Screenshot from one of five ‘One Day They Stole Me’ animations produced by Kyrgyzstani artist Tatyana Zelenskaya and animator Egor Tankov. While statistics are difficult to pin down, an oft-cited piece of research suggests that around a third of all Kyrgyz marriages are the result of non-consensual kidnappings. Kidnapping for marriage, or ‘Ala Kachuu’ became commonplace in the country following its emergence from the former Soviet Union in 1991; the country's Ombudsman institution believes there are around 8,000 such kidnappings every year. The boom in ‘bride kidnapping’, which researchers have emphasised is not a time-honoured tradition but rather a modern crime rooted in the Central Asian country's specific socioeconomic circumstances, shows few signs of abating. In recent years, however, civil society and some elements of the government have been increasing efforts to combat a phenomenon that sometimes entails rape for the victim, and — nearly always — impunity for her captors. Screenshot from one of five ‘One Day They Stole Me’ animations produced by Kyrgyzstani artist Tatyana Zelenskaya and animator Egor Tankov. Five years ago, Global Voices covered a series of videos produced by a local women's rights organisation that were aimed at promoting the application of the rule of law in relation to kidnapping. The message of these videos was simple: Bride kidnapping is illegal and should be reported and punished. Now a husband and wife artist-animator pair from the country's largest city, Bishkek, have reignited the bride-kidnapping debate with a series of animations that have torn through social networks in the country. Artist Tatyana Zelenskaya and animator spouse Egor Tankov say that the animations are all based on true stories, although names were altered at the subjects’ own requests in order to protect real life identities. The first of the animations, which feature a Russian-language text and a Kyrgyz-language voiceover, documented the kidnapping of a girl ‘Nazik’, and was released last month in time for International Women's Day. The story lacks the drama of a stereotypical kidnapping wherein a young girl is dragged kicking and screaming by her captors into a getaway car. Instead, it highlights the multiple layers of subterfuge, betrayal and subsequent regret that are involved in these life and family-changing incidents. Nazik's fate was marked when a friend of her mother's visited the family home. She was accompanied by her son, Abay. Nazik's brother and mother “almost physically forced” Nazik to leave the house and go to the cinema with Abay, an acquaintance from childhood. When she left the house, she had neither her mobile phone nor any money with her. Shortly after they got into a car marked as a taxi, the taxi's driver removed the roof sign. He was never a taxi driver, but rather Abay's friend, there to help Abay kidnap Nazik. Their destination was not the cinema, but Abay's family home, where a wedding was waiting for them. Nazik said at the wedding that she would like to speak to her parents, but her brother, who arrived later with his own family, spoke for them: Nazik, our father has decided that you will stay here. Abay is a good man and will make a good husband. Getting married means happiness for any girl! The words — confirmation that the head of Nazik's family endorsed the union — had a profound effect on Nazik. So much so that when her mother later phoned and asked in a tearful voice if she wished to forego the marriage and come back home, she refused, deciding to stay with Abay and his family. But Nazik's brother had lied. Nazik's father did not know his daughter was going to be kidnapped that day and flew into a rage when he found out. By that time, a mullah had already blessed the marriage. The kidnapping, we subsequently learn, was orchestrated chiefly by Nazik's mother, who disliked Nazik's boyfriend at the time. Later, realising her terrible mistake, she phoned Abay's family home in order to offer Nazik a way out. Fearing the potential stigma associated with breaking off the marriage, Nazik refused to take it. “We did not make a happy family,” Nazik recounts at the end of the video. “After four years [Abay's family] kicked me and our child out of the home.” Elzada's kidnapping took place at a time when her father was seriously ill — a distressing period in her life that also saw her younger sister stolen for marriage. Unlike in Nazik's case, Elzada's own family doesn't appear to have played a role in the kidnap, although her future husband was a friend of her brother's. She initially refused the marriage to Talgat, a lazy man whose only occupation is lying on the sofa and watching television. “Only our children keep us together,” Elzada now confesses.