. The heavy-handed attempts to acculturate Central Asian women did not produce evidence of greater gender equality until the rise of a new generation of women in the 1960s. The benefits of greater gender equality under Soviet rule were produced with high costs of forced acculturation, and the reemergence of gender inequality in the public sphere following the independence of the republics has led to a questioning of the actual impact of the imposed gender equality tactics of the Soviet Union. It has been argued that the imposition of gender equality by the Soviet Union has resulted in the reinforcement of traditional Muslim gender values in the now-independent countries.
Since gaining independence in 1991, all the Central Asian countries have claimed to be democracies with parliamentary systems. However, all but Kyrgyzstan have been termed authoritarian. Since independence, there have increasingly greater barriers to employment for women, which has resulted in their underemployment across the region. The World Bank has raised a number of gender-based concerns, including the loss of state support for child care, deteriorating maternal health care, gender-based violence, and poor political representation. The disproportionate political representation of women is exacerbated by the greater struggles of women in households who have less time to participate in the civic life; the percentage of women in the parliaments range from 7% in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to 26% in Turkmenistan. Also, the increase in payments required for health care and education have resulted in the higher prioritization of male needs, which will have detrimental long-term effects.
Kyrgyzstan Since Independence
In 1991, Kyrgyzstan became independent and elected Akayez as President, who became increasingly autocratic throughout his rule. Like many of the former Republics, there have been significant gender disparities in political leadership, employment, and wage rates. An unprecedented loss of jobs for women has resulted from the shrinking public sector and lack of opportunities in the agricultural sector. Likewise, women were affected by the dissolution of many state-run social programs, such as cutbacks in health care and child care. The reduction of the state-run activities has also resulted in decreasing enrollment rates for girls at the primary school level.
Following independence, the reemergence of the traditional patriarchal society has resulted in an increase in gender-based violence and disparities. There are allegations of domestic violence and abduction of women for forced marriage by Human Rights Watch. Despite laws on violence against women, police and officials fail to implement these laws; they have been reported to encourage women to reconcile with their abusive husbands. There is also an issue of "bride-kidnapping," where women are abducted for forced marriage. In general, women are faced with increasing disempowerment, with disparate opportunities for women for political leadership and government positions. In 2003, Kyrgyzstan adopted a new Constitution which provided a legal framework to support gender equality; however, the implementation of legislation remains questionable.
In 2005, the country underwent the "Tulip Revolution," overthrowing the Akayez's authoritarian government and electing Bakiyev as President. The Tulip Revolution resulted in a more democratic government, and Kyrgyzstan shows greater potential for making progress with a human rights agenda.
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