WUNRN
Kyrgyzstan
- Bride Theft Custom Fuels Divorce Rate
Eight out of ten divorces in Kyrgyzstan involve brides who were “stolen” by
their husbands, women’s rights groups say.
According
to this controversial tradition, men kidnap women and pressure them into
marriage, after which the bride’s family is presented with a fait accompli.
“I had a boyfriend then, but I had never even spoken to the young man who stole
me; I didn’t like him,” said Aida, who got divorced three years ago from the
man who kidnapped her.
“We want to make people understand that bride-stealing is a crime, not a
tradition,” said a woman working at a crisis centre, one of several groups
trying to change social attitudes about the custom.
IWPR reporter Janar Akaev also interviewed Jumagul-Eje, a woman who is planning
to arrange for a bride to be kidnapped so her son can get married.
“If the lad steals the bride it works out a lot cheaper – four pillows and four
blankets [gift for bride’s family], and that’ll do fine," she said in
justification. "But if you arrange it, the costs will be much higher, at
list 30,000 or 40,000 soms [up to 950 US dollars] as the ‘bride-price’, and
that’s the minimum.”
Other villagers, too, said the custom had worked for them, and after some
initial friction between the two families, things had settled down.
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