Kyrgyzstan: Bride-Kidnapping, Domestic Abuse Rampant
Despite Progressive Laws, Violence Against Women Goes Unpunished
September 26, 2006
Related Materials:
Reconciled to Violence
Many Kyrgyz officials portray bride-kidnapping as a harmless ritual, a voluntary practice. But
women all over the country paint a very different picture. Abduction for forced marriage is a
violent and traumatic experience that involves taking a woman against her will. It’s a serious
crime, and police need to start treating it that way.
Acacia Shields, senior researcher
Kyrgyzstan’s government is allowing domestic violence and the abduction of women for forced marriage
to continue with impunity, Human Rights Watch said today in its first report on human rights violations in
this Central Asian country. “Police in Kyrgyzstan have an obligation to ensure that perpetrators of
domestic violence and bride-kidnapping are brought to justice,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central
Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But more often than not, they simply don’t treat these as serious
crimes.” The 140-page report, “Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan,” concludes that although Kyrgyzstan has progressive laws on
violence against women, police and other authorities fail to implement them. As a result, women remain
in danger and without access to justice. Based on in-depth, firsthand interviews with victims of violence,
the report tells the stories of women who have been kicked, strangled, beaten, stabbed and sexually
assaulted by their husbands. The report also tracks what happens when women seek help from the
authorities. Instead of attaining safety and access to justice, they are encouraged to reconcile with their
abusers. A 38-year-old woman, “Elmira E.” told Human Rights Watch about being beaten by her husband
for years and hospitalized, once for a knife wound and another time for a concussion after he kicked her in
the head. “The situation was so bad that I thought it would be better if he killed me,” she said. Women
suffer serious and permanent injury from domestic violence, and many are emotionally traumatized by the
abuse, even years later. Left with nowhere to go and no access to police protection, many women lose
hope. The report also examines the controversial issue of “bride-kidnapping,” or abduction for forced
marriage. Women and girl victims of bride-kidnapping describe being grabbed, forced into cars, isolated
and in some cases raped by their abductors. “Many Kyrgyz officials portray bride-kidnapping as a
harmless ritual, a voluntary practice. But women all over the country paint a very different picture,” said
Acacia Shields, senior researcher and author of the report. “Abduction for forced marriage is a violent and
traumatic experience that involves taking a woman against her will. It’s a serious crime, and police need
to start treating it that way.” Despite government claims that abduction of women by complete strangers is
rare, many women told Human Rights Watch that they were kidnapped by men they did not know. In
other cases, acquaintances use deception to kidnap a woman – often inviting her to a party or offering her
a ride home from school, and then shuttling her off without warning to the home of her
abductor. Seventeen-year-old “Feruza F.” was raped on her wedding night by her abductor, a stranger
until that day: “He forced me to have sex with him the first night. A woman came to say that they’d
prepared my bed; I thought I’d be alone. I lay down to sleep, then he came in and he forced himself on me
and raped me. I was saying no and he still did it. I cried and screamed…There were other times, too, when
he raped me. I didn’t ever want to go to sleep.” Human Rights Watch challenged the government of
President Kurmanbek Bakiev to make ending violence against women a priority. The report called on the
government to implement its domestic violence law, including by issuing guidelines for protection orders
and directing police to enforce such orders. It also called on the government to enforce existing criminal
1
laws against assault and abduction and to prosecute perpetrators of domestic violence and kidnapping to
the fullest extent of the law. Kyrgyzstan’s international donors should increase financial and technical
assistance to civil society organizations providing services to women and girls who have suffered
violence. “A strong and sustained international focus on this issue, coupled with concrete support, is
needed if we are to see real improvement in the lives of women in Kyrgyzstan,” said Cartner.
By Iva Skoch — Special to GlobalPost
Published: October 12, 2010 14:40 ET in Offbeat
Many who were kidnapped claim they went on to live a perfectly happy life. “Other women, typically
older women, are the ones trying to convince the girls to do it and encouraging the practice to flourish,"
Ryskulova said. "They will say, 'see, I also got married this way and I'm happy.'"
Anara Niyazova, head of the law department at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University has a suggestion
for halting the practice: stop romanticizing bride kidnapping, and don't infer that the girls were asking for
it.
“Our culture has a stereotype that girls should behave in ways that's imposed by society. That she
provoked the kidnapping herself,” she said.
As a result women here rarely start criminal proceedings, even though bride kidnapping has been
outlawed since 1994. Moreover, rural youth don't see other marriage strategies. "Village men hardly ever
interact with women," Niyazova said. "They sit in a sheep market and when they see somebody they like,
they will just take them. [Kidnapping] is caused by an absence of dating skills.”
Educated Kyrgyz women, such as Nuraiym Orozobekova, agree that dating methods need to be taught
and women need to push back. She became an anti-kidnapping advocate after her mother told her a family
friend's son was planning to kidnap her.
"I didn't want to get married this way. I decided to stop this criminal activity," she said. The challenge,
Orozobekova said, is that many people in Kyrgyzstan — male and female — still don't see a huge value
in women. "It used to be that if you stole a domestic animal they would cut off your finger," she said.
"But stealing a woman wasn't prohibited."
Orozobekova has successfully avoided being abducted. She is still single, but now that she is 27, she is
most probably too old to be a prime target for kidnapping.
"If a boy likes me, he will have to use another method. If he prefers kidnapping, it just means he isn't
confident enough to get a girl another way," she said.
"I'm not a sheep. I'd like to choose, too."
Editor's note: Wanderlust is a regular GlobalPost series on global sex and relationship issues written by
Iva Skoch, who is now traveling the world writing a book on the subject.
2
GlobalPost featured this article in "Great Weekend Reads," a free compilation of the week's most colorful
stories. To receive Great Weekend Reads by e-mail, let us know at editors@globalpost.com.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Munara didn't want to be kidnapped.
Some Kyrgyz girls look forward to the time they get "chosen" by a man, but Munara, 18, already had a
boyfriend and hoped to marry him.
"If only my boyfriend managed to kidnap me first," she said.
Six months ago two men stuffed her into an old Lada automobile and drove her to their house.
"I really don't want to be kidnapped. I don't want to get married," she said she screamed at them. "Please
let me go," she begged.
They didn't. Few men here take a woman's pleading seriously because girls playing hard-to-get is par-forthe-course during the ritual of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, the mountainous Central Asian country
that has suffered brutal inter-ethnic clashes since April. Violence against women has also been on the rise,
according to Talaigul Isakunova, an expert on gender issues who works with the Ministry of Internal
Affairs.
The practice was famously parodied in the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make
Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, in which the main character kidnaps Pamela Anderson because he
wants to marry her. This scene is a fictional, yet disturbingly accurate demonstration of the methodology
behind bride stealing, except that it is even more prevalent in Kyrgyzstan than Kazakhstan.
Approximately one third of Kyrgyz women marry by means of non-consensual kidnapping, according to
Russell Kleinbach, a sociology professor at Philadelphia University who has conducted extensive research
into the custom of "kyz-ala kachuu," (or "grab and run") in Kyrgyzstan.
The rise in kidnapping in recent years is mainly economic.
"It's less expensive," said Kleinbach. People returned to kidnapping because Kyrgyzstan has faced severe
economic problems in the last two decades, and many villagers have been able to avoid paying a generous
"kalym," (bride price) dowry and providing plentiful wedding gifts by stealing a woman.
The other reason is social, Kleinbach says.
"It's an alternative for young men who were otherwise dependent on their parents to find them a bride," he
said. "The tradition in Kyrgyzstan was for marriages to be arranged."
People in Kyrgyzstan often view bride kidnapping as an ethnic tradition, but studies show that this custom
has evolved from a mutual decision into a rather violent incarnation. As a nomadic people, young Kyrgyz
couples sometimes used to "elope" to avoid disapproval of their parents. But most Kyrgyz have since
settled in villages and, according to Kleinbach, "if you are in a village, kidnapping doesn't really work
well."
Kadyr Malikov, director of the Religion, Law and Policy research center in Bishkek said that while 80
percent of people in Kyrgyzstan are Muslim, the custom of kidnapping doesn't stem from Islam.
3
"Kidnapping or marrying without agreement is a big sin in Islam," he said. "Islam tries to regulate the
practice by only marrying couples who both agree with the wedding."
But girls like Munara are typically pressured to consent. Once she was brought into the house of the
kidnapper, the matriarch of the family put a white scarf on her head, thereby proclaiming the couple
married. The groom then went to the bride's parents' house, announced he kidnapped their daughter and
offered kalym of approximately $700 in exchange for her.
Although Munara didn't want to marry him, her family accepted the price and forced her to stay, because
bringing a kidnapped girl back into the family home would bring an unbearable stigma. It's generally
assumed she'd no longer be a virgin and in a country where the "white sheet test" is still often used,
nobody else would marry her.
Bubusara Ryskulova, director of the Sezim crisis center for women in Bishkek said many girls agree to
live with the man who kidnapped them because they are shamed into it. "They are told from an early
childhood to respect their elders and the elders are telling them to put the white scarf on their head,” she
said. “It's very big psychological pressure.”
"If the girl doesn't agree, she might be raped, have a baby and now she really can't leave,” said Ryskulova.
“And the men will sometimes say 'you never loved me anyway' which just gives them another excuse for
more violence.”
But not all women are unhappy in these non-consensual marriages.
Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice
throughout history and around the world in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry. Bride
kidnapping still occurs in countries spanning Central Asia, the Caucasus region, and parts of Africa, and
among peoples as diverse as the Hmong in southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and the Romani in
Europe. In most countries, bride kidnapping is considered a sex crime, rather than a valid form of
marriage. Some versions of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage
and arranged marriage. The term is sometimes used to include not only abductions, but also elopements,
in which a couple runs away together and seeks the consent of their parents later; these may be referred to
as non-consensual and consensual abductions respectively. However, even when the practice is against
the law, judicial enforcement remains lax, particularly in Kyrgyzstan, and Chechnya.
Bride kidnapping is distinguished from raptio in that the former refers to the abduction of one woman by
one man (and his friends and relatives), and is still a widespread practice, whereas the latter refers to the
large scale abduction of women by groups of men, possibly in a time of war. (See also war rape)
Some modern cultures maintain a symbolic kidnapping of the bride by the groom as part of the ritual and
traditions surrounding a wedding, in a nod to the practice of bride kidnapping which may have figured in
that culture's history. According to some sources, the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based
on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with
the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month.[1]
4
Though the motivations behind bride kidnapping vary by region, the cultures with traditions of marriage
by abduction are generally patriarchal with a strong social stigma on sex or pregnancy outside of marriage
and illegitimate births.[2] In some cases, the couple collude together to elope under the guise of a bride
kidnapping, presenting their parents with a fait accompli. In most cases, however, the men who resort to
capturing a wife are often of lower social status, because of poverty, disease, poor character or
criminality.[3] They are sometimes deterred from legitimately seeking a wife because of the payment the
woman's family expects, the bride price (not to be confused with a dowry, paid by the woman's family).[4]
In agricultural and patriarchal societies, where bride kidnapping is most common, children work for their
family. A woman leaves her birth family, geographically and economically, when she marries, becoming
instead a member of the groom's family. (See patrilocality for an anthropological explanation.) Due to this
loss of labor, the women's families do not want their daughters to marry young, and demand economic
compensation (the aforementioned bride price) when they do leave them. This conflicts with the interests
of men, who want to marry early, as marriage means an increase in social status, and the interests of the
groom's family, who will gain another pair of hands for the family farm, business or home.[5] Depending
on the legal system under which she lives, the consent of the woman may not be a factor in judging the
validity of the marriage.
In addition to the issue of forced marriage, bride kidnapping may have other negative effects on the young
women and their society. For example, fear of kidnap is cited as a reason for the lower participation of
girls in the education system.[6]
The mechanism of marriage by abduction varies by location. This article surveys the phenomenon by
region, drawing on common cultural factors for patterns, but noting country-level distinctions.
Africa
In three African countries, bride kidnapping often takes the form of abduction followed by rape.
[edit] Rwanda
Bride-kidnapping is prevalent in areas of Rwanda.[7] Often the abductor kidnaps the woman from her
household or follows her outside and abducts her. He and his companions may then rape the woman to
ensure that she submits to the marriage.[8] The family of the woman either then feels obliged to consent to
the union,[9] or is forced to when the kidnapper impregnates her, as pregnant women are not seen as
eligible for marriage. The marriage is confirmed with a ceremony that follows the abduction by several
days. In such ceremonies, the abductor asks his bride's parents to forgive him for abducting their
daughter.[9] The man may offer a cow, money, or other goods as restitution to his bride's family.[10]
Bride-kidnap marriages in Rwanda often lead to poor outcomes. Human rights workers report that one
third of men who abduct their wives abandon them, leaving the wife without support and impaired in
finding a future marriage.[9] Additionally, with the growing frequency of bride-kidnapping, some men
choose not to solemnize their marriage at all, keeping their "bride" as a concubine.[9] Domestic violence is
also common and is not illegal.[11]
5
Bride kidnapping is not specifically outlawed in Rwanda, though violent abductions are punishable as
rape. According to a criminal justice official, bride kidnappers are virtually never tried in court: "'When
we hear about abduction, we hunt down the kidnappers and arrest them and sometimes the husband, too.
But we're forced to let them all go several days later,' says an official at the criminal investigation
department in Nyagatare, the capital of Umutara."[9] Women's rights groups have attempted to reverse the
tradition by conducting awareness raising campaigns and by promoting gender equity, but the progress
has been limited so far.[9]
[edit] Ethiopia
In parts of Ethiopia, a man working in co-ordination with his friends may kidnap a girl or woman,
sometimes using a horse to ease the escape.[12] The abductor will then hide his intended bride and rape her
until she becomes pregnant. As the father of the woman's child, the man can claim her as his wife.[13]
Subsequently, the kidnapper may try to negotiate a bride price with the village elders to legitimize the
marriage.[13] Girls as young as eleven years old are reported to have been kidnapped for the purpose of
marriage.[14] Though Ethiopia criminalized such abductions and raised the marriageable age to 18 in 2004,
this law has not been well implemented.[15]
The bride of the forced marriage may suffer from both the physical consequences of early sexual activity
and pregnancy, and the early end to her education.[16] Abductions of schoolgirls still occur in Oromiya, for
example.[17] Women and girls who are kidnapped may also be exposed to sexually transmitted diseases
such as HIV/AIDS.[16]
[edit] Kenya
Forced marriages continue to be a problem for young girls in Kenya. The United States Department of
State reports that children and young teenaged girls (aged ten and up) are sometimes married to men two
decades or more their seniors.[18]
Marriage by abduction used to be, and to some extent still is, a customary practice for the Kisii ethnic
group. In their practice, the abductor kidnaps the woman forcibly and rapes her in an attempt to
impregnate her. The "bride" is then coerced through the stigma of pregnancy and rape to marry her
abductor. Though most common in the late 19th century through the 1960s, such marriage abductions still
occur occasionally.[19]
[edit] Central Asia
Map of Central Asia
6
In Central Asia, bride kidnapping exists in Kyrgyzstan,[20] Kazakhstan,[21] Turkmenistan,[22] and
Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan.[23] Though origin of the tradition in the region is
disputed,[24] the rate of nonconsensual bride kidnappings appears to be increasing in several countries
throughout Central Asia as the political and economic climate changes.[25]
[edit] Kyrgyzstan
It has been suggested that portions of this article be moved into Ala kachuu. (Discuss)
Despite its illegality,[26] in many primarily rural areas, bride kidnapping, known as ala kachuu (to take and
flee), is an accepted and common way of taking a wife.[27] Studies by researcher Russell Kleinbach have
found that approximately half of all Kyrgyz marriages include bride kidnapping; of those kidnappings,
two thirds are non-consensual.[28]
In one model of bride kidnapping present in Kyrgyzstan, the young man decides he wishes to marry and
asks his parents to pick him out a suitable bride, or is told by his parents that it is time he settled down and
that they have found someone of the right background and attributes. (In this sense, it may be similar to an
arranged marriage, although the arranging is all on one side.) The prospective groom and his male
relatives or friends or both abduct the girl (in the old nomadic days, on horseback; now often by car) and
take her to the family home. Once there, the man's relatives may attempt to convince the woman to accept
the marriage, and to place a white wedding scarf (jooluk) on her head to symbolize her agreement.[29]
They may do this by pointing out the advantages of the union, such as the wealth of their smallholding, to
show her what she would gain by joining their family. Families may use force or threaten to curse the
woman if she leaves, an effective threat in a superstitious country.[30] Some families will keep the girl
hostage for several days to break her will. Others will let her go if she remains defiant; she may, for
example, refuse to sit down or to eat, as a sign that she is refusing the proffered hospitality. During this
period, the groom typically does not see the bride until she has agreed to marry or at least has agreed to
stay. The kidnapped woman's family may also become involved, either urging the woman to stay
(particularly if the marriage is believed socially acceptable or advantageous for the prospective bride and
her family), or opposing the marriage on various grounds and helping to liberate the woman.[31]
In other models of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan and other areas of Central Asia, the woman may be a
complete stranger to the man prior to the abduction.[32] Sometimes the groom and his family, rather than
selecting a particular young woman to kidnap, decide on a household; that way they can still kidnap one
of the sisters if the woman they desire is not home [33]. As in other societies, often the men who resort to
bride kidnapping are socially undesirable for a variety of reasons; they may be more likely to be violent,
have a criminal history, or to be substance abusers.[34]
The bride kidnapping process sometimes includes rape.[35] Even when sex does not take place, once a
woman has been kept overnight, even for a single night, her virginity is put in doubt. With her honor
disgraced, she will have very few other options for marriage. Thus, after one night of capture, the woman
is culturally compelled to marry the man.[30] Such immense social stigma is attached to a refusal to marry
after a kidnap that the kidnapped woman usually feels that she has no choice but to agree, and some of
those who refuse even commit suicide after the kidnapping [36].
The matter is somewhat confused by the local use of the term "bride kidnap" to reflect practices along a
continuum, from forcible abduction and rape (and then, almost unavoidably, marriage), to something akin
to an elopement arranged between the two young people, to which both sets of parents have to consent
after the fact.
7
Although the practice is illegal in Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnappers are rarely prosecuted. This reluctance to
enforce the code is in part caused by the pluralistic legal system in Kyrgyszstan where many villages are
de facto ruled by councils of elders and aqsaqal courts following customary law, away from the eyes of
the state legal system.[37] Aqsaqal courts, tasked with adjudicating family law, property and torts, often
fail to take bride kidnapping seriously. In many cases, aqsaqal members are invited to the kidnapped
bride's wedding and encourages the family of the bride to accept the marriage.[38]
The history of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan is under dispute. Russian and later USSR colonizing
powers made the ancient practice of the nomads illegal, and so with the fall of the Soviet Union and the
subsequent liberation of the Central Asian nations, many have revived old customs as a way of asserting
cultural identity.[39] Rejecting a kidnapping is often culturally unacceptable for women, and perceived as a
rejection of the Kyrgyz cultural identity.[40] The practice is also associated with asserting masculinity.[41]
Recent studies challenge the claims that bride kidnapping used to be prevalent. According to Kyrgyz
historians, and Fulbright scholar Russell Kleinbach, whereas kidnappings were rare until Soviet times, the
bride kidnapping tradition has dramatically increased in the 20th century.[42] The rise in bride kidnappings
may be connected with difficulty in paying the required bride price (kalym).[43]
According to the United States Embassy, two American women were bride-kidnapped in rural Kyrgyzstan
in 2007.[44]
According to a 1992 study, the bride-money for Dungan brides fluctuated between 240 and 400 rubles.
Poor Dungans find Kirghiz brides, or marry Tatar or Sart women. Dungans also secretly abduct Kirghiz
girls as brides.[45]
[edit] Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, bride kidnapping (alyp qashu) is divided into non-consensual and consensual abductions,
kelisimsiz alyp qashu ("to take and run without agreement") and kelissimmen alyp qashu ("to take and run
with agreement"), respectively.[46] Though some kidnappers are motivated by the wish to avoid a bride
price or the expense of hosting wedding celebrations or a feast to celebrate the girl leaving home, other
would-be husbands fear the woman's refusal, or that the woman will be kidnapped by another suitor
first.[47] Generally, in nonconsensual kidnappings, the abductor uses either deception (such as offering a
ride home) or force (such as grabbing the woman, or using a sack to restrain her) to coerce the woman to
come with him.[48] Once at the man's house, one of his female relatives offers the woman a kerchief
(oromal) that signals the bride's consent to the marriage. Though in consensual kidnappings, the woman
may agree with little hesitation to wear the kerchief, in non-consensual abductions, the woman may resist
the kerchief for days.[49] Next, the abductor's family generally asks the "bride" to write a letter to her
family, explaining that she had been taken of her own free will. As with the kerchief, the woman may
resist this step adamantly.[50] Subsequently, the "groom" and his family generally issues an official
apology to the bride's family, including a letter and a delegation from the groom's household. At this time,
the groom's family may present a small sum to replace the bride-price. Though some apology delegations
are met cordially, others are greeted with anger and violence.[51] Following the apology delegation, the
bride's family may send a delegation of "pursuers" (qughysnshy) either to retrieve the bride or to verify
her condition and honor the marriage.[52]
[edit] Uzbekistan
8
Map of Uzbekistan. Karakalpakstan in red.
In Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region in Uzbekistan, nearly one fifth of all marriages are conducted
by bride kidnapping.[53] Activist groups in the region tie an increase in kidnappings to economic
instability. Whereas weddings can be prohibitively expensive, kidnappings avoid both the cost of the
ceremony and any bride price.[54] Other scholars report that less desirable males with inferior educations
or drug or alcohol problems are more likely to kidnap their brides.[55] In Karakalpakstan, the bride
kidnapping sometimes originates out of a dating relationship and, at other times, happens as an abduction
by multiple people.[56]
[edit] The Caucasus
Map of the Caucasus Region
Bride kidnapping is an increasing trend in the countries and regions of the Caucasus, both in Georgia,
Armenia[57] and Azerbaijan in the South[58] and in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia in the North.[59]
The traditions in the Caucasus, though appearing in distinct cultures, may have emerged during Ottoman
rule.[60] In the Caucasian versions of bride-kidnapping, the kidnap victim's family may play a role in
attempting to convince the woman to stay with her abductor after the kidnapping, because of the shame
inherent in the presumed consummation of the "marriage."[61]
[edit] Georgia
In Georgia, activists estimate that hundreds of women are kidnapped and forced to marry each year.[62] In
a typical Georgian model of bride kidnapping, the abductor, often accompanied by friends, will accost the
woman, and coerce her through deception or force to enter a car. Once in the car, the victim is taken to a
remote area or the man's home.[63] These kidnappings sometimes include rape, and generally result in
strong stigma to the female victim.[64] Women who have been victims of bride kidnapping are often
regarded with shame; the victim's relatives may view it as a disgrace if the woman returns home after a
kidnapping.[65] Human Rights Watch reports that prosecutors often refuse to bring charges against the
9
kidnappers, urging the kidnap victim to reconcile with her aggressor.[66] This failure to investigate and
prosecute abductions is consistent with a systematic reluctance of the police in Georgia to enforce laws
against domestic and sexual violence against women.[67]
[edit] Azerbaijan
In Azerbaijan, both marriage by capture (qız qaçırmaq) and elopement (goshulop gachmak) are relatively
common practices.[68] In the Azeri kidnap custom, a young woman is taken to the home of the abductor's
parents through either deceit or force. There, she may be raped. Regardless of whether a rape occurs or
not, the woman is generally regarded as impure by her relatives, and is therefore forced to marry her
abductor.[69] Despite a 2005 Azeri law that criminalized bride kidnapping, the practice places women in
extremely vulnerable social circumstances, in a country where spousal abuse is rampant and recourse to
law enforcement for domestic matters is impossible.[70] In Azerbaijan, women abducted by bride
kidnapping sometimes become slaves of the family who kidnap them.[71]
[edit] Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia
The Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia regions in the Northern Caucasus (in Russia) have also witnessed
an increase in bride kidnappings since the fall of the Soviet Union.[72] As in other countries, kidnappers
sometimes seize acquaintances to be brides and other times take strangers.[73] Under Russian law, though
a kidnapper who refuses to release his bride could be sentenced to eight to ten years, a kidnapper will not
be prosecuted if he releases the victim or marries her with her consent.[74] Chechnya and Ingushetia, other
North Caucasian neighbors of Dagestan and Georgia, also have bride kidnapping in their cultures.[75] As
in the other regions, authorities often fail to respond to the kidnappings.[76] In Chechnya, the police failure
to respond to bridal kidnappings is compounded by a prevalence of abductions in the region.[77] Several
such kidnappings have been captured on video.[78]
[edit] East Asia
[edit] Hmong culture
Marriage by abduction also occurs in traditional Hmong culture, in which it is known as zij poj niam.[79]
As in some other cultures, bride kidnapping is generally a joint effort between the would-be groom and
his friends and family. Generally, the abductor takes the woman while she is alone. The abductor then
sends a message to the kidnap victim's family, informing them of the abduction and the abductor's intent
to marry their daughter.[80] If the victim's family manage to find the woman and insist on her return, they
might be able to free her from the obligation to marry the man. However, if they fail to find the woman,
the kidnap victim is forced to marry the man. The abductor still has to pay a bride price for the woman,
generally an increased amount because of the kidnapping. Because of this increased cost (and the general
unpleasantness of abduction), kidnapping is usually only a practice reserved for a man with an otherwise
blemished chance of securing a bride, because of criminal background, illness or poverty.[81]
Occasionally, members of the Hmong ethnic group have engaged in bride kidnapping in the United
States.[82] In some cases, the defendant has been allowed to plead a cultural defense to justify his
abduction.[83] This defense has sometimes been successful. In 1985, Kong Moua, a Hmong man,
kidnapped and raped a woman from a Californian college. He later claimed that this was an act of zij poj
niam and was allowed to plead to false imprisonment only, instead of kidnapping and rape. The judge in
this case considered cultural testimony as an explanation of the man's crime.[84]
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[edit] China
Until the 1940s, marriage by abduction, known as qiangqin, occurred in regions of China.[85] According to
one scholar, marriage by abduction was sometimes a groom's answer to avoid paying a bride price.[86] In
other cases, the scholar argues, it was a collusive act between the bride's parents and the groom to
circumvent the bride's consent.[87] Ethnographer Anne McLaren found that qiangqin, though illegal in
imperial China, was common in rural areas, and often became a local "institution" that could be carefully
planned and undertaken in a public context.[88]
According to McLaren, in one form of a typical qiangqin, the abductor would arrive at a woman's house
flanked by around twenty men. While the friends carried the woman away, the "groom" would use
scissors to try to cut off the woman's pants. The woman, struggling with ensuring her dignity, would be
unable to adequately fight off her abductors. The victim would then be taken to the groom's house, where
the marriage would be consummated.[89]
Chinese scholars theorize that this practice of marriage by abduction became the inspiration for a form of
institutionalized public expression for women: the bridal lament.[90] In imperial China, a new bride
performed a two to three day public song, including chanting and sobbing, that listed her woes and
complaints. The bridal lament would be witnessed by members of her family and the local community.[91]
Bride kidnapping still occurs in areas of China. In many cases, the women are kidnapped and sold to men
in poorer regions of China, or as far abroad as Mongolia. Reports say that buying a kidnapped bride is
nearly one tenth of the price of hosting a traditional wedding.[92] Non-governmental organizations tie this
trend of abducting brides to China's one-child policy, and the consequent gender imbalance as more male
children are born than female children.[93]
[edit] The Americas
[edit] Tzeltal community, Mexico
Map of Chiapas, Mexico
Among the Tzeltal community, a Mayan tribe in Chiapas, Mexico, bride kidnapping has been a recurring
method of securing a wife.[94] The Tzeltal people are an indigenous, agricultural tribe that is organized
patriarchally. Premarital contact between the sexes is discouraged; unmarried women are supposed to
avoid speaking with men outside of their families.[95] As with other societies, the grooms that engage in
bride kidnapping have generally been the less socially desirable mates.[96]
In the Tzeltal tradition, a girl is kidnapped by the groom, possibly in concert with his friends. She is
generally taken to the mountains and raped. The abductor and his future bride often then stay with a
11
relative until the bride's father's anger has reportedly subsided. At that point, the abductor will return to
the bride's house to negotiate a bride-price, bringing with him the bride and traditional gifts such as
rum.[97]
[edit] Europe
[edit] Roma (Gypsy) communities
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Bride kidnapping is a traditional Romani practice. In the Romani culture, girls as young as twelve years
old may be kidnapped for marriage to teenaged boys.[98] As the Roma population lives throughout Europe,
this practice has been seen on multiple occasions in Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, the
Netherlands, Bulgaria and Slovakia.[99] The kidnapping has been theorized as a way to avoid a bride
price.[100] The tradition's normalization of kidnapping puts young women at higher risk of becoming
victims of human trafficking.[101]
[edit] Catholic law
In Catholic canon law, the impediment of raptus specifically prohibits marriage between a woman
abducted with the intent to force her to marry, and her abductor, as long as the woman remains in the
abductor's power.[102] According to the second provision of the law, should the woman decide to accept
the abductor as a husband after she is safe, she will be allowed to marry him.[103] The canon defines raptus
as a "violent" abduction, accompanied by physical violence or threats, or fraud or deceit. The Council of
Trent insisted that the abduction in raptus must be for the purpose of marriage to count as an impediment
to marriage.[103]
[edit] In history
[edit] Mediterranean
12
Rape of the Sabine Women
Marriage by capture was practiced in ancient cultures throughout the Mediterranean area. It is represented
in mythology and history by the tribe of Benjamin in the Bible[104]; by the Greek hero Paris stealing the
beautiful Helen of Troy from her husband Menelaus, thus triggering the Trojan War;[105] and by The Rape
of the Sabine Women by Romulus, the founder of Rome,[106] and was a common marriage practice in
Sparta.
In 326 A.D., the Emperor Constantine issued an edict prohibiting marriage by abduction. The law made
kidnapping a public offense; even the kidnapped bride could be punished if she later consented to a
marriage with her abductor.[107] According to historian Judith Evans-Grubbs, spurned suitors sometimes
kidnapped their intended brides as a method of restoring honor. The suitor, in coordination with his
friends, generally abducted his bride while she was out of her house in the course of her daily chores. The
bride would then be secreted outside the town or village. Though the kidnapped woman was sometimes
raped in the course of the abduction, the stain on her honor from a presumptive consummation of the
marriage was sufficient to damage her marital prospects irreversibly.[108] Sometimes, the "abduction"
masked an elopement.[109]
[edit] Italy
The custom of fuitina was widespread in Sicily and southern Italy. In theory and in some cases it was an
agreed elopment between two youngsters; in practice it was often a forcible kidnapping and rape,
followed by a so-called "rehabilitating marriage" (matrimonio riparatore). In 1965, this custom was
brought to national attention by the case of Franca Viola, a 17-year-old abducted and raped by a local
small-time criminal, with the assistance of a dozen of his friends. When she was returned to her family
after a week, she refused to marry her abductor, contrary to local expectation. Her family courageously
backed her up, and suffered severe intimidation for their efforts; the kidnappers were arrested and the
main perpetrator was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
13
The exposure of this "archaic and intransigent system of values and behavioural mores"[110] caused great
national debate. In 1968, Franca married her childhood sweetheart, with whom she would later have three
children. Conveying clear messages of solidarity, Giuseppe Saragat, then president of Italy, sent the
couple a gift on their wedding day, and soon afterwards, Pope Paul VI granted them a private audience. A
1970 film, La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano Damiani and starring Ornella Muti,
is based on the case. Viola never capitalised on her fame and status as a feminist icon, preferring to live a
quiet life in Alcamo with her family.[110]
[edit] Slavic tribes
Image of Early Drevlian Tribe in Battle
East Slavic tribes, predecessor tribes to the Russian state, practiced bride kidnapping in the eleventh
century. The traditions were documented by Russian monk Nestor. According to his Chronicles, the
Drevlian tribe captured wives non-consensually, whereas the Radimich, Viatich, and Severian tribes
"captured" their wives after having come to an agreement about marriage with them.[111] The clergy's
increase in influence may have helped the custom to abate.[112]
Marriage by capture occurred among the South Slavs until the beginning of the 1800s. Common in
Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the custom was known as otmitza.[113] The practice
was mentioned in a statute in the Politza, the 1605 Croatian legal code.[114] According to leading
intellectual and Serbian folk-chronicler Vuk Karadzic, a man would dress for "battle" before capturing a
woman. Physical force was a frequent element of these kidnappings.[115]
Bride kidnapping was also a custom in Bulgaria. With the consent of his parents and the aid of his friends,
the abductor would accost his bride and take her to a barn away from the home, as superstition held that
pre-marital intercourse might bring bad luck to the house. Whether or not the man raped his bride, the
abduction would shame the girl and force her to stay with her kidnapper to keep her reputation. As in
other cultures, sometimes couples would elope by staging false kidnappings to secure the parents'
consent.[116]
[edit] Turkana of East Africa
The Turkana tribe in Kenya also practiced marriage by abduction. In this culture, bridal kidnapping
(akomari) occurred before any formal attempts to arrange a marriage with a bride's family. According to
one scholar, a successful bridal kidnapping raised the abductor's reputation in his community, and allowed
him to negotiate a lower bride price with his wife's family. Should an attempted abductor fail to seize his
bride, he was bound to pay a bride price to the woman's family, provide additional gifts and payments to
the family, and to have an arranged marriage (akota).[117]
[edit] In film
14
[edit] Features
Bride capture has been reflected in feature films from many cultures, sometimes humorously, sometimes
as social commentary.
Bride kidnapping is depicted as a frontier solution in the 1954 Hollywood musical Seven Brides for Seven
Brothers. The 1960 Hong Kong film Qiangpin (The Bride Hunter) portrays the custom in the format of an
all-female Shaoxing opera comedy, in which Xia Meng plays a gender-bending role as a man
masquerading as a woman. Bride kidnapping is displayed somewhat humorously in Pedro Almodovar's
1990 Spanish hit ¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), starring Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril. It is
the underlying theme behind the 2005 Korean movie The Bow. In the 2006 comedy Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the eponymous fictional reporter
Borat, played by British comedian/satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, attempts to kidnap Canadian actress
Pamela Anderson in order to take her as his wife.[118] He brings a "wedding sack" which he has made for
the occasion, suggesting that such kidnappings are a tradition in his parody of Kazakhstan.[119]
On a more serious note, a 1970 Italian film, La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano
Damiani and starring Ornella Muti, is based on the story of Franca Viola, described above. However,
before the national debate caused by the Viola case, a 1964 satire directed by Pietro Germi, Seduced and
Abandoned (Sedotta e abbandonata), treated the Sicilian custom as a dark comedy. The 2009 film Baarìa
- la porta del vento shows a consensual fuitina in 20th-century Sicily (atypically having the couple
enclosed in the girl's house) as the only way the lovers can avoid the girl's arranged marriage to a richer
man.
Some Russian films and literature depict bride kidnapping in the Caucasus. There is a Soviet comedy
entitled Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (Russian: Кавказская пленница, или Новые приключения
Шурика, literally translated as The Girl Prisoner of the Caucasus), where a bride kidnapping occurs in an
unidentified Caucasian country.[120]. The 2007 Kyrgyz film Pure Coolness also revolves around the bride
kidnapping custom, mistaken identity, and the clash between modern urban expectations and the more
traditional countryside.
[edit] Documentaries
In 2005, a documentary film entitled Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan made by Petr Lom was presented at
the UNAFF 2005 festival,[121] and subsequently on PBS and Investigation Discovery (ID) in the United
States.[122] The film met controversy in Kyrgyzstan because of ethical concerns about the filming of real
kidnappings.[123]
[edit] In literature
A Sherlock Holmes story features bride kidnapping. In "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", a woman
is employed as a governess by a man who knows that she will soon inherit a fortune, with the intent of a
confederate marrying her. The ceremony does eventually occur, but is void.
[edit] In television
In the BBC radio and television comedy series The League of Gentlemen, the character Papa Lazarou
comes to the fictional town of Royston Vasey under the guise of a peg-seller. He seeks to kidnap women
15
by entering their homes, talking gibberish to them (Gippog) and persuading them to hand over their
wedding rings. He 'names' them all 'Dave', and, after obtaining their rings, proclaims; "you're my wife
now".[124]
[edit] See also








Bride price
Bride burning
Exchange of women
History of rape
Honor killing
Shivaree
Shotgun wedding, a sudden wedding, often because the bride is pregnant
Stockholm syndrome, when a captive grows to identify with their captor
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Books

Adekunle, Julius. Culture and Customs of Rwanda, Greenwood Publishing Group (2007).

Kovalesky, Maxime. Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, London: David, Nutt & Strand
(1891).
[edit] Journal articles

Ayres, Barbara Bride Theft and Raiding for Wives in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Anthropological
Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, Kidnapping and Elopement as Alternative Systems of Marriage (Special
Issue) (Jul., 1974), p. 245

Barnes, R. H. “Marriage by Capture.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5,
No. 1. (March 1999), pp. 57–73.

Bates, Daniel G. “Normative and Alternative Systems of Marriage among the Yörük of
Southeastern Turkey.” Anthropological Quarterly, 47:3 (Jul., 1974), pp. 270–287.

Evans-Grubbs, Judith. "Abduction Marriage in Antiquity: A Law of Constantine (CTh IX. 24. I)
and Its Social Context" The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 79, 1989, pp. 59–83.

Handrahan, Lori. 2004. “Hunting for Women: Bride-Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan.” International
Feminist Journal of Politics, 6:2 (June), 207–233.

Herzfeld, Michael “Gender Pragmatics: Agency, Speech, and Bride Theft in a Cretan Mountain
Village.” Anthropology 1985, Vol. IX: 25-44.

Kleinbach, Russ and Salimjanova, Lilly (2007). "Kyz ala kachuu and adat: non-consensual bride
kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan", Central Asian Survey, 26:2, 217 — 233.
16

Kleinbach, Russell. “Frequency of non-consensual bride kidnapping in the Kyrgyz Republic.”
International Journal of Central Asian Studies. Vol 8, No 1, 2003, pp. 108–128.

Kowalewsky, M. "Marriage among the Early Slavs", Folklore, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Dec., 1890),
pp. 463–480.

——, Mehrigiul Ablezova and Medina Aitieva. “Kidnapping for marriage (ala kachuu) in a
Kyrgyz village.” Central Asian Survey. (June 2005) 24(2), 191–202.

Light, Nathan and Damira Imanalieva. “Performing Ala Kachuu: Marriage Strategies in the
Kyrgyz Republic”.

McLaren, Anne E., "Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern Asian Studies
35(4) (Oct. 2001), pp. 953–984.

Rimonte, Nilda "A Question of Culture: Cultural Approval of Violence against Women in the
Pacific-Asian Community and the Cultural Defense'", Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6 (Jul.,
1991), pp. 1311–1326.

Stross, Brian. “Tzeltal Marriage by Capture.” Anthropological Quarterly. 47:3 (July 1974),
pp. 328–346.

Werner, Cynthia, “Women, marriage, and the nation-state: the rise of nonconsensual bride
kidnapping in post-Soviet Kazakhstan,” in The Transformation of Central Asia. Pauline Jones
Luong, ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 59–89.

Yang, Jennifer Ann. "Marriage By Capture in the Hmong Culture: The Legal Issue of Cultural
Rights Versus Women's Rights", Law and Society Review at UCSB, Vol. 3, pp. 38–49 (2004).
[edit] Human rights reports

Amnesty International, Georgia—Thousands Suffering in Silence: Violence Against Women in the
Family, AI Index: EUR 56/009/2006, Sept. 2006 (last accessed Jan. 28, 2009).

Georgian Young Lawyers' Association & OMCT, Violence Against Women in Georgia: Report
submitted on the occasion of the 36th session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women, August, 2006 (last accessed Jan. 28, 2009.

Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan, Vol. 8, No. 9, Sept. 2006 (last accessed Jan. 28, 2009).

Pusurmankulova, Burulai, Bride Kidnapping. Benign Custom Or Savage Tradition?, Freedom
House, June 14, 2004 (last accessed Jan. 28, 2009).

U.S. Department of State, Rwanda: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -- 2007, Mar. 11,
2008 (last accessed Jan. 28, 2009).
[edit] News articles and radio reports
17

Aminova, Alena, Uzbekistan: No Love Lost in Karakalpak Bride Thefts, Institute of War and
Peace Reporting, June 14, 2004.

Armstrong, Jane, Rage or Romance?, Globe and Mail (Canada), April 26, 2008.

BBC, Ethiopia: Revenge of the Abducted Bride, June 18, 1999.

Kokhodze, Gulo & Tamuna Uchidze, Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia, Institute of War
and Peace Reporting, June 15, 2006.

Isayev, Ruslan, In Chechnya, Attempts to Eradicate Bride Abduction, Prague Watchdog, Nov. 16,
2007.

Kiryashova, Sabina, Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences, Institute of War and Peace
Reporting, November 17, 2005.

McDonald, Henry, Gardai Hunt Gang Accused of Seizing Roma Child Bride, Guardian, U.K.,
Sept. 3, 2007.

NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, Kidnapping Custom Makes a Comeback in Georgia, May 14,
2006.

Rakhimdinova, Aijan, Kyrgyz Bride Price Controversy, Institute of War and Peace Reporting,
Dec. 22, 2005.

Rodriguez, Alex, Kidnapping a Bride Practice Embraced in Kyrgyzstan, Augusta Chronicle, July
24, 2005.

Ruremesha, Jean, RIGHTS-RWANDA: Marriage by Abduction Worries Women's Groups, Inter
Press Service, Oct. 7, 2003.

Smith, Craig S., Abduction, Often Violent, a Kyrgyz Wedding Rite, N.Y. Times, Apr. 30, 2005.
[edit] Dissertations

Moua, Teng, The Hmong Culture: Kinship, Marriage & Family Systems, University of
Wisconsin–Stout (May 2003)
[edit] References
1. ^ See, e.g., William Shepard Walsh, Curiosities of Popular Customs and of Rites, Ceremonies,
Observances, and Miscellaneous Antiquities, (J.B. Lippincott Co., 1897), p. 654; John Lubbock,
The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man: Mental and Social Condition of
Savages, (Appleton, 1882), p. 122. Curtis Pesmen & Setiawan Djody, Your First Year of Marriage
(Simon and Schuster, 1995) p. 37. Compare with Edward Westermarck, The History of Human
Marriage (Allerton Book Co., 1922), p. 277 (refuting the link between honeymoon and marriage
by capture).
2. ^ See Brian Stross, Tzeltal Marriage by Capture, Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3,
Kidnapping and Elopement as Alternative Systems of Marriage (Special Issue) (Jul., 1974), pp.
18
328-346 (describing Tzeltal culture as patriarchal with a few opportunities for "pre-marital crosssex interaction")[hereinafter Stross, Tzeltal Marriage by Capture]; Sabina Kiryashova, Azeri Bride
Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences, Institute of War and Peace Reporting, November 17, 2005,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=wpr&s=f&o=258105&apc_state=henpwp (discussing the shame brought
on Azeri kidnap victims who spend a night outside of the house); Gulo Kokhodze & Tamuna
Uchidze, Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=321627&apc_state=henh (discussing the Georgian case,
where "great social stigma attaches to the suspicion of lost virginity.". Compare with Barbara
Ayres, Bride Theft and Raiding for Wives in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Anthropological
Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, Kidnapping and Elopement as Alternative Systems of Marriage (Special
Issue) (Jul., 1974), pp. 245. ("There is no relationship between bride theft and status distinctions,
bride price, or attitudes toward premarital virginity. The absence of strong associations in these
areas suggests the need for a new hypothesis.".)
3. ^ See Stross, Tzeltal Marriage by Capture (Tzeltal culture); George Scott, The Migrants Without
Mountains: The Sociocultural Adjustment Among the Lao Hmong Refugees In San Diego (Ann
Arbor, MI: A Bell And Howell Company, 1986), pp. 82-85 (Hmong culture); Alex Rodriguez,
Kidnapping a Bride Practice Embraced in Kyrgyzstan, Augusta Chronicle, July 24, 2005 (Kyrgyz
culture);
4. ^ See Stross, Tzeltal Marriage by Capture, pp. 342-343; Craig S. Smith, Abduction, Often Violent,
a Kyrgyz Wedding Rite, N.Y. Times, April 30, 2005.
5. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kazakhstan, Vol. 8, No. 9, Sept. 2006, p. 117 ("Families in Kyrgyzstan
generally exploit the labor of new brides as a way of adding to the resources and productivity of
the household with little cost to the family.Families in Kyrgyzstan generally exploit the labor of
new brides as a way of adding to the resources and productivity of the household with little cost to
the family."); Sabina Kiryashova, Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences, Institute of War
and Peace Reporting, Nov. 17, 2005,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=wpr&s=f&o=258105&apc_state=henpwpr ("Even more sinister are
reports of kidnapped brides being taken abroad or used as slaves at home. “There have been cases
when girls were abducted and used as housekeepers,” said Saida Gojamanli from the Human
Rights and Legislation Protection Bureau.")
6. ^ Save the Children, Learning from Children, Families and Communities to Increase Girls'
Participation in Primary School
7. ^ Julius Adekunle, Culture and Customs of Rwanda, Published by Greenwood Publishing Group,
2007, p. 106
8. ^ Tom Streissguth, Rwanda in Pictures, p. 39; Jean Ruremesha, RIGHTS-RWANDA: Marriage
by Abduction Worries Women's Groups, Inter Press Service, Oct. 7, 2003.
9. ^ a b c d e f Ruremesha, RIGHTS-RWANDA: Marriage by Abduction Worries Women's Groups.
10. ^ Streissguth, p. 39.
11. ^ U.S. Department of State, Rwanda: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -- 2007, March
11, 2008
12. ^ BBC, Ethiopia: Revenge of the Abducted Bride, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/371944.stm,
June 18, 1999.
13. ^ a b BBC, Ethiopia: Revenge of the Abducted Bride.
14. ^ UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ETHIOPIA: Surviving forced
marriage, http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=69993
15. ^ UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ETHIOPIA: Surviving forced
marriage, http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=69993; State Department Human
Rights Report -- Ethiopia, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100481.htm
19
16. ^ a b UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ETHIOPIA: Surviving forced
marriage
17. ^ LEARNING FROM CHILDREN, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES TO INCREASE
GIRLS’ PARTICIPATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOL Save the Children USA report
18. ^ United States State Department, Kenya: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007,
March 11, 2008, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100487.htm
19. ^ Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Kenya: Information on Kisii marriage customs and
whether women are, at times, abducted and coerced into marriage,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,469f2e452,45f147f811,0.html
20. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence
21. ^ Werner, Cynthia, “Women, marriage, and the nation-state: the rise of nonconsensual bride
kidnapping in post-Soviet Kazakhstan,” in The Transformation of Central Asia. Pauline Jones
Luong, ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 59–89
22. ^ United Nations Population Fund, Bride Kidnapping Fact Sheet,
www.unfpa.org/16days/documents/pl_bridenapping_factsheet.doc
23. ^ Uzbekistan: No love lost in Karakalpak bride thefts,
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-64561
24. ^ SeeRuss Kleinbach & Lilly Salimjanova, Kyz ala kachuu and adat: Non-consensual bride
kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asian Survey, (June 2007) 26:2, 217 - 233;
Handrahan, Lori, Hunting for Women, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6:2,(2004) pp.
207 — 233
25. ^ See Handrahan, p. 208 (Kyrgyzstan); Kleinbach & Salimjanova, p. 218 (Kyrgyzstan); Werner,
pp. 82-84.
26. ^ Bride kidnapping is criminalized in Article 155 of the Criminal code. See Russ Kleinbach &
Lilly Salimjanova, Kyz ala kachuu and adat: Non-consensual bride kidnapping and tradition in
Kyrgyzstan, Central Asian Survey, (June 2007) 26:2, 217 - 233, available at
http://faculty.philau.edu/kleinbachr/2007_study.htm.
27. ^ United States State Department, Kyrgyz Republic: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
- 2007, March 11, 2008, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100616.htm
28. ^ Kleinbach & Salimjanova, Kyz ala kachuu and adat: Non-consensual bride kidnapping and
tradition in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asian Survey, (June 2007) 26:2, 217 - 233.
29. ^ PBS, Kyrgyzstan: The Kidnapped Bride,
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kyrgyzstan/thestory.html; Handrahan, Lori, Hunting for
Women, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6:2,(2004) pp. 207 — 233, at 209; Alex
Rodriguez, Kidnapping a Bride Practice Embraced in Kyrgyzstan, Augusta Chronicle, July 24,
2005.
30. ^ a b Craig S. Smith, Abduction, Often Violent, a Kyrgyz Wedding Rite, N.Y. Times, April 30,
2005.
31. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan, p. 86,
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/kyrgyzstan0906/kyrgyzstan0906webwcover.pdf
32. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan, p. 91,
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/kyrgyzstan0906/kyrgyzstan0906webwcover.pdf; Craig S. Smith,
Abduction, Often Violent, a Kyrgyz Wedding Rite, N.Y. Times, April 30, 2005.
33. ^ Luong, Pauline Jones. The transformation of Central Asia : states and societies from Soviet rule
to independence. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
34. ^ See Rodriguez, Kidnapping a Bride Practice Embraced in Kyrgyzstan.
35. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan
20
36. ^ Burulai Pusurmankulova, Bride Kidnapping: Benign Custom Or Savage Tradition?, June 15,
2004, Voice Of Freedom Initiative Of The Human Rights Working Group, [1]
37. ^ See Judith Beyer, Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts: Pluralistic Accounts of History, Journal of Legal
Pluralism, 2006; Handrahan, pp. 212-213.
38. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence, p. 106
39. ^ Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and
Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan, pp. 87-88,
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/kyrgyzstan0906/kyrgyzstan0906webwcover.pdf; Handrahan, pp. 212213.
40. ^ Hanrahan, p. 222.
41. ^ International Human Rights Law and Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan,
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav012400.shtml; Handrahan, p. 222.
42. ^ Russ Kleinbach & Lilly Salimjanova, Kyz ala kachuu and adat: Non-consensual bride
kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asian Survey, (June 2007) 26:2, 217 - 233, at
230, available at http://faculty.philau.edu/kleinbachr/2007_study.htm.
43. ^ Aijan Rakhimdinova, Kyrgyz Bride Price Controversy, Institute of War and Peace Reporting,
Dec. 22, 2005, http://www.iwpr.net/?p=wpr&s=f&o=258820&apc_state=henpwpr
44. ^ Warden Message, United States Embassy, Kyrgyzstan,
http://bishkek.usembassy.gov/december_10_2007.html
45. ^ Asian Folklore Institute, Society for Asian Folklore, Nanzan Daigaku. Jinruigaku Kenkyūjo,
Nanzan Shūkyō Bunka Kenkyūjo (1992). Asian folklore studies, Volume 51. Nanzan University
Institute of Anthropology. p. 256. http://books.google.com/books?ei=XCQ2TKdkgYKUB7J9dQH&ct=result&id=ODXYAAAAMAAJ&dq=poor+dungans+kirghiz+brides+tatar+sart&q=k
irghiz+girls+abduct. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
46. ^ Cynthia Werner, "The Rise of Nonconsensual Bride Kidnapping in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan", in
The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence
(Cornell University Press, 2004: Pauline Jones Luong, ed.), p. 70.
47. ^ Werner, pp. 71-72.
48. ^ Werner, pp. 72-73.
49. ^ Werner, pp. 73-74.
50. ^ Werner, pp. 74-75.
51. ^ Werner, pp. 75-76.
52. ^ Werner, p. 76.
53. ^ Alena Aminova, Uzbekistan: No Love Lost in Karakalpak Bride Thefts, Institute of War and
Peace Reporting, June 14, 2004, available at
http://faculty.philau.edu/kleinbachr/uzbekistan_kidnappping.htm
54. ^ See Aminova
55. ^ Jamila Sujud and Rashid Musayev, Bride Kidnapping Returns in Central Asia, Central Asia
Online, Jan. 18, 2010, available at
http://www.centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/features/caii/features/main/2010/01/1
8/feature-03
56. ^ Alena Aminova, Only a Few Are Aware That Bride Kidnapping is A Criminal Offense,
CaucAsia: Traditions and Gender (international coalition of gender journalists), vol. 5 (2005),
available at http://www.wcg.org.ge/gmc/Kavkazia2005_05E.pdf.
57. ^ Conciliation Resources, After the War: Armenia,http://www.cr.org/resources/photogalleries/radio_diaries/photogallery_radio_diaries.php
58. ^ NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, Kidnapping Custom Makes a Comeback in Georgia, May 14,
2006,
59. ^ Bride kidnapping tradition on the rise in North Caucasus,
http://en.rian.ru/society/20071016/84145392.html.
21
60. ^ Bride kidnapping tradition on the rise in North Caucasus,
http://en.rian.ru/society/20071016/84145392.html
61. ^ See Sabina Kiryashova, Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=wpr&s=f&o=258105&apc_state=henpwp; Gulo Kokhodze & Tamuna
Uchidze, Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=321627&apc_state=henh
62. ^ Gulo Kokhodze & Tamuna Uchidze, Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia, Institute of War
and Peace Reporting, June 15, 2006,
63. ^ Gulo Kokhodze & Tamuna Uchidze, Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia
64. ^ Violence Against Women in Georgia,
http://www.omct.org/pdf/VAW/2006/CEDAW_36th/CEDAW36_VAW_in_Georgia_en.pdf
65. ^ Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=321627&apc_state=henh
66. ^ Georgia: Human Rights Developments, http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/europe9.html
67. ^ United States State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Georgia,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78813.htm; Amnesty Int’l, Georgia—Thousands
Suffering in Silence: Violence Against Women in the Family, AI Index: EUR 56/009/2006, Sept.
2006, at 11.
68. ^ Farideh Heyat, Azeri Women in Transition: Women in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan
(Routledge 2002), p. 63.
69. ^ Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=wpr&s=f&o=258105&apc_state=henpwpr
70. ^ U.S. State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2006, Azerbaijan,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78801.htm
71. ^ Sabina Kiryashova, Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=wpr&s=f&o=258105&apc_state=henpwp
72. ^ Dagestan Reports Sudden Surge in Bride-Snatching,
http://www.mnweekly.ru/national/20071018/55283495.html
73. ^ See Estonian Review: August 2–8, 2006, Estonian National Kidnapped In Russia's Dagestan,
Aug. 7, 2006, http://www.estemb.se/estonian_review/aid-606 (noting the bride kidnapping of a
19-year-old Estonian woman in Dagestan).
74. ^ Ruslan Isayev, In Chechnya, Attempts to Eradicate Bride Abduction, Prague Watchdog, Nov.
16, 2007, http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000015-000006-000024&lang=1
75. ^ C.J. Chivers, Missing Chechen Was Secret Bride of Terror Leader,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/world/europe/27chechnya.html
76. ^ Jane Armstrong, Rage or Romance?, Globe and Mail (Canada), April 26, 2008,
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080424.wbrides04262/BNStory/Front/
home/?pageRequested=1
77. ^ U.S. State Department, Russia: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -- 2006, March 6,
2007, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78835.htm
78. ^ http://uk.truveo.com/Bride-kidnapping-Chechnya/id/1427864049
79. ^ United Nations Population Fund, Bride Kidnapping Fact Sheet,
www.unfpa.org/16days/documents/pl_bridenapping_factsheet.doc; Nilda Rimonte, A Question of
Culture: Cultural Approval of Violence against Women in the Pacific-Asian Community and the
Cultural Defense, Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6 (Jul., 1991), pp. 1311-1326 [hereinafter
Rimonte, A Question of Culture].
80. ^ Teng Moua, The Hmong Culture: Kinship, Marriage & Family Systems (2003),
http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2003/2003mouat.pdf
81. ^ George Scott, The Migrants Without Mountains: The Sociocultural Adjustment Among the Lao
Hmong Refugees In San Diego (Ann Arbor, MI: A Bell And Howell Company, 1986), pp. 82-85.
22
82. ^ There is significant dissent in the Hmong-American community about the acceptability of bride
capture. See Madhavi Sunder, Piercing the Veil, The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 112, No. 6 (Apr.,
2003), pp. 1399-1472, at 1470.
83. ^ Jennifer Ann Yang, Marriage By Capture in the Hmong Culture: The Legal Issue of Cultural
Rights Versus Women's Rights, Law and Society Review at UCSB, Vol. 3, pp. 38-49 (2004);
Rimonte, A Question of Culture, p. 1311; Pat Schneider, Police to Meet with Asians on Cultural
Issues, Capital Times (Madison, WI), April 13, 2000.
84. ^ Rimonte, A Question of Culture, p. 1311.
85. ^ See generally Anne E. McLaren, "Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern
Asian Studies, vol. 4, pp. 953-984.
86. ^ Hill Gates, China's Motor: A Thousand Years of Capitalism, p. 131, cited in Anne E. McLaren,
"Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern Asian Studies, vol. 4, p. 955.
87. ^ McLaren, p. 955.
88. ^ Anne E. McLaren, "Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern Asian
Studies, vol. 4, p. 957
89. ^ Anne E. McLaren, "Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern Asian
Studies, vol. 4, pp. 959-960
90. ^ Anne McLaren & Chen Qinjian, "The Oral and Ritual Culture of Chinese Women: Bridal
Lamentations of Nanhui", Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 59, No. 2 (2000), pp. 205-238, at 208.
91. ^ McLaren & Qinjian, p. 208
92. ^ Insight News TV, China, Mongolia: Kidnapped Wives, http://www.insightnewstv.com/d08/
93. ^ United States State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007 (China),
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100518.htm
94. ^ See generally Stross, 'Tzeltal Marriage by Capture, pp. 328-346.
95. ^ Stross, pp. 334-335.
96. ^ Stross, pp. 340-341 (describing the grooms in marriage by capture as "poor . . . ugly . . .
interested in girls who did not reciprocate their interest").
97. ^ Stross, p. 340.
98. ^ See Henry McDonald, Gardai hunt gang accused of seizing Roma child bride, Sept. 3, 2007,
Guardian, U.K., http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/23/ireland
99. ^ MacDonald, Gardai hunt gang accused of seizing Roma child bride; OSCE, Building the
Capacity of Roma Communities to Prevent Trafficking in Human Beings, 2007, p. 17
http://www.osce.org/publications/odihr/2007/06/25035_892_en.pdf; Alexey Pamporov,
Roma/Gypsy population in Bulgaria as a challenge for the policy relevance,
http://epc2006.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=60261.
100.
^ See Pamporov, p. 4.
101.
^ See MacDonald, Gardai hunt gang accused of seizing Roma child bride; OSCE,
Building the Capacity of Roma Communities to Prevent Trafficking in Human Beings.
102.
^ Henry Amans Ayrinhac, Marriage Legislation in the New Code of Canon Law,
Published by Benziger brothers, 1918, pp. 160-161
103.
^ a b Ayrinhac, pp. 160-161.
104.
^ [2] The Book of Judges in the Bible
105.
^ See Homer, The Iliad.
106.
^ See Livy, The Rape of the Sabine Women, in Mary R. Lefkowitz & Maureen B. Fant,
Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation, Published by JHU Press, 2005,
pp. 176-178.
107.
^ Judith Evans-Grubbs, Abduction Marriage in Antiquity: A Law of Constantine (CTh IX.
24. I) and Its Social Context, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 79, (1989), pp. 59-83, at 59, 65.
108.
^ Evans-Grubbs, pp. 60-62.
109.
^ Evans-Grubbs, p. 62, 76.
23
110.
^ a b "Franca Viola" by Deirdre Pirro in The Florentine (issue no. 78/2008 / April 30, 2008)
[3]
111.
^ M. Kowalewsky, "Marriage among the Early Slavs", Folklore, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Dec.,
1890), pp. 463-480 [hereinafter Kowalewsky].
112.
^ Kowalewsky, p. 476.
113.
^ Kowalewsky, pp. 475-476.
114.
^ Kowalewsky, pp. 475-476; Maxime Kovalesky, Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of
Russia, London: David, Nutt & Strand (1891), pp. 23-24.
115.
^ Kovalesky, pp. 23-24.
116.
^ Mercia MacDermott, Bulgarian Folk Customs (1998), p. 132.
117.
^ E. D. Emley, "The Turkana of Kolosia District", The Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 57, (Jan. - Jun., 1927), pp. 157-201.
118.
^ Kazakhstani comedian offers lesson in laughter, Darwin Palmerston Sun (Australia),
November 29, 2006.
119.
^ See Mary Wiltenburg, "Backstory: The Most Unwanted Man in Kazhakhstan", Christian
Science Monitor, Nov. 30, 2005.
120.
^ Grant, Bruce. "Good Russian Prisoner: Naturalizing Violence in the Caucasus
Mountains" in Cultural Anthropology. Vol. 20, No. 1 (Feb., 2005), p. 54.
121.
^ http://www.unaff.org/2005/f_bride.html
122.
^ http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kyrgyzstan/thestory.html
123.
^ For Peter Lom's view of the ethical controversy and the perception of his filming in
Kyrgyzstan, see http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kyrgyzstan/lom.html
124.
^ "[My Wife Now!]". [League of Gentlemen].
24