I never knew I was a victim every day
I would wear long skirts to not attract men
I’ve always wanted to wear what my real voice would whisper
But what I wanted to wear was up to them
I never knew I was a victim every day
When somebody slapped my butt at middle school
I was angry but never told that to anybody
As I thought I might be guilty myself of attracting him
I never knew I was a victim everywhere I went
At school, in bazaars, in streets, and shops
When men, adult men, would stare at a teenage girl– me
I felt as if they were intruding in my private zone
I restrict my freedom every day and anywhere I go
I do not go out at night because I do not want to become a ‘real’ victim
I do not wear what my soul wants because I do not want to attract men
I do not know how I should behave, or else, I want to become invisible
I never really knew I was a victim till now
But does that change the status quo?
(‘I never knew I was a victim’, a poem by a young Kyrgyz woman)This poem was written by one of the women who contributed to this research. It outlines a conflict that many women in Kyrgyzstan face every day: the risk of encountering sexual violence. Throughout the whole country, such incidents, and other gender-based crimes like domestic violence and bride abductions, are widespread (Kleinbach et al, 2005: 198; Moldosheva, 2008: 7–11). However, despite this reality, some statistical surveys have tended to produce quite low numbers of registered crimes like rape or related assaults (National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, 2012: 126), as well as very low prevalence rates of physical sexual harassment (Civil Union ‘For Reforms and Results’, 2015: 14–15). The gathering of realistic data sets related to these topics is complicated by a widely shared assumption that sexual violence is a normal feature of daily life in Kyrgyzstan's highly patriarchal society (Moldosheva, 2008: 7–9).