Family disruption, complicated access to healthcare services, violence and ill-treatment by family members. These are not the only things that women with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan have to face.

Activists remind that in 2019 Kyrgyzstan ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Thus, the country has committed to protect and secure the rights of citizens at all life stages. However, its implementation is slow-paced.

According to the chair of "Ravenstvo" Union of Disabled Persons, Gulmira Kazakunova, the authorities need to revise its policy towards disabled persons.

"They need to ensure social inclusion and make women's rights and opportunities equal so that every woman could be financially independent," she said.

Moreover, according to Kazakunova, the key moment is to introduce the accessible environment, while public agencies should be responsible for performance of all provisions of the Convention.

"Only when all laws and rules are observed and followed every woman can feel herself being protected by the state," Kazakunova said.

Aisha Akmatova (not her real name) was born and grew up in the town of Karakol, Issyk-Kul region. She finished school, enrolled in the teacher-training department. But she never graduated from the university as she was abducted for marriage by her old acquaintance when she was 20 years old.

The couple gave birth to three children. In general, Aisha was satisfied with her life, and everything ran its course. But everything changed in 2013.

That day Aisha ran errands out of the home and she took a taxi to get back home. Afterwards, the woman thought a lot about what her life would be like if she did not take that taxi. The man was driving so fast that the air was full of dust, and they could hardly see the road. As a result, the driver lost control and the car crashed into a pole.

The accident resulted in Akmatova's severe back injury. After the accident, the woman had three complicated surgeries and the final verdict of doctors was that Aisha would never get to her feet again, and she would move only in a wheelchair.

Akmatova's spouse was with her for some time, but later he said he was going to divorce her and marry another woman. The reason he mentioned was the fact that Aisha became useless at doing household chores. The couple's parents took the divorce quietly and explained the husband's decision by the fact that "Aisha was bedridden and he was the only son in the family and his parents needed support."

"My children remained with my husband's parents," Akmatova said. "I talk to them over phone, and they visit me sometimes."

After the divorce, she moved to Bishkek and continued her treatment at the Republican Hospital.

According to chair of "Ravenstvo" Union of Disabled Persons Gulmira Kazakunova, cases when a husband decides to get divorced after his spouse becomes disabled are not rare.

"In Kyrgyzstan, according to our observations, such cases are very frequent," Kazakunova said. "The causes are different. Very often, these are the influence of friends, neighbours, relatives, etc."

According to her, there is no readily available recipe for how to prevent such cases. It all depends on a person and his/her attitude to persons with disabilities.

Aisha got to know about "Ravenstvo" organisation when she was in a hospital. The women she met there advised her to visit the centre. Aisha thought a lot if she needed to go there, and finally she chose to go.

At that time, the organisation was holding many various trainings, workshops, nail technician courses – in short, everything that helped disabled women become self-assured again and financially independent. Aisha became an active participant in the life of the organisation, and worked with a psychologist concurrently.

"Since then, my world view began changing. I realised that I was not the only one and that life was not over after disability and divorce," Aisha said. "During various trainings, I managed to develop training skills and teach other persons with disabilities."

Thus, she achieved her old-age dream – to become a teacher. Now she teaches lessons of independent life to children and teenagers with various forms of disabilities. Under her supervision, children learn how to write, read, cook, use domestic appliances, practise hygiene, etc.

"My life was filled with the reason to live. However, many problems still haunt me everywhere," Akmatova said.


According to her, the key difficulty is inaccessible environment. Buses and taxi buses in Bishkek are not adapted to persons with disabilities and it often costs a lot. Hospitals have no secure ramps or lifts, and if a doctor's office is located on the second or third floor, it turns into a big problem again. At such moments, Aisha has to ask other visitors to help her go upstairs or stays on the first floor.

Moreover, the woman often faced derogatory and rough treatment of her by medical staff. According to Aisha, sometimes it happened that gynaecologists performed only superficial examination and did not even offer her to sit on the gynaecological examination chair.

Officer of "Ravenstvo" Union of Disabled Persons, Ukei Muratalieva, said that almost every second disabled woman faces similar problems in Kyrgyzstan.

In turn, the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund in its comments to CABAR.asia said that patients did not complain to it about bad or negligent attitude of medical workers.

"If such cases happen, we recommend turning to the administration of a healthcare facility. If no reaction follows, patients can always call 113 and report any violations. We will figure out what happened and take measures," said Svetlana Baitikova, press secretary of the Fund.

Aiturgan Kadyrova (not her real name) was born in Toktogul district. She was developing just like all children before she turned five, when doctors diagnosed a rheumatism in her.

The diagnosis immediately affected the education. The school was three kilometres away from home and because of leg problems Aiturgan attended school every other day. She managed to get the certificate, but her older brother said he was going to marry and her study at the university was postponed.

"Moreover, if I had gone to the city, I would have to live either at my relatives, or in a dormitory," Aiturgan said. "And my parents did not like this this option. They started saying that "I would be a trouble," "no one could take care of me" and so on."

"Not to be a trouble for anyone in the city", Aiturgan remained in the village, yet no one relieved her of household chores. She continued to look after her younger family members and did all of the household chores. As for the official registration of disability and allowances, she could receive the documents many years after the diagnosis.

Years have passed, Aiturgan's family member have grown up, each of them has found their way in life. And then the woman understood that she could not stay in the village anymore and something needed to be changed. She came to Bishkek and started attending various workshops.

During trainings, she acquired PC skills, took a nail technician course, and found new friends. She is 41 now and the woman still regrets that parents decided everything for her and she could never get quality higher education.

According to Ukei Muratalieva, access to education for persons with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan is a catastrophic problem. According to her, in addition to poor inclusive education, some parents hinder their children from getting knowledge.

"We should understand here that if a child is able to study but prevented from it, it means that he/she is just deprived of future opportunities," Muratalieva said.

According to the Ministry of Education, they do their best to have persons with disabilities of both school and student age acquire necessary knowledge. As Gulshan Abdyldaeva, chief specialist of the school policy office, said, the agency develops and introduces various projects in this regard. In particular, the "E-school" programme.

"This system has a range of advantages," the expert said. "One of them is that a person with disability can acquire knowledge at home."

As to class attendance, according to Abdyldaeva, they "pay close attention" to this matter, too.

"If a student misses school for three days, teachers blow the whistle on it," the expert said. "And then, together with law-enforcement bodies, they investigate the circumstances. If they find out that a child does not attend school through the parents' fault, we take immediate measures."

We could not find out what measures and how often such facts happen.

25-year-old Malika Ismailova (not her real name) have been living in the "Ravenstvo" organisation for several months. The centre became a home to her and a place where she feels secure.

Malika's family lives in Talas region. When she was born premature, she was very weak. It caused many consequences and she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was one year old. According to Ismailova, cerebral palsy has affected almost all spheres of her life.

According to Ismailova, her monthly allowance is eight thousand soms (98.03 dollars). This money is not enough for anything. Often, according to her, she has to choose between attending a hospital once or buying necessary medicines.

But the biggest problem for Malika was the attitude to her within her family. She did not have a say in anything, her siblings often shouted at her and blamed her for inability to do household chores. According to her, sometimes quarrels arose without any reason.

Malika could leave home and move to Bishkek after she met Gulmira Kazakunova, chair of "Ravenstvo" Union of Persons with Disabilities.

Ukei Muratalieva in her comments to CABAR.asia said that domestic violence against women with disabilities is not rate in Kyrgyzstan.

Cholpon Mambetaipova, chief specialist of the Office for Social Services Development for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly People, confirmed that it is difficult to reveal such facts.

"Social workers attend mainly lonely pensioners and persons with disabilities. They do not have an opportunity to check how every single person lives," the expert said.

She added that once the matter of establishing services to visit women at home was raised in Kyrgyzstan, but to no avail.

Mambetaipova also emphasised that often victims try to cover up the fact of beating because of fear, and a way out of such situations can be calling the helpline 117.