Kidnapping Women: Discourses of Emotion and Social Change in the Kyrgyz Republic (Report‪)‬

An institution--say, a marriage system--is at once a system of social relations, economic arrangements, political processes, cultural categories, norms, values, ideals, emotional patterns, and so on and on. (Ortner 1984:148) Although prohibited by law, the traditional practice of kidnapping women and girls for forced marriage continued in rural areas [of Kyrgyzstan]. Cultural traditions discouraged victims from going to the authorities. (US Department of State 2010)