Kyrgyzstan's parliament proposed a draft decree to ban women under age 23 from traveling abroad without written approval from their parents, though the final resolution, which was passed on June 12, doesn't limit travel for women based on their age, according to Global Voices.
Yrgal Kadyralieva, a deputy with the Social Democratic Party, says the proposed decree was the result of a young female migrant who was attacked in Russia by her male counterparts from Kyrgyzstan. It is meant to protect the "honor and dignity" of young women.
"Such measures are needed to increase morality and preserve the gene pool," Kadyralieva said in March.
The ban is meant to protect young women working abroad from becoming sexual slaves, but it has come under fierce criticism. Human rights groups state that the decree limits constitutionally guaranteed freedom of movement.
In an interview in March, Kadyralieva talked about how difficult it had been to draft the legislation, as she is only eight years older than the girls the legislation seeks to ban from leaving the country.
"This legal act is absurd," Aikanysh Jeenbaeva, the co-founder of the Bishkek Feminist Collective SQ, said. "It's not going to protect anyone.
"It will only increase corruption, she added. "Now girls will have to pay bribes at the border."
The final version of the resolution to pass is not a formal bill, which makes it unclear what legal power, if any, it will actually hold. In it's current form, it's basically a recommendation, though that doesn't improve the intent behind the bill in the eyes of human rights advocates.
"Deputies acted ignorantly by passing the resolution," Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun, a human rights activist, said. "Don't they know that they're violating the Constitution, civil rights and freedom of movement?"
Many of the countries citizens also question why parliament doesn't do more to create jobs in the country, which would likely have a large impact on the number of people that migrate to Russia or other places to find low-skilled, low-paying work.
The resolution passed 59 to two.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
