{"id":14283,"date":"2021-01-27T10:43:41","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T10:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=155113"},"modified":"2021-01-27T10:43:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T10:43:41","slug":"kyrgyzstan-seeks-to-stop-wives-from-staying-in-abusive-marriages-at-all-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/27\/kyrgyzstan-seeks-to-stop-wives-from-staying-in-abusive-marriages-at-all-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrgyzstan Seeks To Stop Wives From Staying In Abusive Marriages At All Costs \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
BISHKEK — 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.<\/p>\n
Among them was Aruuzat, a 33-year-old schoolteacher from the city of Karakol who died in the hospital on December 29 after consuming a fatal dose of vinegar.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Aruuzat, a mother of three, also sent photos of what she said was her bruised body after the latest abuse at the hands of her spouse.<\/p>\n
\n\nThey don\u2019t get any support from their relatives, and they also fear disgrace in society. Therefore, most of them go back to their abusive husbands in the end.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Her colleagues told RFE\/RL they had been aware of her situation but that she didn\u2019t want them to report her husband to the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had told us about the beatings. She said if she ran away, her husband would find her using the phone geolocation and torture her even more,\u201d Aruuzat\u2019s colleague and friend, Nazira, told RFE\/RL. \u201cShe was terrified of her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was only after Aruuzat\u2019s death that her colleagues reported to police about the domestic abuse she had suffered. Despite that, Aruuzat\u2019s mother, siblings, and other relatives still remain silent on the subject.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Impunity often remains a norm for domestic violence in the Central Asian country, where some women — like Aruuzat — end up paying the ultimate price.<\/p>\n
But the Kyrgyz parliament is finally taking a decisive step to prevent families from putting pressure on the victims of domestic violence and to reconcile with their abusive spouses.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The bill also calls for harsher punishments for domestic violence.<\/p>\n