AIEL: Women in Kazakhstan
A girl’s path is thin. - Kazakh proverb
Aiel (“Woman” from Kazakh) is an AR video series that have sparked new conversations about women’s lives and rights in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The campaign took place on Aya Shalkar’s Instagram page in early July 2020 and went viral in Central Asia. The series consist of 6 metaphorical videos featuring the artist. Each video addresses a specific issue via cultural references using AR technology.
“How many cups?” - Domestic abuse
“From 40 homes” - Violence & victim-blaming
“Cotton girl” - Sexism in society
“The farewell” - Oppressive traditions
“The golden woman” - Lack of women in power
“The burden” - Social injustice
The project was created during the initial Covid-19 Pandemic lockdown period. Production and post-production were fully contactless.
The series are available as charity-oriented NFTs as of January 2022.
Concept & Art Direction: Aya Shalkar
VFX: Buralqy
Sound Design: Daryn Ady
“from 40 homes”
Vast majority of violence and/or harassment related cases that happen in Kazakhstan towards women stay unreported. Cases that get reported and given publicity are often met with very strong victim blaming by general public. Such stories have started being widespread on social media in the last years, but many heartbreaking stories continue happening and being untold. Usually, the victims hide their identity by all means, fearing being shamed by their environment. Kazakhstan takes the 7th place in the world for suicide rates, with an average of 2,500 per year. Reportedly many of those are triggered by sexual abuse.
The video is a visualisation of a Kazakh proverb, that says “restrict a girl from 40 houses”, with 40 being a metaphoric number for “many”. The 40 hands play paper scissors and symbolise a woman’s destiny being “played” and defined by strangers.
“The Burden”
Women in Kazakhstan still gain 33% less money for the same amount and kind of work being done than men, and often face discrimination and sexism in the workplaces from their male peers. The traditional views suggest that a Kazakh woman should not pursue or succeed in career on a level equal or higher than men. The paradox is, they are statistically more educated, but face more unemployment nevertheless.
The video is an illustration of the invisible burden every Kazakh woman carries on herself. Traditionally, the braids would be tied by Shashbau and Sholpy, special hair jewellery that served not only for aesthetic reasons, but also would be a tool to notify men about a woman approaching as the jewellery would make a specific noise. They are replaced by heavy kettlebells in an intentional untraditional twist.
“Cotton girl”
There are many things that a “perfect” Kazakh woman has to be in order to be respected. The all-time favourite character of traditional sexists is the “timid girl”. Soft, feminine, quiet, and most importantly, “innocent and clean”, family oriented and kitchen-located - all the qualities they’d love so much to be present and dominant in a woman, so she is easy to manipulate. There are many examples of women in the history of the country that have been shamed for being too loud, too successful, too sexy, too career-oriented, etc. With the rise of conversations and global transparency thanks to the internet, the situation is changing for the better, but women in Kazakhstan are still far from being free from societal judgement when it comes to gender roles.
The video twists the name of a Kazakh folk tale for kids, “Maqta qyz” which means “Cotton girl” into a phonetically similar but drastically different notion - “Myqty qyz”, which means “Strong girl”.
“How many cups?”
Every year an estimated amount of 400 deaths of women in Kazakhstan are a result of domestic abuse. In regions, on the average, every third woman faces violence from her partner. In 2017 domestic violence in Kazakhstan had been decriminalised by law, and only a fraction of all the cases get reported to police.
The video reflects the artist’s association of the topic with a tongue twister that she remembered from her childhood. It translates as “Mother mother, how many teacups have broken yesterday?” The visual combination creates a new narrative between the damage done to fragile domestic objects and the taboo issue, viewing that both often happen in the same environments and even at the same time.
“The golden woman”
In Kazakhstan, women take up 22% of the Parliament. In 2020, a woman was appointed to the post of mayor of the region for the first time in history of the country. More than a half of Kazakhstan’s population believes women don’t belong in positions of power and should be excluded from political and economical conversations. The workforce is heavily gendered, men are overrepresented in industry, women, mostly, in public sector. Many working women face dismissive and condescending behaviour from their male peers regularly.
The video creates a conversation about power belonging to a woman through an artefact that has a very important role in the history of Kazakhstan. The first found Altyn Adam, “The golden man” is a precious archeological find discovered in 1966 on the territory of Kazakhstan. It consists of a corpse of a Scythe warrior in a costume embroidered with lots of golden ornaments. Gender of the warrior was immediately assumed to be male and stayed so up until now, despite many archeologists claiming it has undeniably feminine traits.
“the farewell”
There is a long a list of traditions that are based on oppression of women in Kazakhstan, as they get engaged in marriage or are forced to do so. Stereotypically, the bride becomes a slave figure in the new family, and has no right to speak up for herself. Arranged, underage, or simply shame-forced marriages are quite common, along with an ancient tradition of bride kidnapping. It is believed that if a woman refuses to stay in the family of the kidnapper, she brings shame upon her family and her parents may even refuse to take her back. These traditions are still practiced in certain regions of Kazakhstan and are a big topic of discussion to this day.
The video is putting the artist in the middle of such situation. The veil opening process is called Betashar, and happens after the bride gives her “salutations” in form of bows to each significant member of her new family. As this is considered as her “transit” to a new home, after this being done her role and rights often change accordingly.
Aya Shalkar, 2020