Equal Opportunities Some Way Off
Equal Opportunities Some Way Off
The continuing male domination of Kyrgyz business and politics may be an obstacle to development, but the notion of equal opportunities continues to face resistance because many people see it as a western imposition rather than a genuinely shared value, say NBCentralAsia experts.
The Kyrgyz parliament is to review a draft law guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities for women within the next couple of weeks.
According to the president’s special representative for gender issues in the Kyrgyz parliament, Anara Niazova, the planned law will allow women to become more involved in economic, social and political life.
There are currently only two female ministers in Kyrgyzstan and no women in parliament at all.
Mira Karybaeva of the Agency for Social Technologies said male domination in politics is a result of men acquiring capital in the denationalisation that followed Kyrgyz independence in 1991. “Women were excluded from the distribution of resources,” she said.
A failure to attempt to redress the balance could, Karybaeva believes, lead to a social crisis.
“Social progress is not possible [without women in politics], and things are moving backwards compared with Soviet times - maternal and infant mortality are at record-breaking highs, and nothing is being done to support the family,” she said.
According to Nurgul Janaeva, head of the Forum of Women’s NGOs, “the absence of women in politics will inevitably lead to the increasing instability of the state itself”.
Janaeva believes there should be laws to attract women into politics, for example introducing quotas for representation in parliament and the executive. An awareness-raising campaign should also be launched to challenge the patriarchal values that are strong in Kyrgyzstan.
Professor Zainidin Kurmanov, a political scientist, says the government is approaching the issue of gender equality as if it is a western concept that is alien to “patriarchal” Kyrgyzstan. Instead, gender policy should be articulated as a cultural norm common to all nations, he says.
“At the moment, the policy of gender equality is being pursued as a western, European concept,” he said. “The results would have been different if they had explained that this is not an attempt to impose a western model on Kyrgyzstan, but rather a return to our nation’s cultural roots… Women played quite an important role in nomadic societies.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
The Kyrgyz parliament is to review a draft law guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities for women within the next couple of weeks.
According to the president’s special representative for gender issues in the Kyrgyz parliament, Anara Niazova, the planned law will allow women to become more involved in economic, social and political life.
There are currently only two female ministers in Kyrgyzstan and no women in parliament at all.
Mira Karybaeva of the Agency for Social Technologies said male domination in politics is a result of men acquiring capital in the denationalisation that followed Kyrgyz independence in 1991. “Women were excluded from the distribution of resources,” she said.
A failure to attempt to redress the balance could, Karybaeva believes, lead to a social crisis.
“Social progress is not possible [without women in politics], and things are moving backwards compared with Soviet times - maternal and infant mortality are at record-breaking highs, and nothing is being done to support the family,” she said.
According to Nurgul Janaeva, head of the Forum of Women’s NGOs, “the absence of women in politics will inevitably lead to the increasing instability of the state itself”.
Janaeva believes there should be laws to attract women into politics, for example introducing quotas for representation in parliament and the executive. An awareness-raising campaign should also be launched to challenge the patriarchal values that are strong in Kyrgyzstan.
Professor Zainidin Kurmanov, a political scientist, says the government is approaching the issue of gender equality as if it is a western concept that is alien to “patriarchal” Kyrgyzstan. Instead, gender policy should be articulated as a cultural norm common to all nations, he says.
“At the moment, the policy of gender equality is being pursued as a western, European concept,” he said. “The results would have been different if they had explained that this is not an attempt to impose a western model on Kyrgyzstan, but rather a return to our nation’s cultural roots… Women played quite an important role in nomadic societies.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
