Cartoon: Girls Prevented from Leaving Kyrgyzstan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Art group ‘705’ has produced a two-minute animation film on the increasing social restrictions that girls and women in Kyrgyzstan face in trying to leave the country in search of work.
The artists describe [ru] their film, ‘Did Not Let Go,’ as follows:
A father had a bad dream which now troubles him. So, he decides that his daughter will not travel anywhere. He takes away her passport and air tickets while she is sleeping, but the daughter takes the documents back. Finally, the father decides to lock his daughter at home to prevent her from leaving.
Thousands of girls and women leave the Central Asian country every year, mainly for Russia, where some of them are subjected to ‘patriotic’ attacks from their male counterparts from Kyrgyzstan. A member of the Kyrgyz parliament has recently proposed a bill that would ban girls under 23 years of age from leaving the country without parental consent in order to ‘protect’ them.
NewEurasia.net has more on the new art by group ‘705’. The group became popular in Kyrgyzstan and some other countries in Central Asia by producing animation films that address the role and status of women in a patriarchal society.