Crisis centre countering domestic violence in Shymkent, Kazakhstan
A day at the Shymkent crisis centre in Kazakhstan
18.03.2025
Article published on the rus.azattyq.org website
The Shymkent crisis centre Komek has housed hundreds of people in need of temporary shelter for the past eight years. Specialists working at the centre provide legal and psychological support and listen to people who are having serious problems in their lives. These are mainly women who have experienced domestic abuse. Azattyk spent a day at the centre, talking to specialists and those who have come in search of help.
The head of the centre, 60 year-old Malika Zhusupova, has been helping women and children who have been victims of domestic violence for more than 20 years. She initially worked for the Red Crescent humanitarian agency before founding the Komek centre eight years ago.
“Women very often cry during the first meeting”
The crisis centre can cater for up to 40 people. Women with children can stay here for six months and are given psychological, social and legal support. The centre receives State funding, with its work supported through grants and sponsorship.
According to Malika, women were too ashamed to ask for help during the first few months of the centre’s work. Many came in covering their faces and tried not to leave their rooms. Only in recent years have women begun to fight openly for their rights and for those of their children.
The women who come to the shelter are mostly from Turkestan oblast, a region in the south of the country where patriarchy is a particularly strong influence. Women suffer physical, psychological, economic and sexual violence – many have thought of killing themselves.
“When I came here, I was depressed and unhappy with my life. I knew I would never get better on my own. With some difficulty, the people here have managed to pull me through. Although still fearful, I want to forget my past life and start a new one”, said one woman who turned to the centre’s psychologist, Perizat Kaldarova, for help.
Kaldarova said that all the women who come to the centre have children. Sons and daughters as well as their mothers are also victims of domestic violence. When a woman is psychologically damaged it is impossible for her to raise her child properly. A child who does not have adult support lacks self-esteem and feels alone and helpless.
The women often cry during their meeting with the psychologist. They don’t want to live but do so for the sake of their children. However, there are also those who, because of their own trauma, take out their aggression by hitting their children. Sometimes we need expert help from psychiatrists, said Kaldarova.
Children take domestic abuse extremely hard even if they have not been physically affected, said Kaldarova. As a rule, the father beats their mother or exerts psychological pressure on her in front of the children which has a traumatising effect on them. Parental divorce, the estrangement from friends and relatives when moving away after their mother and father have split up, also has a major impact on the children.
Working with adolescent girls who have been victims of sexual violence is an extremely difficult and sensitive task, said Nurgul Berdybayeva, a social worker at the centre. Psychologists also have to deal with the pain and distress of the girl and her parents who don’t know how to cope with such a traumatic event.
Psychologists and the head of the centre meet adults and children who are having a difficult time in their lives, taking the time to listen and talk to them. They are then left alone in the centre for three days during which no-one disturbs them.
Specialists at the centre believe that the way to bring a person out of their depression is to increase their self-confidence as many victims of violence lose their self-esteem and are haunted by feelings of a lack of self-worth.
The crisis centre has also encountered situations when abusive husbands or their relatives have tried to confront victims of violent relationships at the centre, attempting to gain access by force. In such cases, the staff call the police.
Specialists working at the centre see troubled individuals every day and try to help them.
According to Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor’s Office, there were 137 reported cases of femicide in the country last year. Under the Article on “Intentional infliction of serious harm to health” of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code, 191 cases were initiated where the victims were women and 594 for inflicting moderate harm to health. 198 women committed suicide.
Dilara Issa
