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Checking in with the women of Kazakhstan

Chally

Well, the campaign for Kazakhstan’s 3 April election has just kicked off, and women are coming under the spotlight, too. In celebration of the country’s twentieth anniversary of independence, the First Congress of Kazakhstan Women has just taken place in the capital city, Astana. From Kazinform:

The event brought together about 1, 000 delegates from every region of the country. These are the representatives of state bodies, NGOs, social institutions, deputies of the Parliament, prominent public figures, renowned writers and singers, militaries, youth, sportswomen, etc.

Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev welcomed the Forum participants and congratulated the women of Kazakhstan on the forthcoming International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day (8 March) is a public holiday in Kazakhstan! President Nazarbayev, according to RIA Novosti, added:

“I instruct the government, together with the Presidential administration and the national commission for women’s affairs, the leadership of the Nur Otan Party, to form a concrete plan effective to 2016 for the promotion of women in taking decisions,” he said at the first women’s congress in the traditionally male-dominated Central Asian country.

There are presently no female regional heads, and very few women in other governmental leadership positions. The idea is to bring more women into managerial roles and working with the forthcoming opening up of state-owned companies. Sounds good, would have sounded better if President Nazarbayev hadn’t followed his announcement up with ‘it’s not for nothing that they say that female intuition is sometimes stronger than logic.’

Also, check out this interview with Gulshara Abdykalikova, who is a government minister and chairs the National Commission for Women’s Affairs and Family Demographic Policy, on how the situation for women has evolved in the twenty years since independence.

10 thoughts on Checking in with the women of Kazakhstan

  3. IWD is a public holiday there? That’s pretty awesome…and makes me sad that so many here have no concept of its existence :/

  4. This is cool.

    With the recent protests in north Africa and the Middle East, I wonder if they will spread to Kazakhstan. So far there is no sign of it. I feel with authoritarian governments, even if they sponsor some women it’s very hard to tell how committed they are to womens’ rights. And it’s hard to tell how much popular support any of their policies actually have.

    It will be really interesting to see in Egypt if the overthrow of the Mubarak regime helps the feminist movement there. An Egyptian woman’s rights group is scheduling a ‘million women march’ for International Womens’ Day. If even enough protesters turn out to warrant a mention on Al Jazeera that would be great! Now that the streets are peaceful hopefully women will feel safe to turn out and make their presence felt.

  5. I feel I should point out that Women’s Day here in Kazakhstan or the former USSR is not at all a feminist holiday. It’s all about celebrating the beauty and softness of women. Men usually give flowers to women and talk about how women are sweet and kind and gentle and how a world without women would be boring. I always wonder how female boxers or weightlifters here take those speeches.

  6. International Women’s Day is a public holiday in most of the post-Soviet countries (possibly all), as it was in the USSR. It is generally marked by men giving women candy and flowers, and is a strange sort of cross between Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. You can’t have a meal in that part of the world on March 8 without someone male giving a speech/toast regarding how wonderful women are, with their beauty, intuition (per Nazarbaev), hard work taking care of the family, and other traditionally female-associated traits. While the holiday certainly has feminist origins, it is not generally marked in a feminist way. Some feminists do try to take it back, but thus far society as a whole is lagging.

  8. what KZBlog and oxygengrrl said. i was in kazakhstan for last year’s women’s day. it was an interesting cultural thing to experience, but there wasn’t much i thought was very feminist about how my local friends perceived the holiday.

  9. Actually, the article posted here follows the official governmental position and lacks critical examination of the situation. Women in Kazakhstan especially ethnic Kazakh women and girls are born and raised in a society where men always have the last word.
    For example a female is only considered a woman if she is married and gave birth to a son!!!! (If not a son, he will find a second or third wife … and yes this behavior is tolerated in the society… you know why? no? – because that’s just the way it is!!!!what does this reveal about the situation of women in Kazakhstan?). Of course she shouldn’t be older than 25 … Most of the girls try to marry young at all costs…(the trend is to 19-21) Abuse, domestic violence and a society where divorced and single mothers are widely seen as incapable of satisfying the needs of their men, otherwise he wouldn’t have left or beaten her, right?! Last years Gender conference, which was co-hosted by UNIFEM, the British Ambassy and the abovementioned Minister G. Abdykalikova and took place in February 2010 in Astana, emphasized the most free important roles of women in Kazakh society: Family keepers, wives, mothers.
    Women in politics are rare but they are existing, this fact is emphazised to show the democratic commitment of Kazakhstan… it’s the same with the free elections.

  10. Um, I wasn’t following the official government position, just passing on what that position is in relation to current events. I know that inequality is rampant; thanks for shedding some light on the specifics.

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