- Traditionally, women’s rights to pastures are secured through their male relatives – fathers, brothers and/or husbands. Customary regimes place the man at the head of the household and therefore property rights, including animals and pasture land-use rights, are attributed to him. Women enjoy access to pasture land insofar as they belong to the associated clan, which is headed by men (9).

- The number of precocious marriages is growing. In rural areas, bride theft is also growing. Research done in 2004 indicated that the percentage of marriages involving abduction of the bride was greater than in 1999−2001 (8).

- Customary law enforced at the village level does not give women access to land upon divorce (20).

- De facto marriages are based on an agreement between families. The family of the man or the man himself pays a bride-price to the woman’s family and an agreed bride-wealth is transferred. A woman may be forced into marriage against her will. Under the new Criminal Code, the purchase or ransom of bride-price is no longer considered a criminal offence as the practice is recognized as social custom (16).

- Polygamous marriages have increased since independence. Polygamy typically takes the form of acquiring a woman over the age of 25 as a second wife by means of a religious ceremony by a Muslim cleric. The second wife has no legal rights under statutory law (16).

- A bride-price, known as kalym, is openly practised in the post-Soviet era. According to custom, the groom gives the bride’s family a gift of livestock. Women sometimes bring family livestock into the marriage (16).

- The court of elders or a neighbourhood committee resolves land disputes when they are not resolved at the family level. The entire family, as well as other village members, are involved in the resolution of disputes at the village level. The community, not just the court, responds to and monitors conflicts (14).

- The village head is a government official at the lowest level. After family members, the village head is the first person villagers go to with land and agricultural disputes (14).

- The Court of aksakals, elders, was institutionalized in 1995 by the Presidential Decree “On Approval of Temporary Regulations on Courts of Elders in the Kyrgyz Republic” and recognised by the new Constitution of 2010. The Court is responsible for the enforcement of customary law and written laws. It deals with land boundary disputes, divorces and property division. Women most often go to them for property division in the event of divorce (14).

The children, not the husband and his family, inherit the bride-wealth of their mother, upon her death (16).

- Despite the fact that the Criminal Code stipulates punishment for coercing a woman to marry, the practice of forcible bride theft occurs in the country, especially in rural areas (8).

- Although the Criminal Code of 1997 considers bigamy and polygamy punishable crimes which result in the annulment of the second marriage, men take on additional wives under traditional Muslim law (16).