Stepnoe:
Alyona and a dozen girls are dancing in a small sunny backyard, to applause from their fellow inmates in Kyrgyzstan’s solely feminine penal colony.
In jail for murder, drug trafficking or theft, the ladies have a good time the Nowruz pageant marking the arrival of spring.
Alyona, top-of-the-line dancers, then swaps her crimson excessive heels for sneakers and begins feeding her 18-month-old child who was born in jail.
“After all it is a vacation, however for me it is nonetheless a day like another: I can not be with the individuals I like,” she tells AFP.
A Russian citizen, she is one in every of round 200 girls aged 17 to 70 within the jail within the village of Stepnoe, not removed from the capital Bishkek.
For Nowruz, an historical Persian vacation celebrated in Muslim nations from Asia to the Balkans, the prisoners are allowed to placed on a day of performances.
“We attempt to cheer individuals up, for them to really feel like free girls and never like inmates,” says Zamira Bekmurzaeva, one of many jail officers.
‘Assist them neglect’
Beneath the wardens’ cautious watch, bemused inmates look on because the dance reveals are adopted by wrestling competitions, a preferred sport in Kyrgyzstan.
Shouts and cheers drown out the loudspeakers blasting pop music as prisoners go up in opposition to one another, rolling round on a blanket serving as an impromptu tatami mat.
“We organise occasions for each vacation, we attempt to assist detainees neglect, not less than for in the future, that they are in jail,” says Bekmurzaeva.
The penal colony was constructed greater than sixty years in the past, at a time when the Central Asian nation was nonetheless a part of the Soviet Union.
There is no such thing as a working water or tv within the cells, and bathrooms and showers are situated outdoors.
Natalya, 65, who has spent a decade behind bars for heroin possession, nonetheless has one yr and 7 months to go.
“After I was dancing, I used to be joyful,” she says.
“I strive to not get discouraged, I take into consideration my kids and grandchildren who’re ready for me at house, the place we additionally celebrated Nowruz.”
‘Between these partitions’
Alyona is joyful that she is allowed to maintain her prison-born little one together with her.
The younger mom praises the assistance she has acquired from the jail administration.
“We get beneficial circumstances, and the whole lot we want for my little one,” she says.
She initially thought-about giving up her child.
“I used to be afraid of bringing him into this jail, of how he was going to reside, of what he was going to eat, of what garments he was going to put on, of different inmates”, she explains.
A single mother with no family who might deal with her little one, she advocates for deferred sentences for younger moms.
“I’ve seen moms in tears, pressured to present their kids up, typically to orphanages,” she says.
If all goes properly, she will likely be freed earlier than the following Nowruz celebrations.
However Alyona is anxious about her son’s adaptation to the skin world.
“My son is afraid of individuals, he does not see anybody, he is solely lived between these partitions,” she says.
“He has by no means seen a automotive in his life,” she provides with tears in her eyes.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
