Challenging narratives on bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan: the case of women’s non-governmental organisations

Abstract

As bride kidnapping has grown associated with Kyrgyzstan, so has the literature on this issue in academia. The rich existing body of work, however, in focusing on political-elite driven reinforcement of tradition in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan’s search for national identity, often overlooks the societal narratives that justify the practice through the promotion of conservative discourses. It also ignores the important and relevant question of how to end bride kidnapping and who could lead this social change. This thesis, therefore, in order to fill these gaps, studies the narratives articulated by local women’s Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) working on the issue of bride kidnapping. It does so through interviews with nine representatives of seven Bishkek based-women’s NGOs. This research aims to reveal whether these local actors challenge dominant narratives on this practice, and if so, how and for what purpose. In finding that women’s NGOs largely comply with theoretical assumptions of counter-narrative theory, this research suggests that they can be considered actors of contestation and change on the issue of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, as long as the political context allows them to operate on the ground. Overall, this study brings to the fore the up until now invisible social forces that are local women’s NGOs.