When the Impossible Became Possible: Kyrgyz Women and the Soviet Transformation

The writer Hisham Rohana reflects on the story of Kyrgyz surgeon Kakish Ryskulova, the first female surgeon in Central Asia, as an entry point to discuss the role of the Soviet state in building educational and health institutions that enabled women from poor rural backgrounds to become doctors and scientists, acknowledging the contradictions of the Soviet project but affirming that real material emancipation occurred.

In his article in Al-Ittihad newspaper, writer Hisham Rohana reflects on the story of Kyrgyz surgeon Kakish Ryskulova (1918-?), the first female surgeon in Central Asia, as an entry point for a broader discussion about the role of the Soviet state in the emancipation of women in Central Asia. The writer describes how Ryskulova, who grew up an orphan in a rural society, managed to become a surgeon thanks to Soviet state institutions: boarding schools, free education, universities, public hospitals, and postgraduate scholarships. He argues that her story is not just an individual success, but evidence that true equality requires building material conditions, not just legislation. The article also mentions other women such as Fatima Nurgazieva, the first Kyrgyz health minister, Zurakan Kainazarova, a Hero of Socialist Labor, and Urkuya Salieva, who was assassinated in 1934 for her activism. The article acknowledges the contradictions in the Soviet project: its top-down and coercive nature, and the persistence of male discrimination, but affirms that real material emancipation did indeed occur.