To the Fathers of Kazakh Girls

As the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, a great wave of awakening surged through Kazakh intellectuals, sparking a passionate quest for knowledge. This outpouring of intellectual zeal led to an explosion of new magazines and newspapers being published in Kazakh, heralding the dawn of a new era in sharing culture.

However, what these intellectuals wrote went beyond only spreading knowledge. Soon, a variety of publications emerged, covering topics like business, society, politics, art, and humor. Qalam invites you to explore snippets from Kazakh publishing culture and history, offering a glimpse into the important issues of the past.

Dear fathers! We are also your children, just like your sons. It is evident that you think that having cultured and educated sons is a good thing. Perhaps you should consider that if we transformed ourselves to cultured and educated individuals, it would also be beneficial for you?

… According to Sharia law, boys and girls should be treated equally. Is there a law that dictates demeaning girls and favoring the upbringing of boys? Isn't belittling girls a sign of ignorance? It seems that such behavior has firmly rooted itself in the minds of our uneducated ancestors. Because to this day, you neglect the education of your daughters. It seems that you educate your sons and not your daughters. You believe that education spoils girls, so we remain illiterate.

… Can we be educated from when we are seven or eight years old until we are at least fifteen years old? … It is you upon whom the burden of responsibility would fall if we remain illiterate and achieve nothing in this life. It is your duty to educate us...

… Second, discrimination against us stems from the fact that you sell us, your daughters, like cattle. From the cradle, you determine our fate by marrying us off. These days, you don't care if the newlyweds match each other in age. It's good if future spouses get along, but if not, the girl's life turns into a nightmare of insults, humiliations, and constant conflicts. Despite our pleas and tears, you give away your thirteen or fourteen-year-old daughters to sixty-year-old men for a dowry. Is this right? Is a sixty-year-old man the same as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl? If they are equal, why don't you marry off your thirteen or fourteen-year-old sons to women who are fifty or sixty years old?

… I speak not only for myself but for all Kazakh girls … Even our prominent men do not write about the plight of Kazakh girls, I raise this issue because I have studied in the city for several years ...

… Many write to Aiqap magazine about their troubles, and so I decided to write about the problem of all Kazakh girls, hoping you will publish it.

But if not, I will consider that this magazine is for men only, and women have no place there, I will continue to lament my fate as a woman.

By Saqypjamal Tileubaiqyzy

Excerpt from the article ‘To the Fathers of Kazakh Girls’

Aiqap was the first Kazakh magazine and from 1911, it was was published in Troitsk. It covered issues related to land, language, religion, fair elections, and women's equality. Special attention was paid to the problems of education as well as the opening and construction of new schools. The last, eighty-eighth issue of the magazine was released in August 1915.