Fulbright: Saving Kidnapped Brides in the Kyrgyz Republic

As a direct result of his 1998 Fulbright Scholar grant, Russell Kleinbach developed a comprehensive educational program, as well as a burning passion, for eliminating what has become a common practice in the Kyrgyz Republic—the bridal “grab and run” or ala kachuu. The “custom,” which predates the 12th century arrival of Islam, seems to go hand in hand with the Kyrgyz saying, “Every good marriage begins in tears.” Kleinbach learned of the illegal practice on a 1998 BBC program and later confirmed its modern-day existence with the students in his social ethics class at Osh State University.

Since his Fulbright grant, Kleinbach has worked to disavow a practice that has caused more than half of Kyrgystan’s married women to be kidnapped by their husbands, often in very violent ways including rape and assault.

Early on, Kleinbach rejected the notion that non-consensual bride kidnapping was a respected Kyrgyz custom. His beliefs were validated by the results gathered during a series of statistical studies he conducted over the past several years. His first study, which was conducted while he was on his 1998 grant and was published later by International Journal of Central Asian Studies, was based on interviews with a number of Kyrgyzstan women.

A second study followed soon thereafter. In the fall of 2003, Kleinbach received a second Fulbright grant to teach and lecture at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek.

With the assistance of his Kyrgyz colleagues and students, he conducted a third study involving interviews with every married woman over the age of 16 in a single village.

The results, published in Central Asian Survey, confirmed earlier observations that the incidence of non-consensual bride kidnapping has risen dramatically in the last century.

Kleinbach’s Fulbright Scholar work on bride kidnapping has spurred international debate.

He has: