A mural of Burulai, a 20-year old medical student who was killed by her abductor inside a police station. Photo by Mirbek Kadraliev / UN WOMEN via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) In recent weeks, abuse of girls and women made headlines in Kyrgyz media ranging from cases of “ala kachuu” (abduction of young women and girls for the purpose of marriage) to sexual violence against underage girls. On July 11, 2022, three men aged between 26 and 27 kidnapped a young woman for a marriage in one of the districts of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The victim turned to the police and the suspected abductors were detained for 2 months. Around the same time, a 17- year-old girl was abducted in the area of Staryi Tolchok, the construction materials market in Bishkek. On the way to the pharmacy she noticed a car following. Inside were two men, one a friend of her neighbor's, who offered her a ride. When she refused, the man clamped her mouth shut and forced her into the vehicle. The two men drove the girl to her neighbor’s house, from where she managed to call the police. However, her own relatives rejected her, saying she had brought disgrace on the family. She turned to the “Otkrytaya Liniya” (Open Line) public fund, which helps victims of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan, a small Central Asian country bordering Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, sees one of the highest rates of kidnapping girls for marriage. According to demography and population dynamics researchers Lesia Nedoluzhko and Victor Agadjanian, one in three marriages in the country, especially in remote regions, begins with a kidnapping. Almost every week one can hear cases of ala kachuu, despite the long-established criminalization of the offense. One of the most repellent examples that sparked a civil society outcry was the kidnapping of 19-year-old Burulai in 2018, when the kidnapper killed the young woman right at the police station in Bishkek. Another infamous case was that of Aizada Kanatbekova. In April 2021, in Bishkek, a group of five men abducted 26-year-old Aizada. Two days later, a local shepherd found the bodies of the abducted woman and one of her kidnappers inside a car between the villages of Arashan and Chokmorova in the Chuy region. These cases triggered outraged protests, with calls for dismissals of officials and other legal actions, and a push to change the legal provisions around bride-kidnapping. Currently, a new criminal code, adopted in October 2021, provides for liability in the form of imprisonment from up to seven years for kidnapping. A scene from the women's solidarity march, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Photo by Meriza Emilbekova / UN Women Kyrgyzstan via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Sexual abuse of underage girls has also filled the news feeds in past weeks. In one recent egregious case, several men, including police officers, sexually abused a 13-year-old girl for about five months. In August 2021, at the Dordoi bazaar in Bishkek, a seller accused a 13-year-old girl of trying to steal headphones and handed her over to the police, who, threatening her with a 10-year imprisonment and enormous fines, raped her. According to the victim’s father, two police officers and one more man passed his daughter among themselves, intimidated and raped her from August 2021 to February 2022. In the meantime, the rapists of another 13-year-old with disabilities in Sokuluk, a village in the Chuy Region, were sentenced but released because the statute of limitations on the crime had expired. The recurrent appeals took more than nine years for the courts to process, a period that was the statue of limitations, since the defendants were minors at the time they committed the crime. In recent weeks, women's civil society organizations and feminist activists called on the government to take action to combat violence against women and girls, which is surging day by day, jeopardizing the lives of women and girls in Kyrgyzstan. Митинг против насилия над детьми в Бишкеке pic.twitter.com/ehsnlsSRxC — Aizirek Imanalieva (@aizirekstan) July 8, 2022 Rally against the violence against children in Bishkek Such examples show how distrust of the population towards the police is growing in Kyrgyzstan, given that, instead of being guardians, law enforcement officers become perpetrators and endanger women seeking help. Given the inaction of the police and cracks in the judicial system, some sexual abuse cases can lead to arbitrariness or mob action. Thus, in late 2021, following the rape of a 16-year-old girl, the so-called “aksakals court” (court of elders) decided to evict the family of the rape suspect from the village.