The Necessity of Central Asia’s Transformative Feminism

The Central Asian contingent at the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF), held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in mid-September, was small. The dozen women, mostly from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as a few from Uzbekistan and one Kazakh, were marked by their chattering in Russian and beautiful ikat chapans. They were also markedly more reserved than their sisters from elsewhere in Asia – a product of the quieter feminism they represent and different cultural context from which they descend.

Asel Dunganaeva, from Kyrgyzstan, explained to The Diplomat the different threads of feminism coursing through Central Asia, primarily splitting the movement into two types, although not mutually exclusive – transformative and radical.

“We have transformative feminism in Central Asia,” Dunganaeva, a grassroots activist with the ALGA rural women’s association, said, rooted in the “many aspects of our culture, our history, our family and also our Soviet past, when there were big opportunities for women because there was a communist regime.”

Then there is the feminism of the younger generation. “They are more radical,” Dunganaeva noted. “They are very passionate.”

Stereotypes

Zebunisso Sharipova, of the League of Women Lawyers of Tajikistan, spoke during the forum’s second day plenary, focused on envisioning a feminist future. She ended her remarks by expressing the desire for the women of Central Asia “to continue their journey toward the goal of social and gender justice, collecting their stories, their experiences, passing on their knowledge, and amplifying the voices of women in all their diversity – inspired by the experience of all sisters in Asia.”

Sharipova’s involvement with the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Leadership and Development (APWLD), which coordinated the APFF, began with her participation as a researcher in a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) project.

“When she came for the first time to Almaty for training, she did not understand,” Dunganaeva said, gesturing for Sharipova to explain further.

The idea of feminism as a positive phenomenon was new for Sharipova at the time. “There was a stereotype… that feminism is something radical,” she said. “These stereotypes were formulated by men. It was said that if a woman is a feminist, she's always showing her breasts, she's running away in the street and doing nothing... it is a woman who is against everything.”

But after engaging with APWLD and the regional research project, Sharipova’s perception changed.

“After the FPAR research, we found that there are common problems [across the region],” Sharipova explained. “But the research results also demonstrated that the women in our region are born feminists but unfortunately they can’t show this reality to society, to the community, because it is prohibited. There are lots of restrictions telling you that you can’t represent feelings in the way you want.”

Harmful Practices

Under the Soviet Union’s communist ideology, women were educated and encouraged to work. At the same time their role as mothers was highlighted as paramount, situating them firmly within a patriarchal structure. In the independence period, the Soviet notion that women are equal persists at a high level – as the ostentatiously floral displays every March 8 on International Women’s Day attest – but the lived experiences of women differ considerably from the ideal.

“We have many harmful practices in Central Asia – like bride kidnapping and early marriages,” Dunganaeva noted.

Sharipova said there was “physical, psychological and economic violence against women” in Tajikistan and one of the biggest problems was simply a lack of education.

“Due to the lack of education, women really depend on their partner – who is conducting the economic support – as well as from the family members,” she noted, explaining the unique family dynamics at play in Central Asia. Once married, women come under the dominion of not just their husbands, but their mothers-in-law.

“[Wives] are like a slave in the family,” Dunganaeva said.

Sharipova laid out an example: A man who migrates to Russia in search of work leaves a wife behind with his family. “In the period of his migration, the woman faces physical violence from his family members, she faces psychological violence from her mother-in-law, and she faces economic violence because she doesn't have access to her own funds.”

“Misogyny is much worse than patriarchy,” Dunganaeva said, stressing that the challenges faced by women are amplified when women are not in solidarity with other women.

There is a need to break the cycle of abusive relationships between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law, Sharipova and Dunganaeva argued. Many daughters-in-law who were treated poorly go on to become mothers-in-law who treat their own daughters-in-law poorly, and then as old women are straddled with another harmful set of stereotypes.

“They have been working all their life: unpaid work, unpaid domestic work. It’s not considered important,” Dunganaeva said. Widows, she explained, are often excluded from communities because of a prevailing belief that if a woman’s husband has died, it’s somehow her fault. “You are unhappy, that’s why your husband died,” Dunganaeva said, voicing the stigma.

Dunganaeva explained that in all of Central Asia’s countries, there are special laws pertaining to women, providing for equal rights and opportunities. Kyrgyzstan, she noted, has a 30 percent gender quota in local legislatures and the national parliament. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this year passed laws criminalizing domestic violence; Kyrgyzstan’s law on domestic violence was passed in 2017.

But when it comes to implementation, however, “Women are not satisfied.”

Struggle in the Central Asian Context

Other laws, particularly the passage of Kyrgyzstan’s “foreign representatives” act earlier this year, present additional difficulties for feminists in the country, along with those working among other marginalized populations.

Dunganaeva noted that according to the law, if organizations apply for foreign finding, they should register as “foreign representatives” and disclose a host of details, including names and addresses of organizers. The real threat, she argued, was related to confidentiality and privacy for individuals and organizations that work with vulnerable and marginalized populations, such as the LGBTQ community, ex-prisoners, and drug users. The law requires them to disclose information that may put them, and the communities they serve, at risk.

The law also separates out issue areas for reporting requirements. “Charity is okay, environmental issues, mother and child issues, and education” are all fine, she said. “But in this list there is nothing about rights, about political participation, about sexual rights, about orientation, about other issues, like media, and this is very strong mechanism for control of organizations.”

And here Dunganaeva again highlighted the importance of transformative feminism in Central Asia, of struggling within the systems that exist.

“We struggle, but we cannot struggle like [feminists] in other countries because we stand against a choice: our family, our security, our activism, the future of our kids…That's why [pursuing] these values of women's human rights could not be in confrontation.”

More radical feminist movements in Central Asia have faced tremendous difficulties. For example, in 2020 when Kyrgyz feminists orchestrated a public demonstration on International Women’s Day, it was disrupted by the police, who arrested more than 70 activists. More recently, in Kazakhstan earlier this year, Dinara Smailova – the founder of the NeMolchiKz Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides assistance to and advocates on behalf of survivors of sexual and domestic violence – was charged with a host of fraud and “false information” charges, and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Human Rights Watch, in reporting on Smailova’s case, noted that the fervor with which the authorities have pursued investigations into activists contrast sharply with the widespread failure of law enforcement to investigate cases of sexual or domestic violence.

“We find other ways to get our rights because we live in this context,” Dunganaeva concluded.