Kazakhstan has completed its chairmanship of the UN-led Dialogue of Women of Central Asia, Kazinform News Agency reports. 

This year’s final conference discussing ending gender-based violence saw the participation of the speakers of Kazakh and Uzbek parliaments, members of the National commission for women’s affairs and family and demographic policy under the Kazakh president, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Turkmen parliamentarians, heads of government agencies, as well as representatives of non-governmental and international organizations, diplomatic corps.

Speaking of the results of Kazakhstan’s 2023 chairmanship of the Dialogue of Women of Central Asia, Kazkah Majilis Speaker Yerlan Koshanov noted that throughout this period, the pressing issues such as promotion of innovation and technologies, peace and security in the global aspect, climate change, role of women and youth in combating terrorism and extremism, and so on were discussed at the site of the Dialogue.

Kazakhstan ratified the international conventions on human rights, women, gender equality, and many others. At President Tokayev’s initiative, this year domestic violence was criminalized, said the Kazakh Majilis speaker.

Following the conference, the delegates passed the statement of the 2023 Dialogue of Women of Central Asia, condemning any forms of violence against women, promoting effective legislative and legal mechanisms to protect and support women.

Next year, Kyrgyzstan is to preside over the Dialogue of Women of Central Asia.

Source: Kazinform

The post Kazakhstan Completes Its Chairmanship of Dialogue of Women of Central Asia appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.

BISHKEK — This time last year, six women activists were among more than two dozen people arrested and jailed in a crackdown on dissent that marked a turning point for the rule of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov.

They spent between three and eight months behind bars before being released into house arrest, as they await verdicts in a closed trial over what Japarov has insisted was a plot to overthrow the government.

The raids in October 2022 were the largest targeting government opponents since the eve of the 2010 revolution that unseated Kyrgyzstan’s second president — Kurmanbek Bakiev — one of three presidents overthrown in a turbulent three decades of independence.

But even Bakiev did not go as far in cracking down on women activists as the current regime led by Japarov and his de facto co-ruler, the national security chief Kamchybek Tashiev.

Earlier this month, authorities shrugged off a fresh outcry after detaining and imprisoning two residents of southern Kyrgyzstan — a 70-year-old woman and a 44-year-old single mother — on serious anti-constitutional charges.

Leila Nazgul Seiitbek, chairwoman of the Vienna-based, Central Asia-focused Freedom For Eurasia nonprofit, argues that this trend is likely to continue given what she called the ruling pair’s determination to crush all forms of activism, which she argues “often has a female face” in Kyrgyzstan.

“In their own political struggles in the past, when they were in opposition, Japarov and Tashiev often relied on female activists,” Seiitbek told RFE/RL. “They know very well that their activism can be very effective in terms of criticizing the authorities in the public space and organizing peaceful protests. Therefore, they consider them a real threat to their power.”

A Water Reservoir And A Watershed Moment

“What fool would talk about a coup d’etat in a restaurant, in a public place?” asked Klara Sooronkulova, a former constitutional court judge and NGO leader, in an interview with RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.

Sooronkulova was one of several women jailed after that meeting and only released with bail-like conditions in April of this year.

Rita Karasartova, a career rights defender and onetime presidential candidate, was kept behind bars even longer — until the end of June.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service ahead of the anniversary of the Kempir-Abad arrests, Karasartova said she drew strength from the courage of her next-door neighbor in confinement, Asiya Sasykbaeva, who was 71 at the time she was imprisoned with the others.

A longtime activist and former lawmaker, Sasykbaeva spent time in jail making salads for the other prisoners and teaching them Russian. She even helped a 24-year-old woman who had been wrongly sentenced walk free from jail.

“I thought, how can I complain about my health when [Sasykbaeva] is holding up so well?” Karasartova said.

Karasartova added that her eight-month stint has given her strength to face whatever punishment might come her way whenever the secretive coup-plot trial reaches its conclusion.

“We used to have concerns about what it would be like to be arrested,” Karasartova said.

“Now, I wouldn’t say we are brave, but we have stopped being afraid of prison,” the activist said, vowing not to “shut [her] mouth.”

‘Number Of Victims Will Increase’ If Anti-NGO Law Passed

In some ways, the arrests of the two women in southern Kyrgyzstan this month appear linked to the conflict over the Kempir-Abad water reservoir.

The younger woman, single mother Chynygul Sherkulova, is still in detention.

But it was the arrest of pensioner Saliya Tashtanova, finally released on October 17 after more than a week behind bars, that shocked so many people.

“In the history of Kyrgyzstan, there has never been such cases — the arrest of elderly women,” Dinara Oshurakhunova, a longtime civil society leader based in Bishkek, told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.

Both Sherkulova and Tashtanova face charges of calling for the violent overthrow of the government.

Arrests with apparent political motivations are a well-established tradition in Kyrgyzstan, where crackdowns on the opposition — and no shortage of corruption – have fueled political instability.

Yet for all that, Kyrgyzstan has retained a reputation as the only Central Asian country where political pluralism and civil society still exist.

The current administration has indicated that it views this fact as a hindrance rather than an achievement, with last year’s crackdown serving as a clear demonstration of the new limits for political opposition.

The 27 arrests came as the government pushed to get a historic border deal agreed with Uzbekistan over the line with minimum fuss.

But news that the neighboring country would increase its control over the shared Kempir-Abad water reservoir inside southern Kyrgyzstan made the deal a political hot potato, spurring a string of protests.

In Bishkek, activists and opposition politicians established a Committee To Protect Kempir-Abad.

Not long after, members of the nascent committee who met in an Italian restaurant in Bishkek found themselves behind bars and formally accused of coup-plotting.

“What fool would talk about a coup d’etat in a restaurant, in a public place?” asked Klara Sooronkulova, a former constitutional court judge and NGO leader, in an interview with RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.

Sooronkulova was one of several women jailed after that meeting and only released with bail-like conditions in April of this year.

Rita Karasartova, a career rights defender and onetime presidential candidate, was kept behind bars even longer — until the end of June.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service ahead of the anniversary of the Kempir-Abad arrests, Karasartova said she drew strength from the courage of her next-door neighbor in confinement, Asiya Sasykbaeva, who was 71 at the time she was imprisoned with the others.

A longtime activist and former lawmaker, Sasykbaeva spent time in jail making salads for the other prisoners and teaching them Russian. She even helped a 24-year-old woman who had been wrongly sentenced walk free from jail.

“I thought, how can I complain about my health when [Sasykbaeva] is holding up so well?” Karasartova said.

Karasartova added that her eight-month stint has given her strength to face whatever punishment might come her way whenever the secretive coup-plot trial reaches its conclusion.

“We used to have concerns about what it would be like to be arrested,” Karasartova said.

“Now, I wouldn’t say we are brave, but we have stopped being afraid of prison,” the activist said, vowing not to “shut [her] mouth.”

‘Number Of Victims Will Increase’ If Anti-NGO Law Passed

In some ways, the arrests of the two women in southern Kyrgyzstan this month appear linked to the conflict over the Kempir-Abad water reservoir.

The younger woman, single mother Chynygul Sherkulova, is still in detention.

But it was the arrest of pensioner Saliya Tashtanova, finally released on October 17 after more than a week behind bars, that shocked so many people.

“In the history of Kyrgyzstan, there has never been such cases — the arrest of elderly women,” Dinara Oshurakhunova, a longtime civil society leader based in Bishkek, told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.

Both Sherkulova and Tashtanova face charges of calling for the violent overthrow of the government.

Tashtanova’s accusation is rooted in a social media post that she addressed to Tashiev which railed against injustice and the increasing cost of living. But the pensioner is also understood to have participated in one of the original rallies against the transfer of land surrounding Kempir-Abad.

And she published the post not long after the arrest of lawmaker Adakhan Madumarov, the head of the Butun Kyrgyzstan opposition party, on treason charges in September.

Although Madumarov’s case is linked to his activities as a state official more than a decade ago, pressure on the politician only began in earnest after he joined the ill-fated Committee to Protect Kempir-Abad last year.

He is also arguably the country’s most popular opposition politician remaining, after others — having been detained on various pretexts — withdrew from politics in the months after Japarov and Tashiev came to power following unrest in 2020.

Sherkulova, for her part, is a registered member and coordinator of the Butun Kyrgyzstan party in Jalal-Abad Province.

Her lawyer, Toktosun Zhorobekov, told RFE/RL that his client is accused of spreading rumors about a piece of land being handed over to Tajikistan in border demarcation talks with that country — rumors that Tashiev’s State Committee for National Security (UKMK) saw fit to refute in a statement published earlier this month.

“I’ve read the charge sheet. There is nothing in it,” Zhorobekov said. “She was simply accused [by someone] and they ordered her arrest.”

Leila Nazgul Seiitbek of the Freedom For Eurasia nonprofit told RFE/RL that her group is currently monitoring around 70 cases of what the group deems political pressure on individuals in Kyrgyzstan, at least 20 of which involve women.

Moreover, “victims are likely to increase” if Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passes a law — now being considered — that would dramatically tighten restrictions on foreign-funded NGOs, Seiitbek said.

“And it is likely that among those victims there will again be many women, because in the NGO sector the overwhelming majority of leaders are women,” Seiitbek predicted.

Source: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

The post Kyrgyzstan’s Latest Repressive Trend: Women Political Prisoners appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.

HANGZHOU, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — China dominated the pool with an easy 33-5 victory over Uzbekistan in the women’s water polo preliminary round at the 19th Asian Games here on Monday.

China showed their aggression from the beginning of the game by blocking Uzbekistan’s passes and scoring chances before storming to a 17-2 lead at half time.

Despite Uzbekistan’s efforts, they still couldn’t find an effective attacking method to narrow the gap in the second half.

The women’s water polo competition which contains seven teams will run from September 25 to October 1 at the Huanglong Sports Centre. The gold medal winner will claim the Asian berth at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

China, Kazakhstan and Japan are the major medal contenders, with China winning all three Asian Games gold medals since 2010.

“We are heading for the gold this time. we will get well prepared and have the confidence to defeat other teams,” said Chinese player Xiong Dunhan.

In other games on Monday, Japan crushed South Korea 33-2, Kazakhstan beat Singapore 12-6.

China will face Singapore on Tuesday. 

Source: English News

The post China Crushes Uzbekistan in Women’s Water Polo Preliminaries at Hangzhou Asiad appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.

A group of UN experts on Monday declared that the refusal of education to girls and young women in Afghanistan “marks a global nadir … impacting an entire gender, a generation, and the country’s future.”

“On 22 March 2023, schools should be reopening to girls across Afghanistan. Instead, it appears that for the second successive school year, teenage girls will be banned from resuming their studies – making Afghanistan the only country in the world that forbids girls and young women from attending secondary school and places of higher education,” read a UN statement.

The Taliban denied women and girls their right to education during their initial rule between 1996 and 2001, and have done the same after seizing power for a second time in 2021, the experts said.

Education is a crucial enabling right for realizing other human rights, including the right to work, an adequate standard of living, health, participation in society and communities, equality before the law, and fundamental freedoms, read the statement.

The experts include Richard Bennett, special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan; Farida Shaheed, special rapporteur on the right to education; and Fionnuala Ni Aolain, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism.

“Denying this right to half the population effectively denies women and girls most other human rights,” the experts asserted.

They said the Taliban have no justification for the decision “on any grounds, including religion or tradition.”

“Being a state party to United Nations human rights treaties … Afghanistan is obliged to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education without discrimination on the basis of gender or any other ground, irrespective of the authority in power,” the experts said.

The treaties include the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

Both times, the Taliban introduced bans on girls’ education as temporary measures, the statement added.

However, during the first period, the ban was not lifted, and unless the Taliban fulfills its promises to reopen secondary schools and universities immediately, it shows they have no intention of doing so, said the experts.

“If the ban on education continues, life outcomes for girls, but also all children, will continue on a negative trajectory, and recovery will take decades,” the experts warned.

They also said that child marriage and child labor rates have increased since the ban was imposed, along with reports of children being medicated to overcome hunger and even dying from malnutrition.​​​​​​​

Source : AA

The post Unlawful Exclusion of Girls, Women in Afghanistan Marks ‘Global Education Nadir’: Un Experts appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.

The U.N. Mission said that Afghanistan’s new rulers have shown an almost “singular focus on imposing rules that leave most women and girls effectively trapped in their homes.”

Despite initial promises of a more moderate stance, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since seizing power as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from Afghanistan after two decades of war.

Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade and women are barred from working, studying, traveling without a male companion, and even going to parks or bath houses. Women must also cover themselves from head to toe and are barred from working at national and international non-governmental organizations, disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid.

“Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights,” Roza Otunbayeva, special representative of the U.N. secretary-general and head of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

She later told the U.N. Security Council in New York that “the Taliban claim to have united the country, but they have also severely divided it by gender.” The Taliban tell the U.N. “that this gender segregation is not a significant issue and is being addressed” and “they say they should be judged on other achievements,” she said.

At a time when Afghanistan needs to recover from decades of war, Otunbayeva said, “half of the country’s potential doctors, scientists, journalists, and politicians are shut away in their homes, their dreams crushed and their talents confiscated.”

“It has been distressing to witness their methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere,” she added.

The restrictions, especially the bans on education and NGO work, have drawn fierce international condemnation. But the Taliban have shown no signs of backing down, claiming the bans are temporary suspensions in place allegedly because women were not wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly and because gender segregation rules were not being followed.

As for the ban on university education, the Taliban government has said that some of the subjects being taught were not in line with Afghan and Islamic values.

“Confining half of the country’s population to their homes in one of the world’s largest humanitarian and economic crises is a colossal act of national self-harm,” Otunbayeva said.

“It will condemn not only women and girls, but all Afghans, to poverty and aid-dependency for generations to come,” she warned. “It will further isolate Afghanistan from its own citizens and from the rest of the world.”

At a carpet factory in Kabul, women who were former government employees or high school and university students now spend their days weaving carpets.

“We all live like prisoners, we feel that we are caught in a cage,” said Hafiza, 22, who goes only by her first name and who used to be a first-year law student before the Taliban banned women from attending classes at her university. “The worst situation is when your dreams are shattered, and you are punished for being a woman.”

Another worker at the factory, 18-years-old Shahida, who also uses only one name, said she was in 10th grade at one of Kabul high schools when her education was cut short.

“We just demand from the (Taliban) government to reopen schools and educational centers for us and give us our rights,” she said.

An Afghan women’s rights campaigner, Zubaida Akbar, told the Security Council that since the Taliban seized power “the rights of Afghan women and girls have been decimated through over 40 decrees.”

“The Taliban have sought not only to erase women from public life, but to extinguish our basic humanity,” said Zubaida, who spoke on behalf of the rights group Freedom Now that deals with 20 mostly women-led grassroots movements inside Afghanistan. “There is one term that appropriately describes the situation of Afghan woman today — gender apartheid.”

Alison Davidian, the special representative for UN Women in Afghanistan, said: “The implications of the harm the Taliban are inflicting on their own citizens goes beyond women and girls.”

No officials from the Taliban-led government were available for comment.

At the Security Council, the U.N.’s Otunbayeva said there is a faction in the Taliban that doesn’t agree with the crackdown on women and girls and understands that attention must be paid to the real needs of all Afghans.

“Perhaps it can eventually execute a change of direction,” she said. “But time is running short. Global crises are multiplying. Demands on donor resources are multiplying as the availability of those resources diminishes.”

In conjunction with the observances of International Women’s Day on March 8, about 200 Afghan female small business owners put together an exhibition of their products in Kabul. Most complained of losing business since the Taliban takeover.

“I don’t expect Taliban to respect women’s rights,” said one of them, Tamkin Rahimi. “Women here cannot practice their rights and celebrate Women’s Day, because we cannot go to school, university or go to work, so I think we don’t have any day to celebrate.”

Ten of the 15 Security Council members issued a joint statement demanding that the Taliban immediately reverse all its oppressive measures against women and girls.

“Recovery in Afghanistan cannot happen without women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in all aspects of political, economic and social life,” said the statement by Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

Source : Milwaukee

The post UN Says Afghanistan is World’s Most Repressive Country for Women After Taliban Takeover in 2021 appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.