This year’s International Women’s Day and its aftermath demonstrated once again how women are denied the status of political subjects in Kyrgyzstan. Albeit in different ways, this was the case for those who attacked the peaceful march on 8 March and the people who came out in its defence two days later.

In both cases, the feminist activists who organised the march in Bishkek, including the author of this article, were not seen as “proper” or “real” women. Apparently, we fail to live up to the ideal of Kyrgyz woman which conservatives and progressives fantasise about. Nor are we seen as political subjects capable of representing ourselves and speaking on our own behalf: instead, in the fantasy world of Kyrgyzstan’s conservatives and progressives, a “good” woman always needs defending. Yet the reality for too many real women is that our homes and city streets are not safe. And the very people who are supposed to protect us are very much part of the problem.

In Kyrgyzstan, it appears that the state has adopted a strategy of intimidating civic activists by engaging masked vigilantes to attack meetings, gatherings and events. Nationalist-patriotic groups (such as Kyrk Choro, or Forty Knights), or those who pose as such groups, are informally joining the police and the authorities to do the latter’s bidding.

On 1 May 2019, for example, activists from the 8/365 Movement gathered for a Labour Day picnic in a park in Bishkek, the country’s capital. But when we reached the designated area, we found police and plain-clothes secret service officers there. They were accompanied by a group of youths in tracksuits and ak kalpaks, a traditional male felt hat, looking to beat up “the gays”. We promptly informed the chief police officer of the threat, who responded that he “didn’t see anyone” threatening. No sooner had we moved to a park on the other side of the city, than we noticed the police reporting us to the group of masked men. The latter soon re-appeared and proceeded to pelt us with eggs under the watchful eye of the police who did not lift a finger to protect us. Luckily, we managed to leave quickly enough to avoid serious harm.

The same scenario played out this year on 8 March, during a peaceful march for International Women’s Day.

The 8/365 Movement - which unites feminist and women’s initiatives, organisations and individual activists representing groups of various life experiences and with intersecting forms of discrimination - was again planning an 8 March event this year. As in previous years, the march demanded an end to femicide and showed solidarity with all those fighting violence against women, including by providing medical, psychological and legal support to survivors. And just like in previous years, the Bishkek municipal authorities tried to stop the march.

This time, they used a court order banning all public gatherings in the district where the march would be held, citing coronavirus as the rationale (there being no registered cases in Kyrgyzstan at the time). So we changed the route of the march to avoid the ban. This was planned in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of the Kyrgyz Republic: there was no legitimate reason to limit our right to peaceful assembly.