Kyrgyzstan Seeks To Stop Wives From Staying In Abusive Marriages At All Costs

[rpannier]

In the space of a single month, three Kyrgyz women from different walks of life killed themselves in the northeastern Issyk-Kul region in separate cases linked to domestic violence.

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In a WhatsApp message sent from her deathbed, Aruuzat told her colleagues that she had decided to end her life because her family wanted her to reconcile with her abusive husband despite being beaten by him.

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It’s a long-standing tradition for abuse to be quietly accepted in Kyrgyzstan -- a country where divorce is shunned and women are encouraged to keep their marriages intact at almost any cost.

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In an unprecedented move, the parliament passed a bill that bans such reconciliation if one of the parties in the marriage subjects his or her spouse to physical or mental abuse.

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“Now, the bill introduces new standards that prohibit the reconciliation of the parties if it puts one of the parties in harm’s way, or in cases in which one of the parties has already been subjected to violence,” Nikitenko said.

https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-abusive-marriage-tradition-reconciliation/31071481.html


It'll be interesting to watch how well this works. It's difficult to overcome centuries of cultural beliefs
It is a start
And Kyrgyz Lawmakers Ishak Pirmatov and Natalia Nikitenko have signaled this is only the beginning

[procon]

1. Women's rights challenges a millennium of patriarchy.nt