Den nyckfulle Nazarbajev
Kazakhstan skakades i mars av en stor nyhet: den sittande presidenten skulle avgå. Det var något som i den centralasiatiska regionen tidigare endast hänt i Kirgizistan, och då efter massiva folkliga protester, i det närmaste revolutioner. Och den här gången skedde det dessutom frivilligt och inte i samband med ett val. Däremot följdes händelsen upp med ett antal manövrar som milt uttryckt något grumlade förhoppningen om ett överlämnande av makt från ledaren som i 28 år styrt världens till ytan nionde största land. Samma dag som Nursultan Nazerbajev, mannen som förkroppsligat Kazakhstan sedan 1991, klev av röstades det igenom...
[English] Central Asia Days 2018
On November 25th and 26th Centralasiengrupperna is hosting the fifth annual Central Asia Days conference in Stockholm! This two-event will include seminars, lectures, discussions, and a movie screening, with activists, civil society members and researchers. Free admission. Sign up here: https://simplesignup.se/event/141000 Full program: November 25, 12.00 – 19.15 ABF Huset (Per-Albin room), Sveavägen 41, Stockholm 12.00 – 12.30 Reception 12.30 – 14.00 Lecture: Gender Equality: Soviet vs Independent Kyrgyzstan The lecture will be held by Aisuluu Namasbek kyzy from the American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The lecturer will focus on comparison of gender equality in soviet and post-soviet Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan experienced...
[Englsih] Flashback on the Summer Camp 2018
It’s been almost two and a half months since the third part of the joint project “Strengthening Capacity and Skills among Youth Migrants” between Centralasiengrupperna and Children of St. Petersburg was held in Malmö. It was the final part of the project, which was based on the outcomes of previous events, such as mobility of youth workers in December, that consisted of such events as study visits to organisations that work kids, youth and their families with migrational background; and another mobility of youth workers that took place in April in St. Petersburg, where five trainers from Dotterbolaget and...
Central Asia and the Myth of Radicalization [explainer clip]
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...
[English] 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...
Fem dagar i Osh, Kirgizistan
I slutet av april reste jag, Thea, från Växjös lokalförening, tillsammans med IdaLisa från Göteborg och Frida och Linnea från Malmö till Kirgizistan. Vi reste till staden Osh som ligger i södra Kirgizistan, nära gränsen till Uzbekistan. I Osh ligger Novi Ritms hus, en ungdomsorganisation som är en mötesplats där unga kan skapa eller delta i aktiviteter, diskutera sina idéer och fördjupa sina kunskaper och ledarskapssidor. I tre dagar höll vi träningar i civilkurage för 20 ungdomar som är aktiva i Novi Ritm. Det var en fantastisk upplevelse och väldigt kul att hålla träningar som jag så många gånger gjort i...
(English) Being an intern in Kazakhstan
Hello everyone! I am now back in Sweden and have just started to write my master thesis in strategic communication at Lund University. I had a wonderful time in Kazakhstan and will in this blogpost sum up my experiences from living and working as an intern for UNICEF in Astana, Kazakhstan and traveling around Central Asia. UNICEF’s work in Kazakhstan is mainly focused on health, education, child protection and social inclusion. They work with the Government and national and international partners to ensure the rights of all children enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)....
“HBTQ-personer i Kasakstan är diskriminerade på väldigt många nivåer i samhället”
Det har varit ett hektiskt år för Zhanar Sekerbayeya. Nyligen blev hon och hennes kollegor på Kasakstan Feminist Initative «Feminita» klara med de 228 enkäterna och 43 intervjuerna som gjorts med lesbiska, transexuella och queerpersoner i Kasakstan de senaste två åren. – Det brukar sägas att det inte finns några lesbiska kvinnor i Kasakstan. Nu har vi motbeviset och här är även deras behovsanalys, säger hon....
(English) Presentation of Emma, intern at UNICEF Kazakhstan
Hi! My name is Emma Rönngren and I am a second year master student in strategic communication at Lund University. I am currently living in Astana, Kazakhstan where I am doing a two month long internship at the UNICEF country office. The internship is part of my studies and the reasons why I ended up in Kazakhstan are many. First and foremost because of my passion for the Russian language and culture, and my weakness for former Soviet states. I have two bachelor degrees: one in public relations and one in Russian language and literature. During my studies I have...