Predictors of Bride-Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

Background: The act of bride kidnapping used as forced marriage may involve three or four co-actors.  Annually about 12,000 women are kidnapped for forced marriage in Kyrgyzstan. According to the survey (Open Line, 2010) 81 % of 268 kidnapped women ended up with a marriage because of their belief.  Due to the same reason, 91.4% of 268 kidnapped women did not seek remedies from the law enforcement agencies (Open Line, 2010).   Bride-kidnaping may lead to adverse health outcome including, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, fear and also suicidal ideation behavior (Open Line, 2010). Kyrgyzstan, a State Party to the Convention, fails to address the issue of bride kidnapping.

Research aims were to examine factors that contribute to bride kidnapping and identify the trend of bride kidnapping after Kyrgyzstan acceded to the Convention on February 10, 1997.

Methods: Utilized data from the American University of Central Asia. The study used a standardized questionnaire for a regionally representative sample of 564 women from 424 households in three and a half days. The total number of households of the selected village was 504. The original variables for bride kidnapping, employment, year of bride kidnapping, occupation, ethnicity, age were recoded. Forced Entry Logistic Regression in SPSS and bivariate statistics were utilized for examining the relationship between predictors and outcome.

Results: Bivariate statistics results indicated strong and moderate correlations between all predictors and outcome (p < .05). Sample size was N=564 (Yes=385 (68.3%); No=179 (31.7%). The overall model is significantly better than the baseline, c² (6) = 118.31; p < .001. This model correctly predicted 78.0% (yes=91.0%; no=49.7%) Age is no longer a significant predictor in this model. The results are not generalizable due to the limitations.

Conclusion: Ethnicity, employment status and being a student/pupil may be significant predictors of bride kidnapping. Each of the variables contributes significantly to the model. Based on the findings, interventions should be focused at the schools and university levels to raise awareness on legal aspects and background of bride-kidnapping. Policy mechanisms should be developed so as to reduce costs of arranged wedding parties. Further research is needed.