The Technological Key to Combatting Bride Kidnapping in Central Asia

[Lurilla Bereveskos is a human rights researcher and Princeton in Asia fellow. She has conducted research for the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking and co-authored the report “How to Stop Disinformation in Democracy” which was submitted at the request of the UN Human Rights Council as inputs into the Council’s work.]

A typical wedding day is usually marked with the joy of a couple, a few teary-eyed relatives, and the smiles of most, if not all, in attendance. This scene looks very different, however, for many young women in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and increasingly in other Central Asian nations, who become victims of “bride kidnapping.” This practice, according to some, is a long-held tradition, though the instances of its occurrence have risen since Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. For many among the older generation, bride kidnapping is viewed as part of their heritage rather than as a serious crime. These instances of bride kidnapping typically involve a young man and a group of his friends kidnapping a young woman from off the street, often in broad daylight, after which point the woman is coerced into the marriage, usually by the female relatives of the man in question. In some cases, women try to seek their family’s support in extricating themselves, but many do not receive such help and are instead labeled damaged or a disgrace to the family. Many other women never seek assistance at all and remain trapped in the forced marriage due to social stigmas and feeling humiliated. Addressing such bride kidnapping both through prevention and a change in norms must be a top priority for these nations, and this goal can be assisted by technological innovation.

For many years bride kidnapping has not faced severe legal repercussions in Kazakhstan, in part due to the existence of a largely ignored legal loophole within the law that allows a kidnapper to forgo punishment if they let their victim go. In the case of bride kidnapping, men have exploited this loophole by pretending to allow their brides to go free after having already kidnapped and forced them into marriage. Further exacerbating the issue, 58.1% of rural Kazakhstanis are unaware that such laws against kidnapping even exist.

The criminalization of bride kidnapping specifically, as distinct from laws against kidnapping in general, has entered the conversation for the first time this year in Kazakhstan, as President Tokayev introduced an initiative to add an article to the criminal code that would criminalize bride kidnapping. Unlike Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan included such a specific criminalization of bride kidnapping within its criminal code in 1994; however, the law initially provided for only a three-year sentence for perpetrators. The code was later updated in 2013 to make bride kidnapping punishable by five to seven years in prison and up to ten in the case of kidnapping a minor. Kyrgyzstan has continued to impose such protections within the recent update of its criminal code in 2021.

Despite these changes, advocates call on the governments of both nations to do more, such as educating people about the laws that exist against bride kidnapping. Even with such changes and advocacy, however, since 2019 there have been 214 legal cases of bride kidnapping in Kazakhstan, with this number representing a vast underreporting, as most cases are never brought to court. In Kyrgyzstan, a report in 2021 stated that one in three marriages in rural Kyrgyzstan, where 60% of the population resides, begins with abduction. In total, each year 12,000 bride kidnappings take place across Kyrgyzstan, 40% of which involve rape. Though this issue is prevalent, only one in 700 cases receives judicial attention, and only one in 1,500 results in a sentence, indicating the relative inefficacy of authorities in Kyrgyzstan in executing the law regarding bride kidnapping. These bride kidnappings are a clear violation of a woman’s rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are signatories, as bride kidnapping violates Article 23, section 3, which states that marriage shall not be entered into without the full consent of both parties. 

The international human rights community has consistently recognized the need to address the issue of bride kidnapping, such as in the UN Human Rights Council Periodic Review of Kyrgyzstan, wherein numerous nations called on Kyrgyzstan to strengthen its protection against the occurrence of bride kidnappings. Furthermore, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has long included the issue of bride kidnapping within its review of Kyrgyzstan’s efforts to eliminate discrimination against women. Indeed, the committee’s advocacy for harsher punishment for perpetrators of bride kidnapping in 2009 later saw implementation in 2013. While bride kidnapping in Kazakhstan has garnered less focus within the UN, prominent think tanks such as the Wilson Center have recognized the need to tackle the issue and have proposed suggestions such as increasing the focus on crisis center support and increasing local court system involvement. Furthermore, media organizations across Kazakhstan and beyond have reported on the consistent issue of bride kidnapping in the nation, documenting in turn the efforts to combat it as well as the insufficient protection against it.

While such high-level discussions and international media raise awareness surrounding bride kidnapping, the issue is far from resolved, which suggests the need for a new approach, and, as some NGOs have discovered, technology may be part of this new solution. Specifically, the Open Line Public Fund group has begun utilizing technology to facilitate a cultural change surrounding the topic of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, and the UN has recognized its efforts as meaningful contributions to ending this practice. The fund has developed a mobile game entitled “Spring in Bishkek,” wherein an individual plays the role of the friend of a woman who has been the victim of bride kidnapping. While playing as the friend, the player makes decisions about how to address the situation, and in doing so, the player learns about the laws that protect women from such kidnappings. This app has been downloaded over 100,000 times and represents an important use of technology to change the mindset of the nation with respect to bride kidnapping. Though the setting of the game and its user base are in Kyrgyzstan, this article proposes that the expansion of this app to include players based in Kazakhstan as well as other Central Asian nations could assist in building the continued momentum of this effort to help change the views surrounding bride kidnapping across the region. 

While this app assists in facilitating a cultural change surrounding the issue of bride kidnapping, additional efforts should also be made to ensure women are recovered from such kidnapping situations and that the perpetrators are charged for their crimes. To address this facet of the issue, technology can once again prove useful, as this article proposes a new innovative technological approach to addressing bride kidnapping. Namely, this article advocates for the launch of a bride kidnapping alert system that is similar in structure to Amber Alerts used in the U.S., which involve issuing an alert about the abduction of a child to the entire community across platforms, including televisions and smartphones. The system this article proposes would serve a similar purpose as the Amber Alert system in the U.S., with certain expansions to match the needs of bride kidnapping cases. To that end, the alert would be designed so that in addition to informing individuals about a kidnapping’s occurrence, citizens could easily report a bride kidnapping online through a designated portal and share the location it occurred. Law enforcement could proceed to send a broad alert to all individuals in the area that a bride kidnapping has taken place in their community, as is the case with Amber Alerts.

The international human rights community has already begun appreciating the importance of technology for addressing bride kidnapping, as the creation of the “Spring in Bishkek” app has demonstrated; however, stakeholders, including the UN Human Rights Council in its work with these Central Asian countries, have yet to consider the benefits of an alert system. The community must begin exploring this approach, however, as it has the capacity to be highly beneficial. Indeed, such a system could assist with response times, as bride kidnapping often happens in broad daylight, such that if the described app were implemented, it would become easy for a bystander to report the incident and the location of its occurrence in a time-sensitive manner. By allowing for this timely report, such a system would address one of the key issues that surround bride kidnapping today, the infrequency with which these occurrences are reported to the police.

In addition to this benefit, sending a notification to the entire community that a bride kidnapping has occurred would place a sense of responsibility upon residents, as has been the case with the use of Amber alerts, to be aware of the situation around them and report suspicious activity. The alert would also bring awareness to the severity of bride kidnapping and disallow individuals from becoming desensitized to its occurrence. Moreover, such an alert may also help spread the message that bride kidnapping is illegal and a punishable offense, thereby addressing ignorance surrounding the criminal code and potentially acting as a deterrent. Finally, and most critically, there is reason to believe that a bride kidnapping-specific alert would help in the recovery of women who have been kidnapped. As in the case of Amber Alerts, the alert has helped law enforcement recover over 1,200 children since its implementation in 1996.

The use of such technology in innovative ways to address bride kidnapping will not solve the problem completely; however, these combined efforts would be a meaningful step toward changing the cultural understanding of bride kidnapping, creating community responsibility for women who endure this experience, and helping to recover victims. It is not enough to condemn this practice under the law; Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan must take proactive measures, such as utilizing technology and other means, to ensure that women are afforded the protection they deserve and the right to choose a marriage on their own terms. 

Photo attribution: “Brilliant performance of children from the Center of Children’s Protection on bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan” by UN Women Kyrgyzstan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0