In Kyrgyzstan even nowadays young women risk being kidnapped and then, forcibly married. This is

called ala kachuu, a tradition, say some, 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 independent online news portal, started a campaign everyone referred to as the Koshogo Campaign. A koshogo is a white curtain that the kidnappers’ family hang in his house. According to tradition, for the bride, passing under the koshogo means giving her consent to marriage. If she resists, she will often be raped - to make sure she’ll be too ashamed to escape. We collected confessions of the ala kachuu victims whose reports police refused to register, and printed them on koshogos that were hung in dozens of places over the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek.

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.

We collected confessions of the ala kachuu victims whose reports police refused to register, and printed them on koshogos that were hung in dozens of places over the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek. They appeared in front of major state institutions such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan, its Academy and sport base or the court where Bodoshev trial took place. (Often, to get to the entrance, one had to pass under the koshogo as the bride does at the wedding ceremony). 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.

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

•600.000$ earned media

•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