On May 28 2018, Mars Bodoshev abducted Burulai Turdaly-kyzy. Caught and brought to the police station with his victim, he managed to sneak into the room where the young girl was sitting and stabbed her to death.

In Kyrgyzstan even nowadays young women risk being kidnapped and then, forcibly married. This is called ala kachuu, a tradition, some say, but in fact, a crime.

In 2018, 15 000 brides were kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan, but only 28 cases made it to the court. Police officers, often out of respect for a venerable tradition, refuse to file victims’ reports. And in general, the subject is taboo.

During Bodoshev trial, KLOOP, an online news portal, decided to break the silence and started the Koshogo campaign.

A koshogo is a white curtain or veil. According to tradition, for the bride, passing under the koshogo means giving her consent to marriage. At the kidnappers’ house, the young woman is forced to perform the ritual. If she resists, she will often be raped.

We collected the reports of the ala kachuu victims that were rejected by police and printed them on koshogos. These white sheets, hundreds of them, appeared in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in the exact spots where the abductions took place.

This subject is taboo for the majority of the population and media of Kyrgyzstan. Only KLOOP had the courage to speak the truth and to condemn this tradition and those who support it.

We combined the koshogo - a powerful symbol of the traditional marriage and virginal innocence symbolized by its white color - with stories of violence against women, even rape, taken from the ala kachuu victims’ reports rejected by the police.

police.

We collected the reports of the ala kachuu victims, that were rejected by police, and printed them on koshogos. These white sheets, hundreds of them, appeared in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in the exact spots where the abductions took place.

At the same time the rejected reports, recorded by these young girls on video in the very places where they’ve been abducted, appeared on the internet.

And we put in place a site where rejected reports could be filed online.

The campaign was nothing short of a shock. After the taboo was broken and people started talking, in Kyrgyzstan and other countries, the media joined the conversation. Many business communities gave their support to the campaign, but also museums of modern art, cinemas etc.

As more and more stories emerged, social networks were flooded with indignant comments, giving rise to a wave of protest that ultimately forced the Kyrgyz Prime Minister to demand drastic measures against ala kachuu.

• 9 000 000+ views

• 23% more reports from ala kachuu victims registered by the police

• The reports that were once rejected are now filed

• 26 police officers supportive of ala kachuu discharged from duty or severely punished.

• Campaign to be extended to Middle East by UN Women in 2019

• The campaign focused general attention on Bodoshev case which resulted, at least partly, in extremely severe penalties the kidnapper and his accomplices received.