Central Asia, Uzbekistan in particular, has been widely discussed in Sweden because of the terrorist attack in Stockholm on April 7th, 2017. Since then, the major news outlets in Sweden such as Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet have linked terrorism to Uzbekistan and generally Central Asia. In other words, it is said that the regime creates grounds for radical extremism. The analysis of how the Swedish mass media constructs Central Asia infers that the region is prone to widespread radicalization, terrorist activities, and fundamentalism. But is this really the case? Do the regimes in Central Asia create grounds for...
LGBT activist is charged for organising peaceful photo session in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan: Zhanar Sekerbaeva, prominent LGBT activist from Kazakhstan and co-founder of feminist initiative Feminita, based in Almaty, was detained on Wednesday, August 14, 2018. According to Feminita, Zhanar, together with Elena Ivanova, Alina Nevidimko and Polina Pollinium, organized photo session at Arbat street in Almaty on August 9th, 2018, dedicated to de-stigmatization of menstruation that attracted a lot of attention both online and during the session itself. Despite that the photo session was peaceful, it was interrupted by men, who pulled out posters in aggressive manner and threatened to take away mobile phone from one of the participant. The...
Encouraging youth’s civic activism related to human rights in villages and smaller cities in Southern Kyrgyzstan
This summer, Central Asia Solidarity Group’s main partner organization Novi Ritm organized not one but two subsequent Human Rights Camp in Osh, Kyrgyzstan! Novi Ritm is a youth organization run by youth for youth, working with informal education about human rights, gender equality and conflict prevention, most of the time using peer-to-peer methods. The camps were held within the framework of a common project Novi Ritm and Central Asia Solidarity Groups has for 2018-2019. It aims at increasing the knowledge and awareness about human rights among youth in Southern Kyrgyzstan on both a social and legislative level, and strengthening...
“LBTQ-people in Kazakstan are discriminated on many levels in the society”
It has been a hectic year for Zhanar Sekerbayeva. Recently, Zhanar and her colleagues at Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative «Feminita» finalized 228 surveys and 43 interviews with lesbians, bisexuals and queer persons in Kazakhstan. – People sometimes say that we don’t have any lesbians in Kazakhstan. Here’s the proof that they are wrong and also a needs assessment of this group....
Central Asia Days 2017
On November 26th and 27th Centralasiengrupperna (CAG) is hosting the fourth annual Central Asia Days! This two-event will include seminars, lectures, discussions, and a movie screening, with activists and civil society members from Central Asia. Free admission. Full program: November 26, 13.30 – 19.00 Solidaritetshuset (Draken) Tegelviksgatan 40, Stockholm 13.30 – 14.00 Reception 14.00 – 16.00 Panel discussion Queer feminism and activism in Central Asia and expression of feminism in art and culture The panel will be led by Zhanar Sekerbayeva, who comes from queer-feminist initiative “Feminita” based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Ruth Jenrbekova, who comes from Creolex cultural center,...
Coming home from Kyrgyzstan – three months later
It has now almost been three months since me and Emma arrived back in Sweden, after spending four months in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Previously when I’ve spent some time abroad, I’ve marvelled at the fact that your life just goes back to normal so quickly; you meet up with old friends, walk the same streets as you’ve always walked before, go back to work or school – and all of a sudden it’s like you forget that you’ve just spent the last four or six months in a foreign country – with new friends and different streets – and that...
VED – Zerafshan Improvisation
In 2014 we made a project with the experimental rock group VED from Malmö. The result was a three week long tour through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan wich included concerts, workshops, informal and formal jamsessions and meetings with other musicians and culture workers. In the village of Zerafshan in the Fann Mountains in Tajikistan we found an abandoned Soviet factory and recorded this improvisation. Filmed at location by Maciej Kalymon and Michael Cavanagh. Edited by Maciej Kalymon. Music performed at location by VED. Edited by VED. www.vedsound.com...
Creating spaces for young people – the opening of a “KulturCafe” in Naryn
This weekend Novi Ritm was invited to the opening of a “KulturCafé” in the city of Naryn. It’s a city situated in the central parts of the country and it’s the administrative center of the region of Naryn. According to the university students that initiated Naryn’s “KulturCafé”, social life in the city is mostly centered around the family. Public spaces to hang out at and meet other people – especially for young people, are rare, even non-existing. Therefore, the goal of creating this “KulturCafé” was to increase the quality of life as well as knowledge building between different cultures...
Social theatre in Sumhat – discussing the issue of suicide among young people in Kyrgyzstan
As you can read about here and here, Novi Ritm’s 1325-team is currently spending most of its time traveling around the regions and towns where we’ve previously held trainings, in order to supervice and document the third and last step of the project, which is: facilitating peace initiatives and regional network working together with issues relating to UNSCR 1325. From the second step of the project: awareness raising and knowledge building activities in the three regions of Osh, Batken and Jalal-Abad, participants from nine of the schools that we’ve visited have been granted money for coming up with and...
Why are only women on parental leave?
Yesterday me, Amanda and Aida participated in “consultation between lawyers and young people” made within one of the projects at Novi Ritm, the 1325-project. The consultation where held in Osh city. Some weeks ago Novi Ritm arranged “trainings of trainers” and the next step for these young trainers have been to implement a mini project in their local context. All these mini projects will be implemented in May and we will try to participate and report about as many of them as possible. This project was carried out by Guliza and Dastan, see picture below. The session between lawyers and...