Bride Kidnapping In Kyrgyzstan –Crime Or Tradition.

In rural parts of Kyrgyzstan, the family of Kubanti, who is 18 years old, is preparing a feast for their son's wedding. Where families, friends, and relatives are gathered in the backyard planning a wedding, just a few meters away Kubanti, with his friends and cousin is planning an abduction- the abduction of his would be wife, Nazgul.

One town over, on the orders of Kubanti, Nazgul's best friend lures her to the town's watering hole and oblivious of her intentions Nazgul complies.

A kidnapping on the town's street, a small minivan, a would-be bride and a wedding.
Bride kidnapping or bridenapping is a very common practice in countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus region, parts of Africa, Tzeltal in Mexico and in Roman Europe.

Bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, known as ala kachun (which literally translates to take and flee), is supposedly an ancient custom that has made a major comeback since the fall of communism.

According to the tradition, the would-be groom with his friends and cousins kidnaps the would-be bride and take the bride to his house. The groom family then pressures the girl to give in to get married by accepting the white scarf. Only after the wedding does the groom's family visits the bride's family to ask for their blessings.

The bride kidnapping is of two types.
Consensual, where the people and families know each other and the whole process is nothing but a role play which often seems so real that the difference is simply really hard to tell.

In 2015, bride kidnapping was included in the victimization survey in Kyrgyzstan where 14% of married women said that they were kidnapped and two third of them were consensual.

Although bride kidnapping is illegal since 1994, it is rarely prosecuted.
Burulai Turdally Kyzy, a 20-year-old victim of bride kidnapping, was stabbed in the Police Station by a 29-year-old man who apparently wanted her to be his wife.

With high rates of divorce, suicide and domestic abuse, it was only in 2013 that the legislation started penalizing the kidnappers up to 10 years of jail and child marriages were officially banned in 2016.

Russel Klienbach, the founder of Kyz Korgon Institute, a non-governmental organization that works to abolish bride kidnapping, argues that the practice has never been the part of the Kyrgyz tradition. The main source of the Kyrgyz tradition is their national epic Manas but nowhere in it does the hero kidnaps his wife or even reference the practice.

Started in the 19th century and becoming popular in the '40s and '50s, the practice still continues and the women still suffer.

With rising media coverage, intervention from the UN and rise in women right movements have made the Kyrgyz government take measures on the very sensitive issues about which even talking in rural part is a taboo.