"Safety is a basic precondition for girls to thrive" - preventing gender-based violence in STEM
Jipara Turmamatova is a Gender Officer for UNICEF Kyrgyzstan working on ending violence against women and girls in STEM. Under Spotlight Initiative, she focused on eliminating forced marriage and providing young people with knowledge of their rights and how to take action.
Why is preventing violence against women and girls important to you?
It’s important to me as a mother to three children and someone who works on an everyday basis with children and adolescents. When I interact with girls, I see such great power, drive and potential, and I see that safety is a basic precondition for them to thrive. In order for them to learn, develop their potential and pursue their dreams, they need to feel safe and they need to be safe. [Violence] is stopping them from being productive members of society. If you want to build a prosperous nation, safety is a prerequisite and condition for every child. This is why I think the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV) should be part of every programme and every activity that we do.
"In order for girls to learn, develop their potential and pursue their dreams, they need to be safe." - Jipara Turmamatova, Gender Officer for UNICEF Kyrgyzstan
Tell me about your work on violence prevention and how you got involved?
We have this flagship initiative in Kyrgyzstan, STEM for Girls, which I’m so proud of. We've been working on it since 2020. The primary objective was to bring girls into the STEM world, motivate them, provide mentorship and skills-building opportunities – to build them as future leaders.
Over time, they started opening up to us and sharing their stories. Given the prevalence of violence everywhere, including in Kyrgyzstan, they started reporting cases of abuse and we had to build in a referral system. We had to do training for partners on how to refer girls [to support services] when they report violence and how to talk to them — basic principles of communicating and referring. This is how I came to an understanding that no matter what you work on, be it climate change, STEM, economic empowerment, you’ll have to assume that the girls you’re working with will have issues in their homes and schools, that many of them will suffer from violence, and you need to make sure that they feel safe and can benefit from your programme as much as those who do not suffer from violence. And that takes additional measures. STEM for Girls worked with Spotlight Initiative and our biggest focus was working with adolescents and youth on prevention.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
When we work in areas such as STEM or climate change, gender-based violence is seen as a side or unimportant component that can only be implemented if resources and time allow. It’s never the priority and it’s never one of the core components. That was the biggest challenge: explaining that bringing girls to STEM opens up new risks – for example technology-facilitated GBV. They need to be aware of it and they need to be prepared. Technology opens up all these wonderful opportunities, but you need to prepare [girls] so that they’re safe online.
Or, in the case of climate change, we understand that it exacerbates the risk of violence. Unless GBV prevention is treated as one of the core strategies, none of the programmes will be successful. This was a difficult agenda to bring into policy discussions with decision-makers.
"In areas such as STEM or climate change, gender-based violence is seen as a side component... [But] unless GBV prevention is treated as a core strategy, none of the programmes will be successful." - Ms. Turmamatova
Has resistance to gender equality increased?
Yes, it’s part of a global trend. This pushback is now translating into national policies and government action plans. We had to adapt the discourse because gender equality or ending GBV is seen as opposing traditional values, which it does not, so it requires more strategic communication. The space for women’s rights organizations is being reduced and I think it takes extra effort now to continue promoting GBV prevention.
How can you use forums such as Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) to spread awareness?
It’s been a great learning opportunity, and I’m honoured to have been invited to contribute to one of the SVRI panels. One of the biggest focuses of this year’s SVRI is technology-facilitated GBV. This has no limits, no geographical location – the challenge is so unique. At the same time, the presentation that I’m going to make is about how to use this technology to educate, how to use the opportunities that it provides. When we are discussing these issues, especially when advocating with governments, it’s very important that the risks of tech-facilitated GBV do not close off opportunities for young people.
One thing I found interesting is that developing [educational mobile] games like the ones that we have developed is seen as normal for boys and as a waste of time for girls, because girls are expected to do chores around the house and not sit and play mobile games. But the evidence says that girls who play computer games are more likely to choose a job in IT. If you play and learn, you develop an interest. A challenge for us was to break that stereotype and to say “girls can also play.” So, indirectly, encouraging them towards a career in STEM.
One thing that I would really like to see more of in forums like this is the voice of adolescent girls.
As told to Lesira Gerdes. Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
