“Clothes have no gender” – this is the slogan in several schools of Almaty and Nur-Sultan. conducted flash mobs: the boys put on skirts. So they spoke out against sexism and expressed disagreement with the administration of educational institutions. The pupils decided to hold the actions after the tragedy that happened on October 27 in one of the elite schools in Almaty.
The eighth grader came to the themed autumn ball dedicated to the Harry Potter universe in a skirt. The curator did not like this, and she took the boy to a psychologist. On the same day, he committed suicide.
The organizer of the flash mob Dariga Dzhanabaeva says that the student put on a skirt as a joke, but they began to put pressure on him. “I refer to the words of classmates who were there who told me this. After he put on a skirt, the curator got angry. He started shouting that you are a boy, you should not wear a skirt. After that he was taken to a psychologist. But the reaction from the side of the curator was such, they began to throw certain complaints against him, – says Dariga. – According to the information of his friends, the parents were really strict. Most likely, problems in the family were the main reason for the suicide. Because after the situation, as far as I know, there was a scandal at home”.
The educational institution assures that no pressure was exerted on the eighth grader. On that ill-fated day, the school did indeed hold a themed event, and the student was wearing a skirt.
“We have fixed uniform standards for boys. According to these instructions, they must be dressed. Boys in trousers, for example. This is a requirement. The deceased boy came to the school event in a regular skirt, not themed. He couldn’t be like that. He understood everything and took it off. There was no pressure from the school leadership. The boy was not taken to a psychologist by force, “says Zhanar Admabaeva, a representative of the Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS).
However, classmates and acquaintances of the deceased say something completely different. According to them, students periodically face pressure from teachers and school leaders because of their appearance. Even after the flash mobs, the participants began to receive threats that they would call their parents. But all the children say was that they wanted to draw attention to the problem of discrimination and sexism in the country.
“It grew into some kind of anger, it grew into a desire to deal with the problem that exists in Kazakhstan,” says NIS student Madina Railova. “This problem is a Kazakhstan-wide, global problem that exists all over the world, especially in developing countries. it became very upsetting that this was the reason for the suicide – such a seemingly stupid thing that all people should be aware of – that we are all equal, we have no right to insult or poison if a person is not like us. “
Sexism and gender inequality are a serious problem for Kazakhstan, experts say with regret. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Kazakhstanis suffer from this every year. According to the head of the Liberty Foundation, Galym Ageleuov, children are the least protected in this matter and are increasingly being bullied.
“There has been a loss of a holistic picture of the world, and a personal-value picture too. Due to the fact that there is social inequality, there is a lot of discrimination, from ethnic moments to professional ones. [дискриминация]… There are a lot of such details that poison life, “says Galym Ageleuov.
Children do not directly blame a psychologist or a class teacher for the death of an eighth-grader – they urge all Kazakhstanis to be tolerant so that such tragedies do not happen in the future. At the school where the deceased studied, his friends and classmates arranged a kind of commemoration: they leave farewell notes on the eighth-grader’s locker. The parents of the deceased refused to give any comments. The police are investigating the case under the article “Driving to suicide”.
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