Kazakh women against proposed tax to marry foreigners

The initiative is by parliamentarian Karakat Abden. Human rights activists launch petition to dismiss it. The tradition of the objectification of women persists. Parts of the establishment see mixed marriages as a threat to the nation.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The new Member of Parliament in Kazakhstan, Karakat Abden, has put forward a proposal that has unleashed discontent in her country: that of "imposing a tax on Kazakh girls who marry foreigners". A group of women's rights activists immediately started collecting signatures for a petition, leading to Abden's removal from her parliamentary seat.

In her speech on a TV programme, the MP argued that "a 'Kazakh woman' is a national talisman, and we cannot lose cede this abroad, which is why I call for a tax on mixed marriages". The politician had already hinted at this project in last year's presidential election campaign, when she was listed as a 'front' candidate competing against outgoing President Tokaev.

Having become a member of parliament for the social-patriotic Auyl party, Abden claims to have the support of the other deputies in her group. The country's feminists have risen up against her, who had already marched on 8 March with the slogan 'we are not your toys', aimed precisely at those who, like Abden, want to manipulate the role of Kazakh women.

A woman married to a foreigner, Ajžan, who lives with her husband and family in Thailand, intervened on social media: 'If the MP is hungry for taxes, let her take them from husbands who beat their wives'. In her opinion, the marriage tax would be 'an attack on the rights of the person and of Kazakh girls: they might as well deny them education and keep them segregated at home... in Kazakhstan there are different ethnic groups, with whom people have been marrying for centuries'.

Professor of international law Ajgerim Kusainkyzy also considers Abden's proposal a violation of rights, an 'objectification of girls' turned into commercial items: 'The right to freedom of choice must always remain first, even if in Kazakh society there is always a discussion about the honour of girls, on which the future of society depends, and it is thought that those who accept a mixed marriage have a negative influence on it'. Moreover, in Kazakh traditions, girls are often seen as family property, which cannot be given to outsiders, and when this happens, the girl is considered guilty of all the ills of the family and society.

As humanitarian activist Bella Orynbetova reminds us, the number of women victims of violence in Kazakhstan grows year on year. "This also depends on the spread of opinions that do damage to the dignity and credibility of women... if a Kazakh woman happily marries a foreigner, these people cannot accept it".

Abden tried to respond to this criticism from her Facebook page, pointing out that 'this proposal is part of the initiatives to defend our national values, and strengthen the patriotic spirit, and in any case I have asked that it be discussed by the entire parliament, with the help of scientific expertise and sociological research'.

Girls walking down the street with boyfriends and husbands of other ethnicities are often filmed on videos uploaded on the net, in order to 'save the nation', as many write. The issue of Kazakh girls' mixed marriages had already been raised in parliament a few years ago, when Senator Žabal Ergaliev declared in 2012 that restrictions should be placed on girls' travel abroad.

Poet Rinat Zaitov, elected to parliament this year for the Amanat presidential party, argued that "Abden's proposal may be right, if one looks at the interest of the nation, one must do everything to preserve the people of the Kazakh state", recalling that 'kalyma', payment for girls, is "an ancient tradition of the Kazakhs". The problem, according to Zaitov, is 'the improvement of our demographic condition', concluding that 'if a girl marries a foreigner, the state also has its rights'.