https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6924-6039
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ABSTRACT
The familial position and social status of daughters-in-law (kelins) in ‘traditional’ Central Asian families can be characterized as low, subservient and marginalized. By adopting normative human rights discourse, this paper argues that it is an example of the relativist challenge of cultural authenticity towards the universality of human rights, specifically women’s human rights. By using participant observation which can also be qualified as experiential research, serial in-depth and informal interviews, and an analysis of posts published in social media, the forces driving the persistence of a relativist approach to kelins’ human rights such as retraditionalization, the revival of conservative Islam, an unawareness of the human rights and the patterns of authority-subordination are explored. Through a conceptual framework combining Iris Young’s concept of the ‘five faces of oppression’ and the notion of ‘harmful traditional practices’, elaborated by international human rights documents, the study conceptualizes the family position and social status of the kelins as one of structural oppression or systemic injustice, created and legitimized by informal, harmful traditional norms and practices.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and careful reviews of our paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Bolashak is a Kazakhstani government-sponsored international scholarship programme awarded for studies and internships in overseas, generally high-ranking universities.
2 In Kazakhstan, it is a problem mainly of Kazakh-speaking and relatively more robust ‘attached to traditions’ southern and western regions, whereas more Russified eastern, northern and central regions are more egalitarian.
3 For example, in May 2020, a group of journalists prepared an investigative article eloquently describing the plight of kelins in ‘traditional’ families in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (Yarmoshyuk, Egemberdiyeva, and Nazarova Citation2020).
4 The concept culture is used in its broadest sense as the ‘totality of values, institutions and forms of behavior transmitted within a society’ which covers world view and cognitive behavior (An-Naim Citation1992a, 23).
5 The idea of the relativity of human rights ensues from either moral relativism or cultural relativism depending on the understanding of cultural relativism, since the ‘moderate’ or ‘reasonable’ forms of cultural relativism still recognize the universal principles of human rights. For these differences, see, for example, An-Naim (Citation1992b, 24–25). Some cultural relativists argue that, in general, individual rights are irrelevant to the cultures and values of non-Western societies (Pollis Citation1998, 7).
6 While ‘women’s human rights’ are rights they share with men as human beings, they are distinguishable from ‘women’s rights’, which, in positioning a set of rights claims against what are (supposed) male privileges (e.g., being a part of affirmative action regimes), have a distinctly antagonistic character (Frick Citation2019, 202).
7 The legally binding Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the UN Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action requiring gender equality and women’s rights in every facet of life, and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
8 This concept, popularized by Chingiz Aitmatov, can be defined as someone who is enslaved and has lost not only one’s memory but also human qualities such as pity for even the closest people.
9 For example, in Kazakh, the phrase oshkenimiz janyp, olgenimiz qayta tirilgen (what we lost being revived again, what became dead, being rebirth again) became a powerful, especially in Kazakh-speaking society, discourse, which, inter alia, legitimizes retraditionalization. A similar discourse can be found in all Central Asian countries.
10 For example, see one high school in Kazakhstan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHLV7c5UGHI).
11 The content analysis and discourse analysis of the newspapers in Kazakh, such as Ana Tili, Qazaq Adebiyeti, Turkistan.
12 Sachedina aptly points out this phenomenon: ‘The religiously justificatory language, using threats of divine wrath and punishment, that is employed … to coerce women has led to the silencing of women’s legitimate complaints against violations of their personal integrity’ (Sachedina Citation2008, 118).
13 According to the first author’s survey, 96.6% of 251 students who received the course Human Rights Basics previously did not receive any particular course or systematic information about human rights. Not to mention ordinary citizens, even the faculty members of some law schools in Almaty universities do not know the central tenets of the concept of human rights (informal personal communication and observation of the first author from Spring Semester 2016 to Spring Semester 2020).
14 The UNICEF data on parenting styles also can show a low level of familiarity with human rights in general. According to the UNICEF survey of 2016, almost 70% of Kazakhstani parents use physical violence when child-rearing and three-quarters accept punitive methods are acceptable when child-rearing (Pokidayev Citation2018; Sahova Citation2019).
15 See, further in this article.
16 According to our observations, serial interviews and informal communications, kelin is regarded in ‘traditional Kazakh’ perception, in patriarchal terms, as a ‘belonging’ of the in-laws, and her overwhelming mission is to serve and please her in-laws, not to claim her dignity or mention her own interests and personal rights.
17 The intervention of mothers-in-law in family life is a normal practice in ‘traditional’ Central Asian families.
18 Absolute human rights are (1) the absolute prohibition of torture and inhumane treatment, or absolute ‘freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ (Art. 7, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights); (2) the absolute prohibition of slavery; (3) the right to recognition before the law; and (4) the prohibition against the retrospective operation of criminal law (Absolute rights Citationn.d.); the freedom of thought can be placed in this category.