Vagina Monologues hit Kyrgyzstan | Culture and Art |Axisoflogic.com

A benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues played to a packed house in Bishkek on 28 March as part of the global V-Day campaign. The production aimed to raise awareness of the myriad problems facing women in this Central Asian country and to raise funds for organisations working to support and protect women and sexual minorities in Kyrgyzstan.

An actor performs during the Russian-language version. David Trilling

“This performance is more than just political theatre or community awareness, it’s also articulating the issues and talking openly, spelling out the word vagina, spelling out the issues of sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual violence, rape and the rights of women to have safe sexual pleasure,” V-Day Bishkek’s organiser Selbi Djumayeva told reporters.

She had dreamt of staging the play in Bishkek for seven years and finally the right conditions came together. Reacting to criticism that the play was inappropriate for the local environment, she added: “If some people say ‘it’s not our traditions and not our culture’ – 95 percent of our cast were originally from this culture, were brought up in this culture. There are women who have never even been abroad and also women not only from Bishkek, but from Osh, Batken, Jalalabad and from Issyk Kul.”

Since Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues was first performed in 1996, the play has snowballed into an international phenomenon. The original play was based on 200 interviews Ensler conducted with women concerning sex, relationships and violence against women and is explicit in terms of both its content and political message.

V-Day started in 1998 and aims to stop violence against women and raise funds and awareness. Benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues are performed around the globe every spring, with over $60 million having been raised for a variety of women’s and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) organisations.

The English-language version of The Vagina Monologues in Bishkek on March 28 is performed by 22 mostly local cast members. David Trilling

The audience for Bishkek’s English language version of The Vagina Monologues was largely made up of ex-pats and family and friends of the cast members. The entrance fee was a donation of between $5 and $25, with 90 percent of the proceeds being shared between three Bishkek-based organisations – the Sezim crisis centre for women and their families, the Tais Plus safe house for sex workers and their children and the Labrys shelter for Kyrgyzstan’s LGBT community.

The remaining ten percent of the money raised will go to the City of Joy safe community for women survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is this year’s main beneficiary from V-Day.

V-Day Bishkek encountered problems with trying to find a suitable venue for the event. At first the American University of Central Asia was mooted, but restrictions imposed by the University’s authorities, including a proposed morality check on the actors, led to the venue being switched to Metro Bar’s theatre on Bishkek’s main drag, Chui Avenue.

The 22-strong cast was made up of non-professionals and included many students from Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. Many of the participants originally wanted to help in the organisation of the event rather than perform but as they attended meetings more and more volunteers wanted to get involved with reading a monologue.

“I decided to take part because I see a lot of violence and mostly if a woman is raped she never tells anyone about that,” one of the cast members told Uznews.net.

“I hope it will help women who have even not been raped to talk about these issues. Men also should see it to realise somehow there’s something wrong,” she added.

Another benefit performance of the monologues is scheduled for 11 April – this time in Russian. Despite the problems in setting up this V-Day benefit, the event in Bishkek has shown what can be achieved with persistence and determination against all the odds, although the chances of holding such an event in neighbouring countries such as Uzbekistan are very slim.

Regina Berdybaeva plays the "Angry Vagina" during the performance, which was part of global events to mark V-Day, an annual campaign that seeks to end violence against women. David Trilling

However, the problems of violence against women in Uzbekistan were put into the spotlight by Uzbek actress Nadira Murray in London in February. She performed in a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues at the New Players theatre. She now lives in London with controversial former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. In an interview with whatsonstage.com she spoke of her motivation for performing in the benefit.

“I come from Uzbekistan, a male dominated society where women are abused and oppressed, raped and suppressed. What’s more, these women have to keep their silence because society makes them feel ashamed about what’s happened to them … After speaking to these girls, I wished that I had a voice to speak up for them, loud enough to be heard. I wished I could have done something then and could have offered them more than sympathy. As I perform in the V-Day shows I will at last have that chance.”

UZ News.net

Eurasianet has more on the April 11th Russian language performance.