[English] CAG 10 years’ blog post series: Partners and projects throughout the years

Central Asia Solidarity Groups is turning 10 years old this year! To celebrate it, we take a look in the rearview mirror. Below we get an overview of partners and projects since 2012 – the year when CAG officially became a registered organization.   Back in 2012, CAG worked mostly with democratic youth activism and conflict transformation. A few years later, several new thematic areas had been developed – gender equality, LGBTQ and culture. In 2019, the thematic program area culture ceased to be a one of CAG’s main thematic areas. Instead, climate and environment became a thematic area, and...

[English] Take a glance at Central Asia Days 2022!

On November 5-6, Centralasiengrupperna hosted its ninth annual Central Asia Days conference at ABF Stockholm, which was accompanied by a screening of the movie “Baqyt” at Zita Folkets Bio. With the focus on gender & women’s rights and climate & environment, our speakers provided profound and first-hand knowledge on the topics and engaged participants into thought-provoking discussions.   The first day of the conference was devoted to the theme of gender and women’s rights. Our speaker from Kazakhstan Zhanar Sekerbayeva – a feminist, activist, and co-founder of the feminist initiative ‘Feminita’, shared how the initiative advocates for women’s political participation...

[English] Central Asia Days 2022

On the weekend of 5-6th of November Centralasiengrupperna is hosting the yearly Central Asia Days conference in Stockholm! During Central Asia Days 2022, we focus on two thematic areas: gender/women’s rights and climate/environment. Lectures and talks will be held in English by scholars and activists active in the region. On Saturday evening, there will be an additional movie screening at Zita Folkets Bio, Stockholm. The event is free of charge. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/…/central-asia-days-2022… Venue: Per Albinsalen, ABF-huset, Sveavägen 41, Stockholm. Full program: DAY 1: Saturday 5TH OF NOVEMBER THEME: Gender and Women’s rights 10.30-10.45: Welcome 10.45-11.45: Women’s participation in politics...

Women-led permaculture initiatives in semi-desert villages of Kyrgyzstan – part 1

Since 2018, CAG has worked within the thematic areas of climate and environment in Central Asia. This year we are piloting permaculture initiatives among rural communities in Kyrgyzstan as an intervention to deal with the problems of food insecurity, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss as well as gender inequality and community health. The pilot project is being implemented with local partner El-Too and was launched in March. This is the first of a series of blog posts about this exciting and innovative project. The villages on the south-west of Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, that are located in semi-desert areas are...

(English) 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...

Med Genus i Fokus – Vår resa till Kirgizistan Del 2

Under våren startade Centralasiengrupperna en så kallad Genusgrupp, som bestått av ett litet antal eldsjälar – nyfikna på att lära sig mer om Kirgizistan och det postsovjetiska Centralasien. Under våren har vi behandlat teman så som internationella relationer, brudkidnappningar och åldersdiskriminering. Vi har dessutom fått delta i ett kunskapsutbyte med några representanter från Centralasiengruppernas partnerorganisation Novi Ritm. De besökte Sverige den 3 till den 10 maj, och vi fick besöka Kirgizistan från den 4 juni till den 11 juni. Här kommer det andra inlägget (av tre) – Häng med oss och inspireras av de fantastiska, om än komplexa, historier...

(English) A visit from Sweden

In correspondence with the close partnership that Centralasiengrupperna and Novi Ritm share, this week Annika (Coordinator on Gender and Women’s Rights) and Jessica (previous EVS-volunteer at Novi Ritm and currently working with budgeting and economy in the two projects on a voluntary basis) are visiting from Sweden, the main purpose being to evaluate not only how the projects are coming along, but also in what ways we can continue our partnership. Today we spent the day outside of Osh, namely in Alay (roughly one and half hours drive from Osh), with the purpose of doing a bit of teambuilding...

(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...

(English) Comics workshop on Gender Issues in Osh

Novi Ritm in Osh hosted a unique two days workshop on how to create comics and share girls problems in a patriarchial society. Workshops were organized by four members of the Swedish feminist collective of cartoonists Dotterbolaget with the collaboration between Centralasiengrupperna. During the first day participants learnt basics of comic drawing and different methods. On the second day, girls depending on their interest and will, were divided into 4 small groups, where they created their own comics on themes such as: bride-kidnapping, street harassment, violence against women and stereotypes. “Girls group” played a big role in organizing the...

Centralasiendagarna 2015

Äntligen kan vi på Centralasiengrupperna bjuda in er till Centralasiendagarna igen! Den 22 och 24 maj kör vi och i år har vi flyttat till Stockholm och bjudit in internationella gäster. Vi kommer bjuda på panelsamtal, föredrag, utställning och filmvisning och samtidigt sprida information om Centralasien till både en bred allmänhet och för de redan invigda entusiasterna. Vi vill belysa en annars så obelyst region utifrån olika perspektiv. Språket för dagarna kommer vara engelska. Har du frågor kontakta [email protected] Fredag 22 maj 12.00-17.00 Kungliga Myntkabinettet Slottsbacken 6 Stora Rummet 12.00-13.00 Lunchmingel inklusive introduktion 13.00-14.30 Panelsamtal: Mänskliga Rättigheter i Kirgizistan...