Red Cross Blogs

World Humanitarian Day: fighting bride kidnapping in Krygyzstan

By Sarah Oughton
August 19, 2011 at 9:30 am

Every day thousands of aid workers around the world are helping people in the most desperate of situations. On World Humanitarian Day (19 August), I’d like to honour one of those aid workers, her name is Gulbarchyn Ismailova, and she is helping women in her country take a stand against the practice of bride kidnapping.

Earlier this year I met Gulbarchyn, who works for the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent, and she introduced me to some women whose stories really moved me. You can hear them for yourself by watching our new video below.

In May, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported that, despite being a criminal offence, the practice of bride kidnappings in Kyrgyzstan – where women are literally kidnapped and held captive until they agree to marry their captor – is on the rise.

Kyz Korgon an organisation that campaigns against this tradition estimates up to 75 per cent of marriages of Kyrgyzstan take place as a result of bride kidnapping.

It’s a shocking statistic, and hearing how it causes some women to commit suicide brought home to me how Gulbarchyn and her colleagues at the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent are literally providing a lifeline to women who have nowhere else to turn.

And it’s not just the victims of bride kidnappings that they are helping.

Crippling poverty and the fact that education for girls is not highly valued, means women often face a daily struggle to survive in Kyrgyz society.

The British Red Cross is supporting the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent’s programme to improve the social and economic position of almost 50,000 vulnerable women living in the Kyrgyz cities of Bishkek, Jalal-Abad, Osh, Tokmak, and Karakol.

So on World Humanitarian Day I hope you have time to join me in honouring Gulbarchyn and the thousands like her around the world.

Please watch the video, share it with your friends and take note of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon’s words: “Let those we honour today inspire us to start our own journey to make the world a better place and bring our human family more closely together.”

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Tags: Kyrgyzstan, women, world humanitarian day

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 19th, 2011 at 9:30 am and is filed under Health and social care, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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