Kyrgyzstan: Forced marriages through kidnapping continue despite law

As reported by Asia News on 27 October 2017, thousands of Kyrgyz women are abducted off the streets each year and forced into marrying their attacker. The tradition of "bride kidnapping" or more literally "grab and run" (ala kachuu) was criminalized in 2013, but is still practiced. In some cases the young women consent to the wedding but usually they are snatched away against their will. Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, states that customs like bride kidnapping are impossible to eradicate: "Many people believe this practice is part of Kyrgyz culture. The 2013 law has led to a drop in cases (in 2013 nearly 12,000 women were kidnapped), but not a total end to the custom. As Asia News reported, thousands of women are still kidnapped each year." Rolf Zeegers points out: "Female converts from Islam to Christianity particularly run the risk of being kidnapped by their Muslim family and community. Ala kachuu is then used as a tool to separate them from their Christian contacts and to force them back to Islam - an additional reason why it is so difficult to get rid of this custom. Although the number of kidnapped female converts is only a fraction of the total, their cases are likely to be far more violent than the "˜ordinary" ones. The ultimate goal after all is to make them give up their Christian faith."