Roman Kim is an animator for RFE/RL's Central Asian Migrants Unit.
Central Asians living in Ukraine have brought some ancestral traditions to help those facing freezing winter and power cuts. Russian air assaults may have caused widespread power outages, but more cities are now featuring warm yurts and friendly hosts offering hot dishes from Central Asia.
In Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, teenage girls are commonly forced to marry before reaching adulthood, in spite of laws setting the minimum age of marriage at 18. RFE/RL spoke to two teenagers who were coerced into marriage against their will, forcing them to give up their educations.
In spite of international laws banning marriage for minors, girls in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are commonly forced to marry as young teens. One Tajik woman described leaving school at 17 to work for her husband's family, while a young Kyrgyz woman said she was kidnapped by her suitor at just 16.
David Omarov, a native of Turkmenistan, says he was arrested and tortured there for being gay -- a crime under the country's repressive regime. He was also charged with "disseminating AIDS" while imprisoned in 2019 and forced to sign a confession before he was finally able to flee to Poland.
