Photos: Kyrgyz student’s killing triggers protest against bride kidnapping

The issue of bride kidnapping in Kyrgzstan, known locally as Ala Kachuu, following the death of a 20-year-old student has prompted several thousand to take to the streets to protest. Abduction for marriage in the region is punishable by up to seven years in prison but critics say the law is still not enforced properly.

Updated on: Jul 18, 2018 11:38 AM IST

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A photo frame of Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, a 20-year-old medical student seen outside a tent during a traditional ceremony to mark 40 days since she was murdered in a police station by her kidnapper, at a nomadic yurt pitched next to her family home in the settlement of Sokuluk, northern Kyrgyzstan. “She was my youngest daughter. Humble and well-behaved,” the victim’s mother, Gulnara Kozhanaliyeva said through tears. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)

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Turdaaly wanted to become a paediatrician and marry her long-term boyfriend. Instead, in the month of May she was allegedly killed by a jealous kidnapper inside the confines of a provincial police station in Jayil district, in the northern Chui region. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)

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Relatives grieve by the Turdaaly’s grave. According to family members who saw her body, the 30-year-old suspect carved the young woman’s initial and that of her sweetheart into her chest, although police refute this. At least 23 police officers have been either disciplined, suspended or sacked for negligence after her suspected kidnapper allegedly stabbed her to death as she waited to give a witness statement against him. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)

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Relatives mourn the death of Turdaaly during a traditional ceremony. The practice of bride kidnapping, known locally as Ala Kachuu, has roots in Kyrgyzstan’s nomadic past and persisted into the Soviet era, albeit on a smaller scale. Some argue that the practice has survived because of social conservatism and a relatively weak tradition of arranged marriages in comparison with neighbouring countries, as well as poverty among rural families who save money for dowries. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)

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According to a government data, one fifth of Kyrgyz marriages occur following bride abductions but only one person was sentenced to jail. The problem is “in law enforcement and judicial practices,” said Umutai Dauletova, a gender coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan. Research that the UNDP conducted on bride kidnapping last year showed that around 70 percent of such criminal cases collapse, Dauletova added. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)

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The victim’s uncle said the family should take matters into their own hands.”If laws don’t work, then we should act. Eye for an eye, blood for blood,” Seyit Kozhanaliyev said. “How did the kidnapper manage to kill her so cruelly inside the walls of a police station?” he seethed. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)

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Following several rallies and protests against the killing, model and TV personality Assol Moldokmatova also played a key role in organising one of the two protests and argued that a mindset rooted in stigma, bans “and what would society think” reinforces bride kidnapping. The woman’s killing, which triggered “a wave of non-acceptance” regarding the practice, could help change that, said Moldokmatova, claiming she received some 7,000 messages from victims of gender-based violence after the rally. (Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP)