Opinion Bride kidnapping
This coming week,on March 8,International Womens Day will be discussed and celebrated across the world with Gender agenda
This coming week,on March 8,International Womens Day will be discussed and celebrated across the world with Gender agenda: Gaining momentum as the theme. First observed in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America,the UN proclaimed this date as the UN Day for womens rights and world peace in 1977.
Yet,unending vulnerability continues to plague women in society. This abuse for purposes of sex is a kind of relay race both within the family and outside,whether it is molestation,genital mutilation,groping,rape,prostitution or violence when the body is denied. So many authors,poets,painters,singers,filmmakers and philosophers have eulogised love and affection between men and women in books,paintings,songs and movies,but the brutality of men towards women has not changed till today.
Just imagine your daughter is coming home from college. A gang of men suddenly grabs her,forcibly tosses her into a car even as she screams,cries,throws about her hands and legs,tries to bite her abductors,but shes overpowered. Theres a bridegroom at the other end waiting to marry her. Marriage preparations complete with ceremonial rituals are ready to be performed,family and friends invited to enjoy the wedding reception. Only the bride is missing. So a girl is kidnapped and brought to fit the role. Its a bona fide marriage where shell become part of a respected family,but shes given no choice.
How does this story strike you? Unfortunately,its no absurd tale Im recounting to you. Its a traditional ritual in Kyrgyzstan to this day. A five-part documentary by Thomas Morton for VICE News records how,like the sport of catching an unwilling bride,young men run after fat goats,dive to seize them,hack the neck,clutch at the struggling,bleating animal as it slowly bleeds,as per custom. Other boys participate,besieging the goat until it becomes limp,ready for cooking the wedding feast. They even play polo with a freshly killed goat.
The ala kachuu (to take and flee) custom is technically illegal in independent Kyrgyzstan,but rarely are bride kidnappers prosecuted. Fulbright scholar Russell Kleinbach says half of all Kyrgyz marriages are based on the practice of bride kidnapping,of which two thirds are non-consensual. NGOs working there figure ala kachuu is seen in 68-75 per cent of weddings.
This barbaric,hell-like custom for women seems incongruent in picturesque Kyrgyzstan,renowned for nomadic horseback warriors who once ruled a vast Central Asian empire. Extolled for their legendary equestrian prowess,Kyrgyz horsemen ride rough terrains on their impeccably trained animals to conquer territories with speed. In this paternalistic society,perhaps their power over beautiful stallions translates to exhibiting control over women. So with total command,they confidently abduct a bride. Many young girls have committed suicide after such marriages that virtually amount to rape.
Marriage by capture happened throughout Mediterranean areas. Stealing the beautiful Helen of Troy triggered the Trojan War. Rape of Sabine women is an infamous episode of how Roman men abducted women from neighbouring Sabine when Romulus founded Rome in 750 BC. Emperor Constantines 326 AD edict prohibited marriage by abduction. But this tradition is still alive. Russias Northern Caucasus region is witnessing an increase in bride capture since the fall of the USSR. In Mexicos Tzeltal community,the girl is taken into the mountains and raped. The groom waits for the brides fathers anger to cool down,before coming to negotiate a bride price and bringing him gifts like rum.
In fact,bride price,the opposite of dowry as the boys family has to pay the girls family,is prevalent in some parts of India too,but without kidnapping. Northeastern tribes of Mizos,Zemi Nagas and Kukis have to buy their wives by paying a marriage price calculated in number of mithuns (wild bulls or cows). Among Romani gypsies of Europe,the UK and Ireland,bride kidnapping is a documented marital practice used to avoid paying the bride price.
Marriage by capture has occurred in Serbia,Montenegro,Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina,Azerbaijan and Georgia,and is common in Kazakhstan,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Judicial enforcement against it remains lax in Bulgaria,Turkey,Moldova and Chechnya. It even exists in parts of China,Rwanda,Ethiopia and Kenya and Chile. Among Native Americans,the kidnapping of children,teenagers and women from neighbouring tribes and adopting them was common in earlier times.
Trafficking of women as wives is increasing in India as there are fewer women to men. When so many countries are still in the Dark Middle Ages as far as acknowledging equality of the sexes goes,its certainly an uphill task to sensitise them to my call of Respect and Save Women. For starters,International Womens Day can help by pressing the government in every country to implement all its existing laws that provide justice to women.
Shombit is an international consultant to top management on differentiating business strategy with execution excellence (www.shiningconsulting.com)
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