Uzbek woman famous for beating up bullies became a country champion in taekwondo
In order to understand what exactly that means you have to know a bit more about Uzbekistan — post soviet Central Asian country with population over 32 mln. Country where women before age 35 had to present a permission from a guardian(husband or parent) in a police office to be able to travel abroad. Country where majority of people still considers a gender stereotypes as the only right way of living. When girls are brought up in a way that all they need is a wedding, a nice white dress with a limousine, 300 people guests on the reception, respected husband and many kids.
A fact to be fair — country has adopter the Law “On guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities for women and men” in September, 2019 and there are real actions to make a shift in the gender inequality on the ground but for majority of people living in Uzbekistan man is still a hunter, and woman is a housewife. Or at least has to be.
That’s why when the news outlets were posting an articles about the 23y.o resident of Namangan Gulsanam Alizhonova who ended up being charged for beating two guys coused a big discussions on a social media. Police department reported that the girl is charged under article 277, paragraph 3 (d) (hooliganism connected with resistance to a representative of the authorities or the public performing duties to protect public order or other citizens who prevent hooliganism) of the Criminal Code. The sanction of this article provides for restriction of liberty for 3 to 5 years. The agency’s initial report stated that the conflict was unjustified.
But then there was a huge campaign in social media platforms. Petitions, interviews, arguments, posts, dedicated hashtags, vlogs etc. Lots of Uzbekistan people decided to stay against charging a young woman, despite of her being too brutal or even violent to some extent — as we really knew how the bullies could provoke the young woman to do so. Some news outlets and bloggers gave an other side of the coin -showing how the woman was actually sexually abused and decided to “defend her honor”. After some time Investigation Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs closed the case, finding that it was a self defense act. While at the same time there were other loud cases of domestic violence and abuse against Uzbek women-many found this decision fair.
And now a trendy hero of Uzbek social media is a champion of the country in Taekwondo. Gulsanam was the winner in the 73 kg weight class. Now Alizhonova will be preparing for the Olympic Games 2024, which will be held in Paris.
