Warning: This article contains details about violent domestic abuse that some may find disturbing.
On November 9 last year, Saltanat Nukenova was beaten to death by her husband, former minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev, in the VIP room of a restaurant in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.
Surveillance footage shows him brutally beating and kicking Nukenova in the restaurant his family owns before dragging her by her hair to a separate room where there are no cameras.
As she lay dying in the suite, covered in blood, Bishimbayev called a fortune teller who assured him that his wife would be fine. When an ambulance finally arrived twelve hours later, Nukenova was pronounced dead at the scene. She was 31 years old.
Bishimbayev, 44, has admitted his guilt. He admitted being responsible for her death but said he did not act with “extraordinary cruelty” as he was accused.
The ongoing murder trial, broadcast live on social media like a dark reality show, has gripped not only Kazakhstan but also Russia and beyond, sparking a debate about traditional gender roles.
According to the United Nations, about 400 women die from domestic violence in the country every year. However, this number could be higher as some cases go unreported.
“There was a storm in Kazakhstan, and now the whole country and even the whole world is affected,” Dinara Smailova, founder of women’s rights NGO NeMolchi, which means “Don’t Be Silent,” told Al Jazeera.
“We have been working with high-profile cases for many years and have seen how people are afraid and ashamed to talk about domestic violence. [But] From the very beginning, the victim’s relatives spoke openly about what had happened.”
Smailova said Bishimbayev, previously convicted of corruption, was a “favorite” of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“He’s from the old system,” Smailova said. “He was pardoned by Nazarbayev himself, and now he is being publicly tried by the new president. And that had such an effect on the Kazakhs that we can now vent all our anger and indignation [at the old system] that has been absorbed over the years. The system gave us a whipping boy and the boy definitely deserved it.”
Bishimbayev, economy minister in 2016, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for embezzling state funds. However, then-President Nazarbayev granted him early release the following year.
Nukenova’s friends and family say that over the year they were together, she suffered prolonged physical and mental abuse at the hands of Bishimbayev, whom she tried to leave several times.
They often saw her with bruises and rope marks on her neck and said the disgraced priest had forbidden her from speaking to them. He was jealous, they said, and monitored the contents of her phone.
Her brother Aitbek A Mangeldy is in court every day to defend her memory against Bishimbayev’s defense attorneys, who have portrayed her as a hysterical, promiscuous woman who drank heavily and provoked her husband.
“I listened to her being shamed in court, saying it was her fault that she had been drinking, and that really affected me,” Smailova said. “I immediately found a photo of myself holding a glass of wine, uploaded it and said just because you can see me with a glass of wine doesn’t mean you can kill me. I didn’t expect it, but a lot of Kazakh women picked up on it and it started to explode.”
Celebrities and everyday Kazakh women responded by posting photos of themselves holding wine glasses with the hashtag #ZaSaltanat, which means “For Saltanat.”
The high-profile case has led to long-standing societal norms being called into question.
Popular rapper Jah Khalib came under fire on social media after a 2022 podcast resurfaced in which he agreed with another guest’s statement that “85 percent of rapes of women” occur because the victim “just happened to be in the wrong place, in the…”. wrong clothes, at the wrong time”.
“It is a historic event that will completely change people’s mentality and consciousness,” Smailova said.
“We see the old generation that still clings to the patriarchy and the younger generation that is completely intolerant and impatient towards any violence. And I think it’s great that we finally came to this agreement and did it so quickly, but it came at the expense of a beautiful young girl. And it’s very sad that it was so expensive.”
Amid public outcry, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new law on April 15 that makes striking women and children a crime punishable by prison sentences. To date, most domestic violence cases have been treated as minor civil violations.
Police are now required to investigate all cases of domestic violence, even if the victim has not reported it.
But the new law faced resistance from male lawmakers.
A lawmaker from the ruling Amanat Party suggested that if abusive husbands, their wives should also be put in solitary confinement for provoking them. Another suggested a special law only for men because, in his opinion, they did not have enough rights in Kazakhstan.
Smailova believes the law is an important first step, even if it does not meet all measures to protect women and children from domestic violence. But others are disappointed that it doesn’t go far enough.
“I think the April 15 law is just a small concession to society to silence people,” said Dinara’s colleague Almat Mukhamedzhanov.
“I can explain separately what we expected from the new law and what we received. Most importantly, we have received no protection for the constitutional rights of women and children. “That’s why I’ve been thinking for a long time about what to say about the new law, because I think it’s a mockery of the memory of dead women and injured children.”
Russian reaction
Interest in the livestreamed murder trial extends beyond Kazakhstan’s borders.
“We women from Russia are with you, women from Kazakhstan,” reads a top-rated YouTube comment under a video with more than seven million views.
“Women from Kazakhstan, women from Armenia are with you!!” and “Belarus is also with you,” read others.
The case has drawn particular attention in Russia, where certain forms of domestic violence were controversially decriminalized in 2017, with hitting a spouse or child punishable only by a two-week prison sentence or a fine if it causes only minor injuries and occurs once a year .
In 2021, the Russian Consortium of Women’s NGOs reported that nearly 10,000 women were killed by their partners between 2011 and 2019; The study’s authors warned that the “most dangerous place for a woman is in Russia.”
“Abuse and violence are often hidden behind a beautiful facade,” model Anastasia Reshetova wrote on Instagram, saying she knew the dangers of domestic violence “firsthand.”
“Psychopaths are always distinguished by their ability to win people over and create the impression of a very pleasant person… After each outburst of aggression in your direction, you are showered with gifts or just reassured with the right words, which usually convince you of this that it’s your fault.”
Well-known psychiatrist Vasily Zhurov has released a video warning about how to recognize a psychopath and an abusive or controlling relationship. In the early “honeymoon” phase, the abuser tests boundaries while the victim is emotionally trapped, he said.
“The very first act of violence is reason [enough] to end the relationship,” Shurov told his viewers.
Famous Russian TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak visited the court in Almaty and sat next to the victim’s family.
A “quiet revolution” is taking place in Kazakhstan, she said.
“The conservative part of the population has literally dictated to women: don’t talk, don’t wash dirty laundry in public, stay silent, come to terms with it and fall in love,” she wrote on Telegram. “And now the girls have not only united in a campaign against domestic bullies, but also secured the passage of a special law.”
Sardana Guryeva, the human rights ombudsman in Yakutia, in the Russian Far East, called for the recriminalization of domestic violence.
“It is necessary to join forces so that everyone can feel safe in their homes. [It is necessary to] Create a society where domestic violence is absolutely unacceptable,” she wrote on VK, a Russian online social media platform.
But blogger Katya Konasova added that this was not enough.
“Unfortunately, there is still no law against domestic violence in Russia,” she told her 1.7 million YouTube subscribers. “Even though I will always support such legislative initiatives in this regard, unfortunately like the cases [Bishimbayev] Show that laws alone for boys are certainly not enough. Laws are important, but we also need to change the way the culture itself treats women differently.”