Tuesday 16/Sep/2025 – 06:02 PM
Kazakhstan passed a new law prohibiting forced marriage and kidnapping of brides, a contract that lasted for decades in the country, in a move aimed at protecting women’s rights and promoting social justice, and the law entered into force today, Tuesday, to put an end to one of the most controversial practices in the Kazakh community.
Kazakhstan prohibits forced marriage with penalties of up to 10 years
According to the British Daily Mail newspaper, according to the new amendments, forcing anyone to marry a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to ten years, according to what the police announced in an official statement, confirming that the changes came to protect the weak groups, especially women and adolescents.
The criminal law previously allowed the kidnapping to be exempt from responsibility if the victim was released voluntarily, but the last amendment canceled this exception, and despite the lack of accurate statistics on the size of the phenomenon, and parliamentary data indicated that the police received 214 complaints related to forced marriage during the past three years.
This practice is known in Kazakhstan and Central Asia as it includes kidnapping a woman and forcing her to marry in spite of her, and it is usually established in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, where it often passes without punishment as a result of social stigma and weak law.
Attention to the issue of women’s rights in Kazakhstan
The interest in the issue of women’s rights in Kazakhstan was renewed last year when a woman was killed by her husband, a former minister, prompting President Qassem Gomart Tukayev to declare that traditions could not be a justification for repressive practices such as theft of wives.
Although this phenomenon found an universal resonance in popular culture, as in a satirical scene in the Borat movie in 2006, the Kazakh authorities confirm that the new law represents a clear message that protecting women is a national priority, and that these practices no longer have a place in contemporary society.
