The ASUO Women’s Center is in the midst of a week-long celebration of International Women’s Day, or IWD. The celebration began on Monday with a documentary film screening of “Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan” and will end at 6:30 p.m. Friday with a concert and dance performance showcasing performers from the University and surrounding community.

Aida Jolosheva, an international graduate student in international studies and public policy planning and management, is coordinating the celebration. The holiday has been recognized around the world since the early 1900s as a way of drawing attention to the injustices women face and to celebrate what it means to be a woman in different nations, Jolosheva said.
According to a Web site sponsored by the United Nations, the Socialist Party of America founded IWD in 1908 as part of a larger push for better hours and conditions for women working in New York City clothing and textile factories. In 1910 an international women’s conference convened in Denmark and voted to observe an IWD in honor of the women’s rights movement. Over the next few years, many countries adopted and began to celebrate IWD as a means of advancing women’s rights in their different regions.
Monday’s screening of the film on bride kidnapping fit in with the overall theme and allowed Jolosheva to address an issue that is very important to her.
“I’m from Kyrgyzstan originally and I wanted to share with the UO community some of the culture. (Bride kidnapping) is not something that I’m necessarily proud of, but it does happen,” Jolosheva said. The event allowed Jolosheva and audience members to critically analyze women’s roles and rights in Kyrgyzstan.
The film shown on Monday closely examined the tradition of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan with actual footage of kidnappings and interviews with those involved. It gives a perspective of the deep cultural roots behind the practice. According to the film, grooms often kidnap their brides in order to “avoid paying the huge bride price asked by families.”
After the screening Jolosheva initiated a question and answer session with the audience, which was made up of around 25 students and faculty members from diverse backgrounds. In the following long discussion she tried to help them make sense of what is, by western standards, a backward tradition.
“You all seem a little stunned,” she said.
Jolosheva has had first-hand experience with bride kidnapping. When she was 12, she witnessed her aunt’s kidnapping. Jolosheva explained that although bride kidnapping is much less common in the urban areas, it still happens, especially in rural villages.
Friday’s dance and concert in the Mills International Center will feature 14 different musical and dance performances including a performance by Divisi; African Drums from Burkina Faso by Samir Bandaogo; Rags Al-binaat (belly dancing) and Ori Tahiti Dancers.
“(The performance) showcases different belief systems and different world cultures. It also honors women and what they give to society,” Women’s Center Director Brandy Ota, said.
Aisha Baiguzhina, an international student majoring in architecture, will share some of her culture at the event by dancing in both the Rags Al-binaat and the Ori Tahiti Dance. Originally from Kazakhstan, Baiguzhina has been belly dancing since she was 18.
“The official rehearsal was … amazing. The dances were so energetic,” she said.
The Women’s Center has been celebrating IWD for the past three years since it was granted the funding for a global feminism coordinator position in 2005. Ota said that in 2006 the center celebrated IWD with a film screening and critique. In 2007 it brought in doctoral students and held a question and answer session on international gender issues.
“I wanted to make the event festive this year,” Jolosheva said.
Ota praised Jolosheva’s approach and enthusiasm for organizing IWD this year.
“This is Aida’s vision,” she said, “Even in her interview (for her position) she was able to articulate the needs that I saw should be incorporated in our office: a look beyond domestic feminism.”
IWD is celebrated differently in different regions of the world. In general, international students from the post-Soviet countries explained that March 8 is celebrated as a national holiday.
“(IWD) in Kazakhstan is like St. Valentines Day is for women here,” Baiguzhina said.
Feruza Ashirova from Uzbekistan said that in her country the holiday is a very special day for women who, because of defined gender roles, have more “obligations” than men.
In China and Japan the holiday is not noticeably observed at all.
“We don’t have it,” Sakie Takahashi, an exchange student from Japan, said.
In the African regions, IWD seems to be on the rise, but not as prominent as in Eastern Europe. Sarah Bwabye, from Uganda, attributes this to having more women rising in power in recent years.