What in the World
What in the World
What is bride kidnapping - and why does it still happen?
Up next
30 September 2025
9 minutes
Available for over a year
In Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, two countries in central Asia between Russia and China, there is a so-called tradition of bride kidnapping. Young women are abducted, often in broad daylight, and taken to a man’s house, where they are pressured into accepting his marriage proposal. It’s illegal in both countries but recently the president of Kazakhstan announced a law to further crack down on it and increase the penalties for the perpetrators.
In this episode Malika Burieva, a content creator who covers central Asia, explains where this practice comes from and why people do it. Kubat Kasymbekov, from the BBC Kyrgyz service, tells us how two high profile cases of bride kidnapping led to protests and calls for action and why so few cases get to court.
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Presenter: Hannah Gelbart
Producers: Julia Ross-Roy, Chelsea Coates and Benita Barden
Video Journalist: Baldeep Chahal
Editor: Verity Wilde
