Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

VICE
VICE
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Published 2012-06-19
In rural Kyrgyzstan men still marry their women the old-fashioned way: by abducting them off the street and forcing them to be their wife. Bride kidnapping is a supposedly ancient custom that's made a major comeback since the fall of Communism and now accounts for nearly half of all marriages in some parts. We traveled to the Kyrgyz countryside to follow a young groom named Kubanti as he surprised his teenage girlfriend Nazgul with the gift of marriage/kidnapping.

Hosted by Thomas Morton | Originally aired in 2011 on VICE.com/

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All Comments (21)
  • @VICE
    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. - https://youtu.be/ubdOFzXY4C0
  • @niamhha9014
    “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.
  • @beastsw109
    Imagine youre a tourist and suddenly you become a strangers wife
  • @darcy9969
    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.
  • @augussy197
    i cried with the mom whose daughter committed suicide. i want to give her a hug, what a horrible loss
  • @trashbag5810
    I love how awkward the interviewer is. Mans is just vibing while he’s witnessing a crime I mean tradition I mean crime.
  • @charlieapples9373
    How sweet, giving your wife PTSD and a lifelong fear of men right before the wedding
  • @Idke67
    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.
  • @nasmahdi5485
    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
  • @naziur
    "Girls will be happy if they get married crying"
    What utter disgust
  • @kalloused
    Welcome to Kyrgyzstan where the countries motto is "No means Yes"
  • @stellar_mxr
    CRIME IN THE DISGUISE OF TRADITION IS STILL A CRIME. I REPEAT, CRIME IN DISGUISE OF TRADITION IS STILL A CRIME. 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
  • @themidjourney
    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
  • @eltoxique7550
    No one gonna talk about the bride's friend setting her up like that....
  • @bree179
    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.
  • @vixaz
    Her friend pretending to fight back as if she wasn’t agreeing and literally helped her get kidnapped
  • @menikmati789
    Imagine being kidnapped and seeing this awkward scrawny hipster staring at you with crossed arms
  • @valeverga4744
    These are the moments you feel grateful for growing in the place you did
  • @cosmic_artsz3571
    I feel so sad for these girls, they cant even walk the streets without having constant anxiety about being snatched.