Bride Abduction in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Marking a Shift Towards Patriarchy through Local Discourses of Shame and Tradition
Abstract
The apparent revival of non-consensual bride abduction in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is somewhat
surprising seventy years after the Soviet state banned the practice and introduced sweeping
legislation to emancipate women. This article relies on local discourses of shame and tradition to
explain changing marriage practices and to mark a shift towards greater patriarchy in post-Soviet
Central Asia. Discourses of shame are mobilized by local actors in support of the popular view that a
woman should ‘stay’ after being abducted. Women can and do resist abductions, but they risk
dealing with the burden of shame. Further, in Kyrgyzstan, where bride abduction is increasingly
re-imagined as a national tradition, women and activists who challenge this practice can be viewed
as traitors to their ethnicity. In post-Soviet society, these discourses of shame and tradition have
helped men assert further control over female mobility and female sexuality.
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