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Summary: Authorities contemplate countermeasures as the extremist group increasingly enslaves women and their children in their cult of debt and radicalism, analysts say.
[13 May 2013, Bishkek] - The outlawed extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) is actively coercing Kyrgyz women to carry out its radical agenda, putting them, their children and families at risk, according to authorities. Women comprise 7.4% of HT members in Kyrgyzstan, up from 6.1% in 2003, and women committed 15 extremist crimes in the first four months of 2013, Interior Ministry (MVD) Administration for Fighting Extremism chief Emil Jeenbekov told Central Asia Online. Because the recruitment of Kyrgyz women into HT is increasing, he said, authorities are now being forced to deal with the problem. It's a worrying trend and has a negative effect on the families of those recruited and on society as a whole. The average female extremist is between 25 and 30 and lacks higher education, he said. Women are being targeted, in part, because they are at an economic disadvantage to most men, Jeenbekov said, adding that the extremists typically lure women into the organisation by offering material support or other incentives. After the recruited women are trapped, HT forces them to repay their debt by making financial contributions to the organisation, he said. If they can't make donations, they have to recruit new members. Most female HT members are arrested for participation in extremist activities related to distribution of propaganda, he said. The women themselves prepare material, take it from the internet, download videos about terrorism and then hold meetings to spread the ideology to others. A 2012 study of female extremism in southern Kyrgyzstan revealed that the majority of women involved with such extremist activities are typically unemployed and have several children, Tazhikan Shabdanova, programme director at the NGO For International Tolerance, told Central Asia Online. Their involvement is "motivated by financial self-interest… and other forms of indirect financial assistance (help with debts and medical bills, distribution of food, and prize drawings)," she said. HT targets women because, once indoctrinated, they become the most effective propagandists and recruiters, who almost always escape punishment, said Vladimir Shkolny, a lecturer in international relations at Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University who specialises in studying destructive and totalitarian cults. Women's accepted social role in Kyrgyzstan, in part, is to blame, he said. The extremists consider women better candidates to recruit because they can move freely throughout the republic, with authorities less likely to stop them for questioning, Shkolny said. "Recruiters also take recognise that women are willing to go to virtually any lengths of fanaticism for the sake of their children," he said. "The main source of recruitment to the female wing... is the family connections of [male] members of the organisation – wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, etc., as well as the family connections of the members' wives." The MVD is keenly aware of the problem and is trying to reverse the trend. "Our directorate is constantly working to inform the public. We hold regular meetings... in villages, regions and towns," Jeenbekov said. "We explain to them what the differences are between traditional Islamic beliefs and the banned destructive ones. We tell them what acts are criminal," he said. "The public is now well informed in this respect." In addition, the government has devised various programmes to prevent women from falling victim to HT and other extremist organisations. "We are attracting women into [non-extremist] religious associations. This will allow women to work with other women, conducting preventative work such as holding meetings and conversations... as well as providing psychological support," Jeenbekov said. FURTHER INFORMATION: Women useful to HT