Skip to main content

Eurasianet

Main Menu

  • Regions
  • Topics
  • Media
  • About
  • Search
  • Newsletter
  • русский
  • Support us
X

Caucasus

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Conflict Zones

Abkhazia
Nagorno Karabakh
South Ossetia

Eastern Europe

Belarus
Moldova
Russia
The Baltics
Ukraine

Eurasian Fringe

Afghanistan
China
EU
Iran
Mongolia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
X

Environment

Economy

Politics

Kazakhstan's Bloody January 2022
Kyrgyzstan 2020 unrest

Security

Society

American diplomats in Central Asia
Arts and Culture
Coronavirus
Student spotlight
X

Visual Stories

Podcast
Video

Blogs

Tamada Tales
The Bug Pit

Podcasts

EurasiaChat
Expert Opinions
The Central Asianist
X
You can search using keywords to narrow down the list.
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Central Asia

EurasiaChat: How to reintegrate ISIS women and children

Plus: The geopolitical rivalry over Central Asia heats back up.

Aigerim Toleukhanova, Alisher Khamidov Mar 13, 2023
Kyrgyz children who have returned from Iraq, in 2021 (president.kg) Kyrgyz children who have returned from Iraq, in 2021 (president.kg)

This week on our podcast, Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss local cynicism about the American commitment to Central Asia following U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit. Russia is more dependent on good relations with Central Asia than ever before, and China gives billions without demanding reforms.

Kazakhstan, which will hold parliamentary elections this weekend, still operates by the old dictum – attributed often, though probably apocryphally – to Stalin: ‘It doesn't matter who people vote for, but only how the votes are counted.’ Our hosts are skeptical that a single-mandate system will significantly change how Kazakhstan’s rubber-stamp legislature operates.

International Women’s Day on March 8 featured small, independent marches demanding equal rights and an end to violence against women, while governments also organized rallies. Bishkek's promoted what it called "traditional values" without defining what those are.

And Central Asia has repatriated hundreds of citizens from Syria and Iraq – often women and children who had been brought there by militants fighting with ISIS. Alisher tells the story of a relative who, fleeing religious persecution in Kyrgyzstan in 2013, took his wife and children to Syria. After he died, his family was stuck in camps run by rebel groups. Though they are now back in Kyrgyzstan, they are being held by a government unsure what to do with them. Is Central Asia ready to finally discuss the difference between radicalization and piety? 

 

Aigerim Toleukhanova is a journalist and researcher from Kazakhstan. 

Alisher Khamidov is a writer based in Bishkek. 

Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.

Related

Why Kazakhs are growing less satisfied with life, and Kyrgyz more
Event | Activists hopeful UN conference will catalyze water action in Central Asia
Perspectives | Licorice and leather: Spotting Chinese soft power in rural Uzbekistan

Popular

Why Kazakhs are growing less satisfied with life, and Kyrgyz more
Armenia embarks on healthcare reform with costs unclear
Arshaluis Mgdesyan
Major hydropower project caught up in Georgia's "foreign agent" turmoil
Nini Gabritchidze

Eurasianet

  • About
  • Team
  • Contribute
  • Republishing
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact
Eurasianet © 2023