[ Nazgul ] My daughter showed me a photo on her phone 'Mum, I've met a guy on Instagram'
[ Nazgul ] All the kids meet on Instagram now
[ Nazgul ] When I first saw that photograph, I said to my daughter right away,
the guy looked like a maniac
[ Nazgul ] I charged my phone and checked Instagram
[ Nazgul ] I read of a strangled girl... I saw the picture: the same car
[ Nazgul ] My hands started shaking: 'Hey! Baktygul! Ayzada has been strangled!'
[ Baktygul ] Kyrgyz people, come to your senses, please
[ Baktygul ] Please don't do this!
[ Baktygul ] You too have sisters, daughters and granddaughters!
[ Baktygul ] Imagine how it feels to bury your daughter... granddaughter, or little sister
[ Baktygul ] I'd never wish it on anyone, honestly! 00:01:49:00 00:01: [ title ] STOLEN BRIDES, STOLEN LIVES
[ woman ] We demand a commission of journalists and the public
to conduct an impartial investigation!
[ woman ] We don't trust the Interior Ministry!
[ people ] Resign! Resign!
[ Baktygul ] I think if some wealthy government official's daughter got kidnapped,
she would've been found in two hours
BAKTYGUL SHAKENOVA AYZADA’S AUNT
[ Baktygul ] But we're ordinary people, so nothing was done!
[ Beishegul ] She could speak Turkish, Korean and Russian fluently
[ Beishegul ] She also spoke English
[ Beishegul ] She cared for her mum
[ Beishegul ] She wanted to buy her a house
BEISHEGUL OMUROVA AYZADA’S GRANDMOTHER
[ Beishegul ] She was the only daughter
[ Beishegul ] It'll be tough for her mum, she's on her own now
[ Nazgul ] Once, she came home and started crying. I asked her why?
NAZGUL SHAKENOVA AYZADA’S MOTHER
[ Nazgul ] She said she'd seen little children from an orphanage
[ Nazgul ] She'd hugged the children...
and felt so sorry for them
[ Nazgul ] She said, 'Mum, God willing, when we have our own house, we'll adopt 2 girls and 2 boys
[ Nazgul ] I said, 'Of course we will'
[ voice ] Don't touch me!
[ voice ] - Let me go! Don't touch me [ voice2 ] - Hold her! Come on, hold her!
[ Kamilla ] I was 14, I had finished 7th grade
[ Kamilla ] It happened on August 7,
at 12 o'clock at night
[ Kamilla ] I was abducted from my house!
[ Kamilla ] Someone was banging on the door
'Open up!' he said
[ Kamilla ] He started threatening me
[ Kamilla ] He said that he'd go and tell my parents...
that for over a year...
[ Kamilla ] I'd been his girlfriend. He had a car parked some distance away
[ Kamilla ] I tried to talk to him. I got in the car and we drove off
[ Kamilla ] Then they started looking…
[ Kamilla ] His father called. He hid it at first, but then admitted he'd kidnapped a girl,
an underage girl!
[ Kamilla ] Then my parents found out about it. They called me, I was scared to go home
[ Azamat ] Parents don't always take them back
AZAMAT ATTOKUROV HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
[ Azamat ] They say, 'The shame! How can we look relatives and neighbours in the eye?'
and try to persuade them to make up
[ Azamat ] But caring parents say: 'Daughter, it's up to you, you don't have to…'
[ Azamat ] That's when girls need support from parents and close family
[ Azamat ] If a girl is abducted, she can't stay at that house, no matter what
[ Azamat ] You can't start a family with violence, 'Iech konda uyaat', which means:
'shame won't make up for the tears a girl sheds and for her destroyed life'
[ Azamat ] That's why parents, fathers and brothers must protect every girl
[ Kamilla ] I knew that he'd have to go to prison
[ Kamilla ] I didn't want him to spend half his life in prison because of me
[ Kamilla ] Of course, at 18 he didn't know what he was doing
[ Kamilla ] I pitied him
[ Kamilla ] On August 17, we had a wedding
[ Kamilla ] One month after that, my classmates started 9th grade, and I was...
already married!
[ Nazgul ] One evening, as we drank tea, my daughter said:
'Mum, I think this guy is mentally ill!'
[ Nazgul ] I asked her what happened
[ Nazgul ] My daughter told me what he said:
NAZGUL SHAKENOVA AYZADA’S MOTHER
'You're lonely, your mother's lonely. You've no brothers or sisters, and no father,
and there's no one to protect you'
[ Nazgul ] I asked why he would say that?
[ Nazgul ] He said...
[ Nazgul ] He said to my daughter:
'You're going to be mine, and there's nothing you can do about it'
[ Nazgul ] Ayzada doesn't drink. She doesn't smoke. She's really into sport and works out
[ Nazgul ] She was at the famous Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University
[ Nazgul ] When I said that, he started laughing
[ Nazgul ] But it didn't seem funny to me. He was just mocking me
[ Nazgul ] I told him, the guy's a creep! I know! I want you to find my daughter tonight
[ Nazgul ] He said OK, but that he was office-based and only dealt with paperwork
and that investigator Iskander would start looking for her
[ Nazgul ] Perhaps he'd taken her phone
[ Nazgul ] I kept calling and finally my daughter answered
[ Nazgul ] She said everything was alright and that she was coming home
[ Nazgul ] She sounded distressed
[ Nazgul ] From the sound of her voice, she was asking for help
'Come back soon, my Ayzada! Where are you?'
[ Beishegul ] It's as if my eyes were gouged out and thrown away
[ Beishegul ] They say 4 people who were involved were detained
[ Beishegul ] They must be brought to justice! They must face trial, it must be an open trial
[ Beishegul ] To make sure it never happens again
[ Beishegul ] And the police officer who laughed must also be held accountable!
[ Turdaly ] We started the chase
and called the police
[ Turdaly ] I took my own car. We were driving on Chuy Avenue when a police car joined us
[ Turdaly ] They were with us till we passed a car dealer
[ Turdaly ] They said, 'File a report, all units know, there's no escaping the city'
TURDALY KOZHONALIEV BURULAY’S FATHER
[ Turdaly ] I said to them, 'do domestic irons have a plus sign or letters on them?
[ Turdaly ] Like on an animal branding iron?'
[ Turdaly ] They sent him to prison for 20 years but 20 years aren't enough for what he did
[ Turdaly ] I don't know, we may need to check where he's being held
[ Turdaly ] We can't trust the law, I suspect they might have let him go
[ Azamat ] The year before last, 66 women perished
AZAMAT ATTOKUROV HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
[ Azamat ] The number is rising, right?
[ Azamat ] But we need a decrease in bride kidnapping...
[ Azamat ] That's our ultimate goal
[ Azamat ] We have to fight it
[ Azamat ] And that's not just up to me or to lawyers
[ Azamat ] It's a problem for all Kyrgyzstan. There should be zero tolerance of such abduction in society
[ Azamat ] They make it sound romantic, 'stealing' a bride - but it's abduction
or in English, 'kidnapping', it's that!
[ woman2 ] Listen to me, honey
[ woman2 ] Step over me, and you'll never be happy again
[ woman2 ] You wouldn't dare step over an old lady, would you?
[ man ] Knock it off!
[ woman3 ] Zenarasa Anaikulova also endured a kidnapping...
[ Assol ] People are afraid to talk about it
ASSOL MOLDOKMATOVA, CHAIRPERSON, EURASIAN SOCIAL ECOLOGY COMMISSION
because there's pressure from relatives, tensions, reproaches, humiliation
[ Assol ] The reason women consent to violence...
lies first of all in conservatism
[ Assol ] It lies...
probably, in this very pertinent phrase,
'el emne deyt',
'What will people say?' What will neighbours say?
[ Assol ] What will friends say? How will you leave? You'll get a divorce?
[ Assol ] Where will your children go?
[ Assol ] There are many, many reasons
[ Assol ] Unfortunately, sometimes it's overwhelming
[ Assol ] There are lots of cases
[ Assol ] When we announced the campaign
for women's rights, more than 7,000 Kyrgyz women came forward,
who had all gone through...
an abduction experience
[ Assol ] Unfortunately, some had died, so their relatives wrote in
[ Assol ] Some of them...
wrote that they were crippled for life
[ Assol ] They had cut their wrists, trying to take their own lives
[ Kamilla ] He does know about...
my former life
he knows everything
[ Kamilla ] We're from the same village
[ Kamilla ] We're friends, he's a good husband. My second marriage is good
[ Kamilla ] He respects,
appreciates,
and loves me
[ Kamilla ] I love them
[ Kamilla ] They also call me, Mum
[ Kamilla ] When I get home, they're waiting
[ Kamilla ] Of course, we fear them being taken. All in her own time
[ Kamilla ] When she's 24 or 25, she'll marry
[ Kamilla ] Ala Kachuu must be outlawed
[ Kamilla ] So that life for girls will not be as difficult as it is
[ Kamilla ] So they can be happy
[ Azamat ] My rural classmates don't get it
[ Azamat ] They can't see how there can be equality between men and women, how it's possible
[ Azamat ] City people are more understanding
[ Natalya ] We have gender equality by law and that's a big problem for the police
[ Natalya ] Because many criteria mean women can't join, and aren't taken seriously, they can't serve
NATALYA NIKITENKO KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT MEMBER
[ Natalya ] That's the men's viewpoint
[ Natalya ] We've hardened penalties for kidnapping
[ Natalya ] Under the penal code, it can mean 10 years, 10 years of lost freedom
[ Natalya ] Nevertheless, such archaic acts, the objectification of a person
is not yet seen as a stigma, as something negative
[ Natalya ] Still, in our 21st century society!
[ voice3 ] Driving by the Mega-City housing complex,
[ voice3 ] I saw a girl being pushed into a car
[ voice3 ] I started beeping at them
[ voice3 ] She shoved two guys, pushed them out of the car
[ voice3 ] I caught up with them near a florist, and the car stopped
[ voice3 ] As we got out of the car,
the police came
[ voice3 ] They showed their IDs, and detained the guys and the girl
[ Banur ] I think it's about legalisation
[ Banur ] At our round tables, law enforcement officers said:
BANUR ABDIEVA, DIRECTOR, CENTRE OF CIVIC INITIATIVES “LEADER”
'There's no need for this clause, it should be cut from the penal code
[ Banur ] It should be punishable under the 'Kidnapping' clause
[ Banur ] But others, mostly men, said: 'But that's different!'
[ Aigul ] Usually, several young men take part in a kidnapping
AIGUL ALYMKULOVA DIRECTOR, “HELP THE WOMEN” CENTRE
[ Aigul ] They're usually, the young man's friends, families get involved too,
the young man's family and the girl's family
[ Aigul ] Some respected people from the village play a part, sadly, religious figures too
[ Aigul ] Even though many prominent religious figures say bride kidnapping goes against Islam
[ Natalya ] Accounts vary
[ Natalya ] According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs...
more than 8,000 cases are reported each year
[ Natalya ] According to human rights organisations and civil rights activists,
cases aren't even counted in thousands, but potentially in the tens of thousands
[ Natalya ] These are the unseen cases
[ Natalya ] Unfortunately, there is a large proportion of them in our country
[ man2 ] If you steal, you don't pay as much, it's called a bride price
[ man2 ] If you pay the price, make an agreement, throw a good wedding party
it'll cost you more than 150,000
[ man2 ] But if you steal, just 70,000 will be enough
[ Kadyr ] The origin of the Ala Kachuu tradition is in the ancient Turkic, or rather, Kipchak custom
KADYR MALIKOV, DEPUTY HEAD, KYRGYZSTAN MUSLIM SPIRITUAL ADMINISTRATION
of kidnapping a bride, but...
with her express consent
[ Kadyr ] When a young man couldn't reimburse or pay the bride price...
to his bride's parents,
he resorted to this strategy, with mutual consent, to trigger negotiations
[ Kadyr ] That custom, by all accounts, a good custom
has somehow been transformed
into the blatant kidnapping of a bride, an abduction
[ Kadyr ] Here's the number
for example
[ Kadyr ] Where it happened
[ Kadyr ] The groom's details here... and the bride... their passport details
[ Kadyr ] It says here: with the consent of the woman, the bride, and the consent of the groom
[ Kadyr ] It says they enter into marriage by mutual consent
[ Kadyr ] It's a special kind of registration. Before, a mullah was asked to make a house call,
and it was established practice...
they kidnapped a bride,
called a duty mullah who officiated a wedding, despite a lack of consent
[ Kadyr ] It all led to tragedies
[ Kadyr ] The best outcome was that the family just fell apart
[ Kadyr ] The worst outcomes ended in suicide
[ Azamat ] I have three daughters, I worry about their future
[ Azamat ] I don't want them to go through it
[ Azamat ] Not Ala Kachuu, bride kidnapping or domestic violence
[ Baktygul ] I hope that after Burulay and Ayzada...
people will look at Ala Kachuu differently
[ Baktygul ] They must see it differently
[ Baktygul ] We're so used to the idea that Ala Kachuu is perfectly normal
[ Baktygul ] Like it's all fine. A matchmaker will come and make it right
[ Baktygul ] Now, they can't
[ Baktygul ] After what happened, I think...
we need a new law
[ Baktygul ] They must have a good look at bride kidnapping
[ Turdaly ] They must put an end to it
[ Turdaly ] That's why I support capital punishment
[ Turdaly ] They say bride kidnapping is not decreasing
TURDALY KOZHONALIEV BURULAY’S FATHER
[ Turdaly ] It's just growing
[ Turdaly ] We simply need a good law
[ Turdaly ] If we had that...
it would be stopped
[ Turdaly ] If not...
it will keep going, on and on