AIEL - Instagram campaign on women´s rights in Kazakhstan

AIEL is a social media campaign in the format of Instagram videos, the goal of which is to create new conversations about women’s lives and rights in Kazakhstan. As a young Kazakh woman herself, Aya Shalkarkyzy relates to issues that are still present in the patriarchal reality of her country. By using a metaphorical visual language, she is connecting serious topics of women’s oppression in Kazakhstan to familiar-to-the-eye traditional and folk imagery in a form of CGI, and these topics include:

1) Domestic Abuse and it being overlooked
2) Harassment & victim-blaming, shame-driven oppression
3) Sexism in society, unrealistic & unhealthy expectations of women
4) Toxic traditions and unhealthy family hierarchies
5) Lack of women in power positions and the Gender Gap
6) Unequal social status and unevenly distributed responsibilities

AIEL – The Making Of

Being forced to work on her diploma from home during the times of the Covid-19 lockdown in Vienna, Aya Shalkarkyzy converted her living room into a video studio.

There are many things that a “perfect” Kazakh woman has to be in order to be respected. The all-time favourite character of traditional sexists is the “timid girl”: soft, feminine, and quiet. We are more than that.

Every year an estimated amount of 400 deaths of women in Kazakhstan are a result of domestic abuse. In 2017 domestic violence in Kazakhstan had been decriminalised by law, and only a fraction of all the cases get reported to police. It has to stop.

Vast majority of violence and/or harassment related cases that happen in Kazakhstan towards women stay unreported. Cases that get reported and given publicity are often met with very strong victim blaming from the public. The victims deserve to be heard without judgement.

There is a long a list of traditions that are based on oppression of women in Kazakhstan, as they get engaged in marriage or are forced to do so. Stereotypically, the bride becomes a slave figure in the new family, and has no right to speak up for herself. Stop normalising it.

In Kazakhstan, women take up 22% of the Parliament. More than a half of Kazakhstan’s population believes women don’t belong in positions of power and should be excluded from political and economical conversations. It has to change.

Women in Kazakhstan still gain 33% less money for the same amount and kind of work being done than men, and often face discrimination and sexism in the workplaces. The injustice needs to stop.