6 Kyrgyz Girls Form First Women's Kok-Boru Team, Challenging Centuries of Male Tradition
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 24
6 Kyrgyz Girls Form First Women's Kok-Boru Team, Challenging Centuries of Male Tradition
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 24
Summary
Six teenage girls have formed Kyrgyzstan’s first women’s kok-boru team, entering a national sport long played almost exclusively by men.
Begimai Bakirova, 16, is among the riders competing on horseback with bare hands for a headless goat carcass in the rough polo-like game.
In Asylbash, a village near the Tien Shan mountains, the sight of a kok-boru match is common; seeing a girl in the scrum is what breaks tradition.
The team’s emergence reflects a push by girls who say skill and desire—not gender—should decide who can play a sport rooted in hundreds of years of custom.