Kyrgyz kidnappings of brides exposed

OREM — Imagine walking down the street and a car pulls up next to you.

"And a group of young guys jump out of the car, grab you, push you into the car and the car drives away," said Dinara Ismailova, a Kyrgyzstan native studying at Carroll College in Montana. "Later on, you're in the house of one of these guys and in the next several days, you become his wife."

That describes, in summary, what happens during "bride kidnapping" — a tradition in Kyrgyzstan. About one-third of ethnic Kyrgyz women are married by kidnapping, Ismailova said.

Ismailova spoke Friday morning at Utah Valley State College's "Women in the Mountains" international conference, which discussed problems and solutions for women who live in mountainous developing nations.

Conference attendees will prepare recommendations and present them to the U.N. Second Global Mountain Summit in Kyrgyzstan in October.

Men in Kyrgyzstan kidnap women because it is easier than courtship and cheaper than paying a bride price. Ismailova said the majority of bride kidnapping occurs in Kyrgyzstan, although it's common throughout central Asia.

While bride kidnapping has been illegal in Kyrgyzstan for decades, the crime is not frequently prosecuted, in part because 90 percent of the brides stay in their marriages.

Ismailova identified three reasons why women stay: Women believe they will be cursed for the rest of their lives if they leave; the woman and her family face shame if she leaves; and "once the girl is kept overnight, her fate is all but sealed with her virginity suspect."

In Utah, to be sure, Kyrgyz-style bride kidnapping is far less common than forms of human trafficking involving fraudulent marriages and adoptions. Brett Tolman , U.S. attorney for Utah, on Friday described some cases his office has investigated.

For example, a ring paid Utahns to marry Vietnamese citizens for the purposes of helping the Vietnamese gain U.S. citizenship, said Tolman, who participated at the conference.

After the Vietnamese arrived in the United States, they became vulnerable to members of the ring. Some were subjected to prostitution, Tolman said.

Another case: A Cache Valley couple was indicted in connection with an adoption scam, he said. American adoptive parents thought the children were orphaned in Samoa, but the children had birth parents who thought they were simply sending their children to the United States for education, Tolman said.

"I am acutely aware of this issue," he said. "I am dedicated and determined in my capacity to make it one of my highest priorities."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com