(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...

(English) Presentation of the new CAG intern Amanda

Hi everyone, So far, 2017 has been treating me good. At the end of last year I got a call from Annika at CAG telling me that I’d gotten an internship at CAG – going to Osh, Kyrgyzstan to work with their partner organization Novi Ritm for four months. I guess most of you reading this already know about CAG and Novi Ritm – and probably also something about Kyrgyzstan. Therefore I wont be going into details about this part. I’ll just say that right now me and Emma (the other intern whom I’ll be going with) are in...

(English) Soon in Kyrgyzstan – presentation of Emma, new CAG intern

Hi there, I’m currently at a café in Malmö, Sweden, with my new friend and colleague Amanda. Last day we met our Kyrgyzs colleagues (they are in Sweden now), it was so nice to meet them before going to Kyrgyzstan and they made a really good impression. Since I will spend some time blogging from Osh in Kyrgyzstan I thought this would be the perfect moment to introduce myself. After years of studying at the University of Gothenburg, last week I finally got my bachelor’s degree in political science, something I’m very happy about! I’ve been writing my thesis...

Engagera dig i CAG:s genusgrupp!

Är du intresserad av att arbeta för tjejers rättigheter och ett starkt civilsamhälle? Vill du upptäcka ett land och en kultur som du antagligen knappt ens vet var det ligger? Just nu söker Centralasiengrupperna fyra drivna personer till sin genusgrupp som också är intresserade av att åka till Kirgizistan. Sök senast 30 januari!...

(English) Part 2 on Democratization in Kyrgyzstan: Novi Ritm’s Contribution to Democratization of Kyrgyzstan

How can Novi Ritm be seen as contributing to the democratization process of Kyrgyzstan? In the last blog post, Perspectives on Democracy, I offered different conceptions of democracy and how the Central Asia Solidarity Groups (hereby abbreviated CAG) in particular understands the concepts of “democracy” and “democratization”. In this second and last blog post in the mini series, we will delve deeper into what actions CAG’s understanding of democracy and democratization leads them to take in Central Asia by analyzing how one of their main partners, the youth organization Novi Ritm in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, can be said to contribute...

[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...

(English) Part 2. Women’s Roles in the Construction of Identity in Kyrgyzstan: Ideas and Expectations of Women

Welcome to the second blogpost in the miniseries about the roles of women in Kyrgyz national identity! In the first blogpost, I introduced and elaborated on concepts such as national identity. Ethnicity, religion, and nomadism are all important, yet in very different ways, in Kyrgyzstani identity. In this part, I will continue to elaborate on how these are part in shaping ideas and expectations of Kyrgyz women, and how this might have an impact on women’s situation in Kyrgyzstan today. Because of rather limited space, much will be generalized, thus I want to highlight that there exists multiple dimensions...

(English) Part 1. Women’s Roles in the Construction of Identity in Kyrgyzstan: What is Kyrgyz National Identity?

Welcome to the first blogpost in the miniseries about the roles of women in Kyrgyz national identity! This post will be dedicated to clarify some concepts, such as national identity and gender, and shortly explain how and why they relate to each other. I will present a few theories of how national identity is constructed and maintained, to elaborate on my first out of three questions presented in my introductory post: What has been central in the construction of Kyrgyz national identity post-independence? What is National Identity? The understanding of a nation can be manifold. Several scholars from many...