A Raw Look at Kazakhstan’s Social Crisis: Through The Lense of Instagram Filters.
@aya_shalkar
In search for reasons of widespread sexism and female oppression in many regions of Central Asia, a 24-year-old Vienna-based graphic artist Aya Shalkar has dived into the deep historic and cultural roots of an ongoing problem. But are we looking at the right places?
It can be difficult to classify one of Aya Shalkar’s latest video projects (“AIEL”, translated directly into Kazakh as ‘Woman’) into a single thing. It’s a social outcry, a careful visual work, but most importantly, it’s an unfiltered examination of a history of systematic oppression and sexism in her homeland (that I so happen to share). The seriousness of the topic all around the world has been brought up again and again; and the latest crisis sparked by the murder of Sarah Everard has triggered thousands of women to recounter their own traumatic experiences in what seems to be a silenced chain of violence, abuse, and harassment. Will the message ever finally set in?
While the real-life protests and mass social media campaigns are giving us hope for the long-awaited change, women from countries falling out of the scope of western media coverage, remain silent. Most of them are pressed by the heavyweight of social stigma, which in itself, is fueled by a toxic culture - one that subtly stifles the victims and normalizes an unequal social structure. The argument used as a so-called “justification”? “That’s how things have always been.” But is that so? With the assistance of Aya’s newborn project, we are to take a microscopic look at Kazakhstan’s (or more broadly, Central Asian) abuse culture, and investigate whether it has anything related to the culture at all.
What is “AIEL” all about?
To someone unfamiliar with Aya’s artistic style and/or her ethnic-inspired aesthetics, having a first look at her more recent projects would be an experience as mesmerizing as bizarre.
In her works, Shalkar often adopts a neo-futuristic take on an antique culture (for instance a yurt - a traditional central Asian tent-like house - in the middle of the galaxy). As such, most of Aya’s works are carefully crafted combinations of traditional and indigenous elements with space-themed novelty and futurity interlinked together. “AIEL'' is no exception. Conveyed in six short videos, this work is a virtual immersion into the disturbing reality that many women in Central Asia are forced to live in. Unapologetic in the boldness of her statements, Aya openly challenged many of the “traditional”, outdated, and downright sexist views on gender, family, and femininity which are common in our country but are not restricted to it.
Each of the six graphic imageries is a stand-alone snapshot of crucial social issues present in Kazakhstan and beyond. From domestic abuse to workplace sexism and pay gap, from the lack of women’s representation in the government to the toxic culture of female oppression in families, her work serves as a wake-up call for the nation - to stop justifying gender-based hate and inequality, based on cherry-picked traditions which now only belong in history books.
@aya_shalkar
A look at a bigger problem
The situation is not an isolated case, not even for a whole country. Women in different parts of the world, for decades, have been reduced to a mosaiced persona, composed of many toxic stereotypes of femininity, and were forced to act according to particular societal expectations. As Aya herself states in one of her videos labeled “Cotton Girl'' - “ There are many things that a “perfect Kazakh girl” should be. The all-time favorite of traditional sexists is the “timid girl”: soft, feminine, and quiet. We are more than that”. Although particularly enforced in more traditional households, these views are far from being localized. The reasons behind making Kazakhstan the focus of her work, set aside an obvious fact that Aya is coming from there, can lay in the fact that while present in our state, these views are hardly challenged. On the bright side, within a new generation, and especially in bigger cities, the overall picture is promising – people tend to hold more progressive views, girls can pursue any education or career they want. Unfortunately, it often happens despite the society rather than with the help of it, and representation of women in politics, and in leadership positions is deplorable; and the situation is still far from pretty in more rural areas and traditional households, where the female part of the population can be severely suppressed.
Tradition at the heart of oppression or oppression justified by traditions?
The words “culture” and “tradition” figurate a lot in this commentary, making one question if things like sexism, oppression, and abuse can really be rooted in a nation’s history. While a simple answer does not exist with a topic as complicated, I will go ahead and say no. Although we can observe a certain divergence in the world between countries with a particular (more conservative, and often but not always religious) heritage, on a matter of women, it boils down to how people behave now. Blaming the current alarming situation on the beliefs held by our ancestors is nothing other than delegating responsibility. It allows for the people guilty of these atrocities now to escape liability and obligation, augmented in their toxic ideas. Because the truth is, traditions and culture are indeed, important. However, it doesn’t mean that all of them still have a place to be exercised. They are inalienable parts of our community and development. At the same time, just as we are no longer practicing nomadic lifestyle, ritual sacrifices, and early child marriage – you name it - as we move forward, keeping ancient systems centric to our current ways of living suggests that we haven’t moved anywhere at all; we might as well be living centuries back if our understanding of the world has not changed since then. No country’s tradition is lacking in terrible, outdated, and unpracticable customs, but we learn to move past them; or we transform them and cherish them as a part of ethnic history which in some ways, is a part of who we are. But as Aya herself said in one of her interviews, “Some of them should stay in history textbooks”. It’s a firm hope of mine that in the future, Kazakhstan learns to move past them as well.
@aya_shalkar
Social media - starting the conversation on a long-existing issue
What makes the work even more unique – it was shot completely on an iPhone, with the use of augmented reality technology, and was presented in a form of Instagram filters. The result is a very unique blend of indigenous characteristics and well-known Instagram attributed. The project originally planned to be a real-life exhibition, had to be re-made to suit a new - covid sponsored - “augmented reality” of its own. But, according to Aya herself, it has benefitted from the higher exposure of social media. While social media on its own serves as a crucial medium of communication and raising awareness in a complex process of social transition.
““With such strong presence of social media in society…it’s been really boiling. I remember when I was a kid…everything was so undercover, and all the tragedies and violence against women were hidden and no one knew about it, and now it all came to the surface. And it looks like it got worse. But actually, I don’t think it got worse. It just got visible”
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