Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan 

WATCH NEXT: VICE World News spoke to a survivor of sexual assault to find out what more needs to be done to protect and support victims of sexual violence within the Islamic school setting. - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ubdOFzXY4C0.html

Imagine youre a tourist and suddenly you become a strangers wife

“But if the men don’t kidnap, they might never get married”. If the only way for a man to get married is for him to kidnap someone, then that’s a sign that he shouldn’t get married.

no one's gonna talk about her "friend"? she knew her friend's dream to finish school and become a lawyer yet she lured her into that marriage. And please, the way the grooms men was touching the bride to keep her from moving.

The girl being kidnapped and then 3 men holding her, her yelling mom. My heart broke, I felt so helpless like how she was feeling at that moment. Almost cried.

Welcome to Kyrgyzstan where the countries motto is "No means Yes"

These are the moments you feel grateful for growing in the place you did

i cried with the mom whose daughter committed suicide. i want to give her a hug, what a horrible loss

Every single woman in this video is a victim. Generational trauma is very real, this is a culture that has endured tradition with such commitment that every bright young light inside these girls is snubbed out by it. My heart bleeds for them

"Girls will be happy if they get married crying" What utter disgust

No one gonna talk about the bride's friend setting her up like that....

I live in Kyrgyzstan and I am glad that now this is punishable by law. And let me clarify this was not a tradition among the Kyrgyz, this was done by those men who did not have property for the ransom of the bride. And usually they married according to tradition: first they saw the bride out of her house by future relatives and did not steal

CRIME IN THE DISGUISE OF TRADITION IS STILL A CRIME. I REPEAT, CRIME IN DISGUISE OF TRADITION IS STILL A CRIME. 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

I love how awkward the interviewer is. Mans is just vibing while he’s witnessing a crime I mean tradition I mean crime.

"soooo how did you two meet" "at knifepoint"

It was heartbreaking to see the girl be forced in a veil and begging to be let go off. The fact that she had a girlfriend and they still wouldn’t let her go and even said “you don’t” is horrible.

Her friend pretending to fight back as if she wasn’t agreeing and literally helped her get kidnapped

"It's in our blood" Better drain you then

Women walks on the street Krgystani men: so you've chosen marriage

“If she says yes everybody will think she is desperate to get married!” 💀

I feel so sad for these girls, they cant even walk the streets without having constant anxiety about being snatched.

it's even scarier when you realize that someone could actually be kidnapping a girl in plain sight with no intention of marrying her and people would just think that it's the tradition.

**Girl gets kidnapped** People around: 😂🤣😅

Kyrgyzstan has changed a lot in 2015 after a big scandal. The police stopped ignoring these crimes and imprisoning people. Both on TV and at school they began to tell people that this was a bad custom and to make films about it.

The reporter saying „good luck guys“ to the kidnappers is disgusting 🤮

I hate it whenever people use the words "culture" and "tradition" to try and justify cruel practices.

How sweet, giving your wife PTSD and a lifelong fear of men right before the wedding

It's downright scary and sickening just how little empathy these guys have

That is WILDDDD. Can you imagine you're just going to get some milk and bread and someone just kidnaps you and takes you to their family and tries to marry you in your errand running clothes? I cannot believe this is a real tradition.

you know what? my life aint that bad after all.

That poor mother sharing her daughters suicide story. How awful.

She was absolutely terrified. She didn't consent. I am honestly terrified just watching this as a woman.

It’s heartbreaking when people try and defend “tradition” even when it’s dangerous, disgusting, and harmful. Unfortunately it’s always women and children who are victims of such “traditions”.

Imagine being kidnapped and seeing this awkward scrawny hipster staring at you with crossed arms

Whoever came up with this tradition was a lunatic.

The photographer who captured the iconic image of the emaciated child next to a vulture killed himself. I don't know how you can casually watch rape and systemic abuse from a distance without feeling similar levels of guilt and pain.

I don't know what is worse, the men seeing nothing wrong with removing someone's bodily autonomy and integrity and not caring about consent, or how other older and supposedly wiser women are playing into this. It's heartbreaking. The sooner this "tradition" goes, the more people's lives will be saved.

the whole tradition is the definition of "I'm too scared to get rejected" .

I don't understand that girl helping those boys to kidnap the other girl... She was supposed to be her friend ?!

As a girl I'm crying with her so much that my fingers are shaking with a blurry vision. Some traditions should be buried with the ancient times please everyone have some human rights and it's against it

you have done a great job documenting this but it made me so deeply disturbed because of how raw and real this is. I am sorry I have a sensitive heart, so I could not finish the video. Thank you for bringing this in the light.

This is difficult to watch..

Normal guys: omg I'm so nervous what if she says no?😣 Kyrgyzstan: omg I'm so nervous what if she *escapes* ?😞

I can’t even begin to imagine the fear inside the poor girls head when they get kidnapped. This is so horrible even if it is a so called “tradition”,

as sick as this made me, seeing the little girls, like elementary school age, running around and witnessing this made me sicker. im half convinced that they held these kidnappings in such public manners so it became more customary for children to see as they grow up, and then there would be less resistance from the next generation. these rural areas tried to normalize this and its sickening.

This entire country is one big case of the Stockholm Syndrome

I'm from Kyrgyzstan. I am Kyrgyz. This is a very wild tradition that is disappearing because girls and women no longer want to tolerate it in our country! And I'm glad of that. They also tried to steal me, but I fought with everyone and still left. I am confident that this cruel tradition will soon disappear.

I find it a bit strange how she was only against it at the beginning and was totally scared. Shortly afterwards, she was suddenly so happy and agreed with the marriage.

I've read that the tradition of bride kidnapping which is widespread not only in Kyrgyzstan but Central Asia in general comes from times when the grooms family had to pay a dowry to the bride which was negotiated with her family who of course wants a high price for the woman. So when the negotiations failed because the price was to considered to expensive the groom's family started kidnapping the woman, marrying her immediately after that to the groom, I think oftentimes rape included. Because afterwards she was considered unclean which meant the price would drop. Afterwards the grooms family knocks on the door of the brides family as thieves with lots of gifts, a sheep etc. as a dowry to appease them and make it easier for them to accept the merging of the families since the groom is now probably the only man willing to marry the unclean woman. Since this method proved to be very effective in finding a bride and have her cheaper (bc maybe she is more beautiful, better chef, cleaner etc. than the groom could afford), it became a widespread tradition to first kidnap and marry the woman, then bring the gifts and over time the practice of paying dowry upfront vanished. Of course the woman or girl is treated like an object to sell and buy but also as human as she is welcomed to the new family where traditionally she is in a weird position having to prove herself to the family as a good wife to the groom, which is basically being a good servant in terms of cooking and cleaning. And since she fought and cried on the wedding day she now has to accept her life as the wive in the new family with whom a good relationship is now desirable. So she proves herself, the groom and his family has managed to achieve better leverage first over the the brides family to accept the wedding and secondly over the bride to serve as a good wive in their household. She pushes away her trauma and powerlessness from the wedding and tries to achieve a good standing in her new family. Her needs and emotions are not addressed and consequently everybody can make a little fun about the kidnapping, wedding and call it a happy marriage and happy tradition since the now wive fit in and made the best out of it since traditionally she most likely has to live in that marriage for the rest of her life. Even for the wives laughing about the wedding kidnappings even their own helps them accept their own fates and see it as something positive if they don't want to cry about their trauma and life situation for the rest of their life. Also they have learned through their own wedding and marriage that the brides emotions, needs, trauma don't need to be addressed. It's a tradition that creates and maintains a clear power imbalance and serves primarily men, but also families, it's patriarchy at it's best.

The next episode : husband poisoning in Kyrgystan

“Cultural Acceptance doesn’t mean accepting the unacceptable”- Jasvinder Sanghera

i started crying when she screamed for her mom

Just got through the first few seconds and it's already so horrible with the animal abuse. I can't imagine the rest of the documentary.

Poor girl just wanted to enjoy her youth while she could. You can't tell me that "momma" wasn't heartbreaking seriously

I think the worst part is all her family and neighbours just laughing as she's dragged away screaming. Yikes.

As someone who watches videos with cc enabled, I'd really appreciate if you didn't cover english subtitles of people speaking kyrgyz with the "[speaking foreign language]" cc. Very annoying

The gaslighting from the family just makes this 5x worse that it already is

nobody’s talkin bout the old lady she lost her daughter to a terrible tradition and she deserves to be talked about more

Dont call this crime a "tradition" this is absolutely horrifying

The reporter has me rolling on the floor the dynamic is so ironically drastic

I heard this was a common tradition back in the cowboy days at Northern Mexico. My grandma was kidnapped once and had a baby from a runaway guy, she never saw him again, that baby is my aunt and she looks slightly different than my mom and the other siblings

Possibly the dumbest tradition I've ever seen.

She keep screaming mom, and every time she got more desperate. I thought I was watching a horror movie because this is sick.

The guy was saying: if she cries, she'll be happy after she married. Imagine if one of these kidnaped brides doesn't cry and is deathly calm. Looks at each of them and promises that none will live to see their wedding day, and does it.

I'm literally 3 seconds in and horrified at the horses being forced to slam into each other while some other poor creature is hanging by its throat. Haven't even gotten to the kidnappings, Jesus.

To hell with such traditions. This is torture!

“All girls must get married” “Calm down, you’ll be happy” Words cannot describe how thankful I am to not have to go through this. I feel so so bad for her.😭

Wow I'm genuinely shocked of the striking resemblance. I'm from a North-eastern state of India called Manipur, and we also have such tradtition of kidnapping brides but not directly from homes, rather when going on dates or casual meeting and will take the bride home and in most cases the couple then stay the night in a friend's home but can also directly take her in his home. In the next morning, the groom's father and 2 or 3 uncles visit the bride's home and formally ask for the girl's hand in marriage to their son. We can conclude that we all have the same ancestors I believe😁

I hope she is doing ok now, I hope that bride can give us all a life update

How to visit Kyrgyzstan as a female tourist: -Dont visit Kyrgyzstan as a female tourist

*"MAMA"* that one repeated word was truly heartbreaking

I genuinely cannot feel happy for her... I just can't... Her calling for her mom and just accepted her faith bcuz she can't do anything or even if she tried struggling... I'm sure some people there are very nice people but I legitimately feel sick to my stomach that I can't hold back my tears...

The elder women telling her to calm down is actually disgusting

"You saw me once and wanted to kidnap me." Imagine saying that nonchalantly to your significant other.

Her wanting to be lawyer and just passively accepting whats happening to her is just incredibly heartbreaking

How did you guys get married? Them: "Stockholm Syndrome"

I watched a Japanese reality show called Ainori. It’s about Japanese singles who travel across certain countries and fall in love. One of their trips was in Kyrgyzstan. The cast members learned about bride kidnapping and they used this video as an example. They downplayed it and made it seem as if she knew what was happening and was a willing participant. When they showed how she was doing at that point in time (2018) she said that she was very happy and was in love with her husband. Despite her saying that, seeing that happen and hearing her call out to her mom and cry while everyone around her is laughing just really makes me sick to my stomach

Her crying for her mom while they’re all smiling and laughing….horrifying.

And here I thought arranged marriages were bad.

i don't know if I am over dramatic but I feel like crying seeing the girls scream

Imagine saying to your daughter who’s a child “you’ll get kidnapped like me*

Normal men: *gets down on one knee* These men: hippity hoppity you are now my property

2013: I'm going to go kidnap my wife! 2033: Why did all the women leave our country?

As a Kyrgyz person I’ve never witnessed/ heard of bride kidnapping. Sad thou

dats enough internet for me today💀

The worst part for me is their laughing at the crying and struggling of the “bride”

Imagine getting recorded for the whole world to see during the most humiliating and demeaning moment of your whole life

Can we get an update on the bride and groom? Whether she got to pursue Law or at the least finished school?

I was explained this tradition by my Jordanian foreign exchange student-sister. This is so much more terrifying than she explained. Probably because she didn't want to

I am gonna open a tazer and pepper spray business there, I'll be rich.

"I'm dating someone" "no you're not! No one dates" This is messed up

“You’re crying so you’ll be happy” what kind of logic is that

I know I shouldn’t be laughing but the face that he made at 15:32 when receiving the candy sent me

The worst thing is the fact that those old grandmas besides her are taking it as a some sort of joke even though they've felt the same feeling of being kidnapped without you knowing anything about it before.

my heart just broke into pieces, when the girl was screaming for her mom.

Why would any parent give their child to someone who took her so violently in the middle of the night and did such awful things to her ?

love does not stem from kidnapping. A consensual, dignified, mature relationship cannot bloom from a couple that was created as a result of violence, not as one where the victim calls for something that was forcibly taken away from her and not one where the girls' screaming, kicking and protests are invalid.

'Your a girl, all girls get married.' imagine being kidnapped by a bunch of men, all your family watching and laughing, being held down in a car, and being told that. Jesus.

Wow it got me in tears when she started calling for her mom. This is cruel.

Iam muslim and i didn't saw any of islamic thing in there traditions Iam surprised that there are some people calling themselves maslims and do such a thing in addition to drinking alcohol and .......🙄🙄🙄🙄