July 25, 2022

Editor’s Note: This is the last edition of Impact before the newsletter takes a short summer break. We’ll be back in your inboxes on September 5 with the latest news, insight and analysis on feminism and politics worldwide.

How Kazakhstan’s mass protests kicked its feminist movement into gear

By Aigerim Toleukhanova

In Kazakhstan, 2022 will be remembered as a year of revolt, and of a brutal crackdown. Mass protests in January led to the bloodiest period in the three decades since the country became the last to declare independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They also provided the underground feminist movement with new momentum in its battle to improve the lives of women in a nation where any criticism of the status quo is
heavily repressed.

Demonstrations were initially sparked by a sharp increase in liquefied gas prices. But this single-issue protest transformed into a mass movement demanding an end to former president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s involvement in Kazakh politics. Within days, the situation became violent and chaotic. The government shut down the internet and Russian-led peacekeeping troops entered the country to “stabilise” the situation. In the ensuing crackdown, more than 220 people died in less than a week.

Kazakh feminists and female activists were among the protestors. One group of mothers demanding better benefits and dignified housing for large families claim to have been the first people on the streets on January 4. Other feminist groups later joined to call for the re-criminalisation of domestic violence and a greater commitment to gender equality.

The unrest in January was the latest step in the transition of power that started in 2019 when Nazarbayev stepped down after nearly 30 years in power and was replaced by Kassym-Jomart
Tokayev.

Six months later, there are still many unanswered questions as to what exactly happened. Officials have provided little detail and many activists claim that justice has not been done for those killed and injured in the crackdown. But the fight continues, even though the consequences of being politically active in this authoritarian country can land you in jail.

Researcher and human rights activist Khalida Azhigulova says feminist activism has become more widespread since the protests.

“I can judge by my own example,” she says. “Because right after the events of January, I created a big plan with suggestions to the government on how to change the implementation of gender policies.”

The feminist activists emboldened by the January protests are building on a record of recent success in post-Nazarbayev Kazakhstan.

In October 2021, the Kazakh government finally lifted a Soviet-era ban on women performing more than 200 different job categories to “protect” their reproductive system.

Gender expert and consultant in international human rights law Aigerim Kamidola  began working on repealing the list of banned jobs for women in 2018. She says the government abolished the law not to give equality to women but due to « international pressure which was a result of tireless advocacy work on the ground”.

“I am, of course, happy that the list was abolished,” Kamidola says. “But for the government it was the easiest step, the least controversial among Kazakhstan’s obligations to fulfil on women’s rights.”

Azhigulova has had less success. She has been campaigning to re-criminalise domestic violence since 2019. The crimes of ‘battery’ and ‘intentional infliction of light bodily harm’ were removed from the country’s criminal code in 2017. Azhigulova says there has been an increase in family violence and abuse of women and girls since then. Human Rights Watch has claimed that abusive partners “are well aware of the non-criminal penalty” for acts of domestic violence and go on to assault their family members with impunity.

Azhigulova said many of her suggestions for reform have been rejected by government officials.

“They simply hinder the passage of important laws to protect women and girls from gender-based, sexualized violence,” she says. “They’re not interested in creating a truly legal democratic state with equal rights.”

Two months after the events of “Bloody January”, as Kazakhs call it, feminists organised a women’s march in the country’s largest city, Almaty – only the second to be approved by authorities in recent history. Under the law on public assemblies adopted in 2020, activists have to notify local administrations about planned protests. If they fail to get a green light from officials, they risk being detained and fined – some can be arrested and spend up to 15 days in jail.

When the rally was held in March, many Kazakhs were still traumatised by the January violence, and Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine had cast a pall over the wider region. Yet a thousand people turned out, with many holding banners supporting Ukraine.

Zhanar Sekerbayeva, a well-known LGBT activist, scholar and co-founder of the Feminita organisation, was on the organising committee for this year’s march. She said there was widespread “anxiety” in the air throughout. During her years of activism, Sekerbayeva has been detained several times, harassed by police and beaten by unknown men.

“It seemed to me that [people] were scared because we have no trust in the government, no trust in government institutions,” she says.

Yelena Shvetsova, executive director of the human rights organisation Wings of Liberty, believes the situation in Kazakhstan will change only with more political power and representation for women.

“Over the past couple of years, more people have started to talk about women’s rights and the gender agenda,” she told Impact, but warned that the government had limited appetite for real change.

“There is a new wave of young women needed who will fight for their rights,” she says.

In the future, many of those young women may be able to trace their path to activism back to the events of Bloody January. The events of 2022 in Kazakhstan have shown that civil society is growing, and will not back down easily.

— Aigerim Toleukhanova is an independent journalist and researcher from Kazakhstan.