The unwomanly face of Kazakhstan’s Qantar

Kazakhstan’s Qandy Qantar or ‘Bloody January’, which happened one year ago, was gendered as it was dominated by men. Kazakhstan’s gender policies, rooted in a top-down approach, were initially paved by Western donor prescriptions of equality and, more recently, by the global conservative anti-gender backlash. It is high time to re-centre gender policies around bottom-up processes that bring the needs of local communities to the forefront.

By Aigerim Kamidola