(English) “They should respect girls like they respect each other” – International Women’s Day in Osh

Today is International Women’s Day and in Kyrgyzstan this is a public holiday. Banners are put up all over the city, wishing women happiness and prosperous lives with many children. For two days the streets in the city center has been filled with flower stands and everywhere you see men caring bouquets and gifts for their wives, mothers and sister. Even I have gotten my fair share of well wishes (for instance, a lady I met at the banya (russian sauna) two weeks ago, sent me a text with roses and hearts). To tell you the truth, I have...

Introducerar: 40 Kirgiziska Kvinnor – Från då till nu

För en månad sen blev projektet ”40 Kirgiziska Kvinnor – Från då till nu” (”40 Women of Kyrgyzstan – From Past to Present”) tillgängligt online via vår hemsida. Sedan dess har nyheten om projektet spridits i olika sociala medier och artiklar. Bland annat skrev Osj-baserade Florian Coppenrath en artikel om projektet på tyska och franska, men trots att den ursprungliga målgruppen var svensk allmänhet har material på svenska uteblivit. Detta ska vi ändra på från och med idag! Den här texten kommer ge en introduktion till projektet och dess olika kanaler. Här kommer vi att ta upp projektets ursprung,...

Del 2 av Street fashion i Osh, Kirgizistan

Fortsättning på del 1 av street fashion-projektet som utfördes hösten 2016 i Osh, Kirgizistan (se föregående bloggpost).   Aigerim, 20 Aigerim studerar medicin och kommer bli utbildad läkare i framtiden. Hon vill resa och nämner Ryssland, England, Tyskland och Förenade Arabemiraterna som destinationer hon mycket väl kan tänka sig resa till. Till framtidsplanerna hör att bli en bra läkare med egen klinik i Tyskland. De största problemen i Kirgizistan är korruption, brist på pengar och att människor inte är utbildade, menar Aigerim. Aiperi, 20 Aiperi studerar medicin på universitetet och kommer från början från staden Jalal-Abad. Ganska omgående kommer...

Del 1 av Street fashion i Osh, Kirgizistan

Det här projektet utfördes av mig, Josefin, som var en av Centralasiengruppernas utsända praktikanter hösten 2016. Projektet startades ur min nyfikenhet på vad unga kvinnor i Kirgizistan anser vara viktigt i livet. De unga kvinnor som kommer till tals i projektet kan enligt mig ge en intressant ögonblicksbild av det kirgiziska samhället idag. Genom att kalla projektet ett “street fashion-projekt” skapade jag ett icke-skrämmande sätt att närma mig vanliga unga kvinnor på gatan för att starta en konversation om deras vardag, drömmar och problem. Min uppfattning är att kvinnor i den delen av världen där Centralasien återfinns tenderar att...

(English) Trainings in Batken Oblast with the 1325-team

As many of you know, part of Novi Ritms work during 2016-2017 has been and still is to raise awareness among Kyrgyz youth in relation to the UN Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. It has previous featured on this blog here and here. Last week the 1325-team plus me and Emma went to Batken Oblast, in order to conduct two trainings on human rights – especially focusing on women rights and 1325. As a way of highlighting harmful structures in society as well as the level of inequality between Kyrgyz men and women, part of the training...

Workshop: Islam and feminism

Disclaimer: CAG is a politically and religiously unbound organization and this blog post mirrors only my own thoughts in connection to this workshop and from spending only one week in Kyrgyzstan. It should also be underlined what is being presented is a small part of the research conducted on the subjects of Islam and feminism, ethnicity and gender. This Friday the staff of Novi Ritm participated in a small workshop about Islam and feminism, which was facilitated by Grace Zhou, an anthropologist who writes her dissertation on gender and informal economy here in Kyrgyzstan. On the picture above you...

(English) Raising the voices of the young

Newly arrived in Bishkek, we haven’t spent any time being idle. Except for doing some of the city’s most famous cites, spending a whole day skiing in Chunkurchak, eating lots of Kyrgyz food and finding new friends, one of the first things we did was to met with two different NGO’s: Center for the Protection of Children (CPC) and Kloop, an independent media outlet and school of journalism for young people. Summarised in one sentence, these two organisations are all about raising the young voices of Kyrgyzstan. At the CPC we met with Mira, who told us about their work as one...

(English) first dinner in Kyrgyzstan!

We (me Emma, and Amanda, the new interns) have arrived to Bishkek today. After a long flight we finally got to our hostel and after that we had some dinner at a restaurant with traditional kyrgyzs food. We also did some shopping at the supermarket. Since we have been awake for 24 hours its time for some sleep. /Emma...

(English) Two weeks of preparation

The picture above is from this week when me and Amanda, the organization Vardagens Civilkurage, our colleagues from Novi Ritm and CAG’s international coordinator Annika had a workshop in Malmö, Sweden. We practiced different roles you can have in a meeting e.g how you can intervene if someone interrupts and how you can act in different situations to make a meeting as democratic as possible. We also practiced different dialogue methods. The workshop was organized by Vardagens Civilkurage and was very good and interesting. This week has also been a lot about planning, mostly activities related to Resolution 1325...