Ormonova Avazkhan Chynberdievna

Why did you become politically active?

My father passed away when I was only four and half years old and my elder brother 18 years old. After his death, my brother went to Russia to study and, therefore, I grew up in a women-dominated environment with seven sisters left to face all challenges on our own. Like other women and girls in rural areas, I witnessed violations against women during my childhood. For example, all of my six sisters were bridenapped – forced into marriages – and subjected to domestic violence. My grandmother and I were concerned about my sisters, but we were unable to help them because our family was socially vulnerable. As a result, I have always asked myself why women are unable to protect themselves and what is the role of the government in protecting women’s rights. Through active engagement in training on the protection of women from domestic violence, I started to think about how to protect women from violence, in particular in cases like my own sisters. In this respect, to a greater extent my family challenges influenced me to become a women’s rights protection activist.

Ormonova Avazkhan Chynberdievna was born in Kyzyl Saray village of the Osh Oblast in the Kyrgyz Republic and grew up in a rural area where most women and girls are confronted with inequality. After earning her degree in finance and credit at Kyrgyz National University in 2005, Ormonova started her active engagement in gender advancement and women’s empowerment. Before entering politics, she engaged heavily in gender equality and women’s rights issues through her assignments with international and non-profit organizations in Kyrgyzstan. While working as a volunteer on a United Nations Development Programme poverty reduction project, she worked on social mobilization and gender issues, where she strengthened her expertise in gender advancement and gender mainstreaming in local self-governing municipalities. She was also involved in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as a trainer and consultant in a project that focused on gender mainstreaming in local self-governance activities. Since 2003, Ormonova has worked as a trainer in the area of business development including in the area of women’s rights in small and medium business entrepreneurship. Since 2006, with the participation of other women activists from her region, she managed to create public fund DIA (“Demilgeluu Ishker Ayaldar”), which has been involved in boosting the capacity of women in political participation, leadership and gender equality in rural areas. Through Ormonova’s leadership, the initiative has implemented over 40 projects aimed at improving the livelihoods of women and children in social and economic contexts. Ormonova is currently working with other politically active women across the country in a network called the “Women Leaders of Kyrgyzstan.” Last fall, she led the network in traveling throughout the country to meet with women to identify urgent issues that have impacted the lives of women and children.