IN a picturesque street overlooked by world-famous mountains, a schoolgirl screams, “No! Mum!”; as she’s grabbed by the arms and bundled into a car by a gang of drunk men.
Just feet away, locals carry on with their days, ignoring the waning cries of the terrified teenager as she’s driven away from her family and friends to become a stranger’s bride.
This is in Central Asia – the world’s bride kidnapping hotspot, where girls as young as 13 are brutally snatched off the street and forced to marry their abductor.
While many of these traumatised brides are beaten, raped, or put to work as slaves for their new in-laws, some are strangled or stabbed to death for refusing to accept their fate.
Others, tragically, are driven to suicide.
“I felt awful pressure from all sides,”; recalled one 18-year-old survivor of bride kidnapping. “I had horrible , and I decided to die.”;
Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country next to China, is considered a ‘bucket list’ destination for British travellers – with one English aristocrat recently gushing about her “adoration”; for it.
“It’s where I feel the most alive, with each day lived so simply and deeply embedded in the most beautiful landscapes,”; Countess Alexandra Tolstoy posted on Instagram last month.
Yet the country’s stunning mountain ranges, jaw-dropping glaciers and popular hiking trails mask a disturbing practice that has been justified by locals for decades as “a tradition”;.
The Sun has taken the decision to publish these distressing images as experts warn the plight of women in Kyrgyzstan desperately needs highlighting.
Legal expert John McRay, ofFelons Assistance, tells The Sun:“This story should matter to all of us. The international spotlight has the power to push for real change, but it starts with refusing to be silent.
“Victims can be too afraid to speak out, and communities too quick to look the other way.”;
10,000 stolen girls
The practice of “ala kachuu”; – which roughly translates as “grab and run”; – occurs in as many as half of Kyrgyz marriages, with supporters claiming a girl “becomes happy through tears”;.
More than 10,000 women and girls are thought to be targeted by the practice every year, with many forced to abandon both their career dreams and loving relationships.
Experts have likened the actions of their abductors to those of – and are now warning that similar crimes are on the rise here.
“Men [in Kyrgyzstan] will literally grab a young girl and run off with them, sometimes taking them from their school,”; top UK criminal defence lawyer, Marcus Johnstone, tells The Sun.
“They are forced into marriage. They are raped and, as a result, cannot usually return to normal society because of the stigma.”;
I am seeing an increase in similar crimes in the UK as more and more towns around the country descend into chaos
Marcus Johnstone, top UK criminal defence lawyer
Marcus, who specialises in sex crime for Cheshire-based PCD Solicitors, adds: “I am seeing an increase in similar crimes in the UK as more and more towns around the country descend into chaos because of differing racial, religious, cultural and legal beliefs. For example, the ‘grooming gangs’ operate a similar practice of ‘groom, grab, run and abuse’.”;
In rural Kyrgyz kidnappings, the groom first identifies a bride. This might be a girl he knows and desires – even if she has a boyfriend – or a stranger he’s eyed up in the street.
Next, the groom and his pals carefully plot the abduction of the girl. In some cases, they recruit a friend of their unsuspecting victim to lure her to a specific place, at a specific time.
Finally, the gang kicks off the abduction, stalking the girl in a car until they can grab her.
‘Hold her feet down’
Harrowing documentary footage, filmed by VICE in 2011, shows one kidnapping gang blasting out tunes and laughing about their nerves as they prepare to snatch a schoolgirl.
“Our hearts are pounding,”; remarks one of the men.
The teen – who had dreamed of becoming a lawyer – shrieks, “Let me go,”; as she’s shoved into the car then pinned down by the men, who keep her away from the open window.
“Hold her feet down,”; one man orders his friend.
The scene could be straight from a horror film, but it’s a far-from-rare reality in Kyrgyzstan, which became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Another kidnapping victim, called Elmira, was just 17 when she was grabbed by “five or six”; booze-fuelled men, forced into a car, and driven two hours away from her home.
“I didn’t have a choice, there were so many of them and I didn’t have the strength to fight them off,”; she bravely told the international charity, Human Rights Watch (HRW).
She added: “The men were all drunk. I didn’t know a single one of them.
“I only saw my ‘husband’ on the fourth day after being kidnapped.”;
Supporters of bride kidnappings claim that Kyrgyz girls are willing to be abducted: that their distress is simply a ‘show’ because they don’t want to appear desperate to marry.
The girls know that saying “no”; is considered innocent and pure, the supporters allege.
I didn’t have a choice, there were so many of them and I didn’t have the strength to fight them off.
Kidnapping victim Elmira
But another survivor, Feruza, insisted: “I had never seen this man before and I didn’t want to marry him. I didn’t like it and I said, ‘I don’t want to live with you and I don’t know you’.”;
After being snatched off the street, girls are typically taken to see the groom’s female relatives – who isolate them from their own family and pressure them into marrying.
“Calm down, honey,”; says an older woman in the VICE documentary, while trying to force a white bridal scarf around the shoulders of the visibly distraught schoolgirl.
“You will be happy,”; the woman promises her.
Eventually, the broken teen agrees to marry the man.
Such acceptance is hardly surprising, given the vulnerable position of kidnapping victims.
Driven miles away from their hometowns, many girls don’t know where they are.
‘CURSE’ THREAT
They might be banned from contacting their own families, threatened with ‘curses’ – which, living in a deeply superstitious country, they believe – and restrained on the ground.
Others suffer sickening assaults at the hands of their abductors.
“He forced me to have sex with him the first night,”; recalled Feruza, who, aged 17, was allegedly forced to lie to her parents that her abduction for marriage was voluntary.
“A woman came to say that they’d prepare my bed; I thought I’d be alone.
“I lay down to sleep, then he came in and he forced himself on me and raped me.
“I was saying no and he still did it. I cried and screamed.”;
Heartbreakingly, girls like Feruza are viewed as “ruined”; once they’ve been raped.
Blamed for “disgracing”; their entire families, they are often rejected by their parents.
Even those who are not sexually assaulted are considered shameful and ‘tainted’ after spending the night in their kidnapper’s home – with their virginity brought into question.
“The woman, having ‘dishonored’ her family by spending the night in another man’s house, faces overwhelming social pressure to marry him,”; Irina Tsukerman, a New York-based human rights and national security lawyer, tells The Sun. “Even if she manages to escape, she risks being ostracized or branded as ‘damaged goods’.”;
In the hours that follow a kidnapping, a Muslim cleric typically marries the couple, a wedding feast is held, and the men involved in the abduction visit the home of the bride’s family.
Armed with gifts like vodka, food and cattle, they offer an apology for the kidnapping.
But no apology can make up for what some brides go on to endure.
One kidnapping victim, living in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan, spent a month in hospital after her abusive husband battered her on the forehead with a metal mug.
“My husband said, ‘If you tell the truth, when you come out of the hospital I will kill you’,”; the woman told HRW, adding that she was left fearing for both her and her children’s lives.
Other survivors recalled years of merciless beatings, while some described how their in-laws treated them as unpaid servants and followed them around the house – even to the toilet.
And for a tragic few, bride kidnapping proves fatal.
Merciless beatings
In 2022, a 13-year-old kidnapping and sexual abuse survivor died by suicide.
A year earlier, Aizada Kanatbekova, 27, was found strangled to death in an abandoned car outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, just days after being abducted by a gang of men.
And in 2018, medical student Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, 20, was stabbed to death by her kidnapper at a police station, after officers left the pair alone together in a room.
Her killer was jailed for 20 years, while 23 officers were punished for neglect.
Fortunately, some women and girls manage to escape their kidnappers, either shortly after their abduction or years down the line. Others insist they are happily married to them.
One survivor, called Aisuluu, now in her 40s, has gone on to become an international trainer and coach. But despite her career success, Aisuluu told the charity, UNICEF: “You will never be a victim of bride kidnapping in the past. It stays with you for the rest of your life”;.
The regards forced marriage, of any kind, as a violation.
My husband said, ‘If you tell the truth, when you come out of the hospital I will kill you’
Kidnapping victim
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated 22million people globally were living in a forced marriage at any moment in time in 2021 – a shocking increase of 6.6million in just five years.
But the organisation warns: “The true incidence of forced marriage, particularly involving children aged 16 and younger, is likely far greater than current estimates can capture.”;
While bride kidnapping is officially a crime in Kyrgyzstan, charities and experts claim that men continue to abduct girls with impunity in parts of the country. Convictions are rare, victims are often afraid to speak out, and the phrase “ancient tradition”; is used as an excuse.
“Bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan isn’t just a relic of the past – it’s an abuse of power that thrives under the guise of tradition,”; says Irina, president of Scarab Rising.
But defending the ongoing practice, one self-confessed kidnapper, Madiev Tynchtyk, told VICE: “We are Kyrgyz. It’s a tradition, it’s in our blood. Yes, we are breaking the law, but here everybody understands this [is] a tradition and you can’t change it.”;
However, recalling the start of their marriage, Tynchtyk’s victim said: “When we met the first time, I remember he asked me, ‘Should I send my parents or should I just kidnap you?’
“I replied, ‘Don’t do it, I have a boyfriend.’
“And the second time we met, he just kidnapped me.”;
Even Kyrgyz police officers have spoken out in favour of bride kidnapping.
In an interview with HRW in 2005, one senior cop claimed: “Abduction, it’s just called this. Ninety-nine percent of women agree to the kidnapping. I kidnapped my wife.”;
But while locals don’t blink an eye at the so-called tradition, many tourists are oblivious to it.
Londoner Kate Woodley tells us: “People from Kyrgyzstan are some of the friendliest that I’ve met, so it’s hard to imagine that bride kidnappings are still going on in the background.”;
Kate, 25, a content creator and owner of adventure travel company Stay Wild Travel, found Kyrgyzstan to be a “safe”; and “very affordable”; destination with meals costing as little as £2.
“I’ve travelled to nearly 60 countries, and Kyrgyzstan is one of the safest I’ve visited. People are incredibly friendly and helpful, without ever overstepping my boundaries,”; she says.
Describing the republic as “an adventure traveller’s dream with abundant hiking opportunities, mountains rising over 7,000m and hidden alpine lakes”;, she adds: “I didn’t know about the bride kidnappings before arriving in Kyrgyzstan.
“You don’t see much in the news about Kyrgyzstan or Central Asia in general, so it wasn’t until I was speaking to a local friend about life here that I found out about it. She told me that it’s no longer common in cities like Bishkek, but it is still a problem in more rural areas.”;
Terrified of being abducted, some girls are reportedly fleeing Kyrgyzstan altogether.
Taking to Reddit two years ago, one social media user wrote: “I personally have two female friends from high school who left the country as soon as they turned 18.
“Kyrgyzstan is hell for women.”;
The country is not the only hotspot for bride-kidnapping – in parts of Mexico, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, too.
My daughter was kidnapped in the village where we live. For three months, she struggled with that life and finally she committed suicide.
Heartbroken mother of victim
One British traveller, called Chloe, tells us a driver in Georgia made a disturbing ‘joke’ to her last summer, telling her: “If I were 20 years younger, I’d kidnap you’.
“We laughed it off at the time but after me and my friend – also a younger woman – left, I quickly felt very weird about it,”; recalls Chloe.
But why do aspiring grooms resort to kidnappings in the first place?
Suggested reasons include a twisted reaction to “love at first sight”;, a bet between friends, a fear of rejection, the groom’s desire to assert his power, a way to avoid paying a “kalym”; (bride price), and the groom facing greater-than-normal challenges in finding a wife.
According to HRW, men who are mentally or physically ill, or have criminal records, are seen as “socially tainted”;. Therefore, some view kidnapping as a guaranteed way to secure a wife.
“I eventually learned that my husband had been diagnosed [as] a schizophrenic,”; Elmira, who was allegedly beaten for years by her abductor, told the .
“When I found this out was when I decided that I must leave him.”;
Whatever the excuse for bride kidnapping, one thing is certain: the crime affects not just the women and girls who are hauled off the street, but their devastated families, too.
“My daughter was kidnapped in the village where we live,”; said one heartbroken mother.
“For three months, she struggled with that life and finally she committed suicide.
“What do we have now? Nothing but sorrow.”;
