The Kyrgyz president’s youngest daughter has spoken out about the furore sparked by a photo of her breastfeeding her child.
Aliya Shagieva posted a photo of herself feeding her baby on social media back in April, with the caption: ‘I will feed my child whenever and wherever he needs to be fed.’
The backlash to the image was so huge, with people accusing her of acting immorally, that she was forced to take it down.
Her parents – the President and First Lady of Kyrgyzstan – had also warned her that the negative attention ‘could be harmful to her young family’.
However, Aliya has since posted other photos of herself breastfeeding in a show of defiance.
She has now told the BBC that the row was the product of a culture in Kyrgyzstan that hyper-sexualises the female form.
‘This body I’ve been given is not vulgar,’ she told BBC Kyrgyz. ‘It is functional. Its purpose is to fulfil the physiological needs of my baby, not to be sexualised.’
But criticism wasn’t only levelled at Aliya online. Her parents, President Almazbek Atambayev and his wife Raisa, were also apparently unhappy.
Aliya said: ‘They didn’t like it – and it is understandable because the younger generation is less conservative than their parents.’
Kyrgyzstan is a Muslim-majority former Soviet republic – but Aliya swims against the current in many ways.
She, her husband and her child live in a prestigious area of Bishkek, in a flat in which they grow their own herbs and make art.
The couple are both vegetarian – a rarity in a traditionally meat-eating country – and campaign for animal rights, among other charitable causes.
But Aliya’s breastfeeding photos appear to have made the most impact internationally.
The images, which made their way into national newspapers as far away as Europe, were praised by many for breaking a taboo that continues to affect women all over the world.
Originally published on Metro
0 comments:
Post a Comment