Blessings of Seven Mothers

This project is aimed at preserving and activating women’s traditional practices of the Kyrgyz people, which are an integral part of the indigenous Kyrgyz culture. Currently, many of these practices face informal prohibitions due to religious restrictions. For example, Islam, practiced widely in the country, prohibits koshok – traditional lamentation, public expressions of grief.

Three traditional women’s practices – bata (blessing), saima saiuuu (pattern making), and koshok aituu (lamentation) – will be applied as tools in combating gander-based violence and in the recovery process of abused women. Bata will be used as a practice of blessing and well-wishing, offering support to women, providing words of encouragement, understanding, and motivation to help them overcome difficulties/tradegy and rebuild their self-esteem. Saima saiyuu, the art of pattern making, will be used as a form of therapy and self-expression, allowing women to convey their feelings and experiences through creativity and beauty. Koshok aituu, the ritual of lamentation, can serve as a means to release emotional burdens and trauma, enabling women to find healing by addressing their grief and loss through a structured verbal ritual process designed to facilitate recovery and moving forward. All of these practices have the potential to be powerful tools in supporting women after experiencing abuse, gender-based and domestic violence, aiding them not only in overcoming trauma but also in regaining their strength, confidence, and inner harmony.

The project aims to create bata, saima saiuuu and koshoks by contemporary women practitioners specifically to help those who were affected by violence and to honor the memory of the seven women who lost their lives, suffering from violence. These practices will be documented, digitized and reproduced through digital media and social media.

The number of girls and women who have tragically died in recent years from gender-based and domestic violence is much higher than seven. We connect the number seven with the concept of “seven mothers” that emerged from the traditional logic of “seven fathers” and call on seven generations of mothers to help modern women. On behalf of 7 generations of women mothers, 7 modern-day women will create bata (blessings) to restore traditional family equality and lamentations for those who have already died, suffering from violence.

Stages to create the conditions to design and create a protective bata for women of todays and future generations and koshoks for those who have died suffering from violence:

  • With the help of the women’s traditional community to create seven (7) blessings from symbolic seven generations of Kyrgyz women to a modern Kyrgyz woman suffering from domestic/gender-based violence. The blessings are aimed at helping to overcome the tragedy (violence), recovery, self-realization, gaining economic independence, gaining self-sufficiency, showing love and respect for oneself.
  • With the help of the women’s traditional community of craftswomen to encode 7 blessings into Kyrgyz traditional patterns.
  • With the help of the traditional women’s community of mourners (koshokchu) to create 7 koshoks – lamentations about 7 real Kyrgyz women who are victims of domestic/gender-based violence.
  • Based on field research materials, create videos that show the collective struggle of traditional women practitioners against gender-based violence and emphasize the importance of women’s mutual support and self-help across generations. The first video will focus on women’s solidarity and collaborative efforts against violence. We will emphasize the importance of women coming together to support each other and defend their rights. The second video will be 7 traditional lamentations (koshoks) of 7 Kyrgyz women killed or maimed over the past years. These videos will serve to mobilize traditional communities in the fight against violence targeting women. Traditional lamentations (koshoks), based on Kyrgyz age-old traditional models, will highlight different aspects of the problem of contemporary violence and emphasize the need for social unity and solidarity to overcome it. collective action and unity in overcoming this problem.

In this way, the project not only contributes to the preservation of cultural heritage, but also serves as a means of equal rights and support for women by women, creating a platform for their voice and active advocacy.