The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a statement in connection with media reports about a Kyrgyz woman, who was mutilated by her ex-husband. In the statement, the human rights activists note that the brutal attack on the woman highlights the police failures in Kyrgyzstan, and call on the authorities to step up protection against domestic violence in the country.
On Wednesday morning, the 36-year-old Kyrgyz woman, was found drenched in blood at her home in the Bishkek suburbs, with her nose and ears cut off and multiple knife wounds on her face and arms. Her attacker, her former husband and father to their two children, assaulted the officers as he fled, but they apprehended him. Their youngest child, a 10-year-old boy, was at home during the assault.
After nearly eight hours of surgery, the woman is in critical but stable condition, though more surgery lies ahead.
The media has reported that since their separation five years ago, the Kyrgyzstani’s ex-husband had repeatedly attacked her, beating, raping, and even attempting to kill her. Over the past two years, the woman had reported attacks by her ex-husband to police, including rape and physical abuse. The police detained him and opened at least two criminal investigations, but released him each time, at least once on probationary supervision.
Despite the woman’s family providing photographic documentation of her ex-husband’s assaults, police said repeatedly that they would not act unless he killed her — a response familiar to women experiencing domestic violence in Kyrgyzstan. Three days before the assault, she asked district police for protection, as her ex-husband had been stalking her for a week, waiting outside her house and threatening her.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have repeatedly urged Kyrgyz’s authorities to investigate domestic violence reports, issue and enforce protection orders, abstain from pressuring survivors to reconcile with their attackers, and bring perpetrators to justice.
«This case shows, yet again, that authorities’ failure to act puts women at risk of injury or even death. Kyrgyz authorities must stop relegating domestic violence to an afterthought and recognize it as the crisis it is,» the human rights activists stressed.
