Kazakhstan: “I Was Treated Like Property”

L (not her real name), an office worker living in the western Kazakstan city of Aktau, can vividly recall the day a co-worker sexually assaulted her.

After a colleague's wedding, another workmate offered to share a taxi with her. Instead, he ordered the car to head to their office with the excuse that he needed to pick something up first.

“When we got to our workplace, he asked me to go inside with him, said that he would call another taxi from the office. Not suspecting anything, there was no hinting towards me before this, I went with him. The man is married, and has children,” L said.

But once inside the building, her co-worker locked the office door and assaulted her, tearing at her clothes.

“I could not properly resist, because he is much larger and stronger than me, but I managed to get out and escape through the back door.”

The next day, she continued, her attacker showed no remorse.

“As if nothing had happened, he says, ‘Well, I'm sorry, in fact, I've wanted to for a long time.’ I silently swallowed it. I still work here because I can't find another job, and he also works here. Sometimes when he drinks, there are advances, but it never got to what it was the first time,” L concluded.

Workplace harassment and sexual abuse remains commonplace in Kazakhstan, with widespread impunity reinforced by a lack of legislation available to hold perpetrators to account.

Recent research by IWPR partner Meyerim, an NGO based in western Kazakhstan, found that six out of ten Kazakh women surveyed had experienced workplace harassment.

This included verbal, physical or psychological abuse, typically from managers or individuals holding positions of authority.

“I was treated like property,” one respondent said, adding that the treatment impacted her psychologically.

“The general director asked (me) to stay late, tried to hug and kiss... and in every way hinted at a sponsorship if I maintained a positive attitude towards him,” said another. “I refused in every way, but he did not stop...I had to just stop coming to work.”

A top-level manager told researchers, “The head doctor of the clinic where I worked offered my female co-worker a (very high) salary, for becoming his mistress. She went away. We quit.”

While routine verbal harassment was dismissed as harmless conversation or flirting, women told Meyerim that it created a “toxic and humiliating atmosphere”.  

“There was a mechanic who drove me to our customers,” recounted one respondent. “And he turned on this song at full volume, the chorus is apparently about sex on the kitchen table, blah blah blah, and at that moment he turned up the volume. Ugh! I still remember it and it makes me sick.

“Nine years have passed and I have changed jobs four times since then, but I still remember that situation. And he also drove me around the city at high speed. I thought he would probably drag me off somewhere someday.”

Aliya Narbay, the research’s project leader, told IWPR that the problem was likely even more widespread than reported. Not only was such abuse little-discussed and reinforced by widespread social conservative attitudes, but the country lacked a clear legal definition of sexual harassment.

“What is urgently needed are preventive measures implemented nationwide to reduce conflict and protect employees in the workplace,” Narbay continued. "The first step would be compliance with international standards.”

Kazakhstan is a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Narbay said that ratifying its Convention No 190, the first global treaty to recognise the right of everyone to work without violence and harassment and integrating its provisions into national labour legislation would immediately address major legal gaps.

“However, even if the law is adopted, that does not automatically mean people will know about it or feel empowered to exercise their rights,” she continued. “This is where civil society organisations play a crucial role. NGOs must work at all levels to promote awareness of rights and provide education. Even basic awareness-raising activities and training sessions generate high levels of engagement.”

To this end, the data Meyerim collected was used to create a White Paper outlining legislative gaps and systemic issues as well as a policy brief translating findings into actionable recommendations.

The ultimate aim is the adoption of a regional action plan to prevent workplace harassment against women in Aktau, developed in cooperation with the department of labour, which can serve as a model for wider action.

The research linked workplace harassment to structural inequality, economic dependence and entrenched social norms. Women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership positions, reinforcing hierarchical power imbalances that enable harassment to persist.

Not only do perpetrators frequently avoid accountability, but women who report harassment may face retaliatory sanctions.

“There have been cases of employees filing claims of sexual harassment, only to be met with a countercharge of defamation from the aggressor,” the White Paper noted.

“In my view, generational social change is also critical,” Narbay said. “The workforce is becoming younger, and a new generation of employees is entering the labour market with a more open and critical mindset. It is especially important to work with them to build a healthy workplace culture and professional ethics, so that they do not reproduce outdated behavioural patterns that were once considered normal.”