Dirty place

Kyzylorda is a city where they are proud of traditions and family values, and one of the main words here is “uyat”, that is, shame. However, in August, the whole of Kazakhstan was shocked by the news - a 16-year-old girl said that her classmates had kept her in sexualized slavery for six months using threats and blackmail. According to the girl, she was forced to go on “calls” and extorted money from her. When everything was revealed, it turned out that during this time more than 200 men managed to “call” the schoolgirl. At the same time, many in the city do not believe that the girl was kept in slavery, and accuse the mother of “not keeping an eye” on her daughter. Kholod special correspondent Masha Morozova went to the scene and talked with the victim, her family, officials and city residents to understand what happened.

The names of the victim and her relatives have been changed for security reasons. The names of the minor accused have also been changed. The editors know the real names of all the characters in the material.

The graduation ceremony for 11th-graders of the Lyceum of the city of Kyzylorda was held in a luxurious banquet hall: marble, mirrored walls, six-meter ceilings. Gold and white balls, baskets of flowers. Guys in unbuttoned jackets over white shirts take selfies in the mirrors. Girls with festive hairstyles take videos of each other for TikTok.

In a long dress with a corset and puffy sleeves, in heels, with perfectly smooth hair - 16-year-old Veronika Musabaeva. Her mother, 53-year-old Aibike, really wanted her daughter’s graduation to be memorable. She borrowed money so that Veronica could go for a manicure and makeup, and order several dresses from the Chinese marketplace Temu to choose from. Aibike herself did not go to the prom: she did not have enough money.

During the last bell, classmates crowded around the mirror for a festive selfie. In the foreground is a smiling Veronica. On the left, a tall, broad-shouldered guy climbed into the frame - he raised his hand, folding his fingers into the letter V. On the right, a miniature girl pursed her lips in a bow in an air kiss.

Most of the teenagers from this selfie entered universities - some in Almaty, some in Astana - and now post stories and reels about how they live as students. But three of those captured in the selfie do not post anything. A tall guy, Daniyar, and a girl blowing a kiss, Nazerke, are sitting in a pre-trial detention center. They are accused of keeping their classmate Veronica in slavery.

By the time she graduated, she had been raped almost daily for six months.

Keep your daughter well fed

A terrible wind rises every now and then in Kyzylorda - locals are sure that the launch of rockets at the Baikonur Cosmodrome is to blame, even though it is located hundreds of kilometers from the city. The wind carries sandy dust through the yards: it gets into your eyes, settles on your skin, and grits your teeth. Carpets dangle in the wind, hung here and there to dry on the balconies of five-story buildings - here it is customary to cover the entire apartment with them to sit on the floor.

Kyzylorda is a city of 350 thousand people in the steppe in southern Kazakhstan. “Our city is patriarchal, orthodox,” says a local resident. “And small,” adds another. - Everyone knows each other. Approach anyone and ask to spend the night - they will let you in.”

In the courtyard of the residential microdistrict, where the windows of the Musabaev family’s apartment overlook, every day the sounds of the call to prayer are heard from repeaters. In the evenings, when the last prayer ends, it becomes quiet and pitch-dark - there are almost no streetlights in the neighborhood. In the middle of the sports ground, a fire flickers under a barbecue and a large tent glows white. This means that someone recently died, and relatives began in the evening to prepare food for tomorrow's funeral. It is customary to invite a lot of people to funerals, and the apartments are too small, so Kyzylorda residents rent tents and set them up right in the yard.

Through this courtyard, Mukhtar Musabaev carried his first-grader daughter Veronica to school every day 10 years ago. Her father nursed her throughout her childhood: when she was born, he was unemployed - his wife Aibike earned money. She came to feed the baby and ran away, and her father rocked her, got up to see her at night, and when she grew up, carried her to kindergarten and school. He stopped only in the second grade, when seven-year-old Veronica began to feel shy.

The daughter was the second child in the family. The son, who has now graduated from university and lives in Almaty, was raised in strictness. He spent a lot of time with his grandmother, his father’s mother: Aibike asked her to help raise her grandson, since before that she had raised her son Mukhtar well.

They tried to pamper the girl as much as they could. “Maybe we didn’t give her what she wanted - some kind of beautiful life. We pay off the meditate loans... But we tried,” says Mukhtar Musabaev, who is now 54 years old. - Let's go to the store - Veronica asks: “Dad, perfume.” I grind my teeth and buy this 150-gram perfume for 50 thousand tenge. And I myself think: Christmas trees...

Under the ceiling on top of the kitchen unit is a large stainless steel steamer for cooking manti. In the cabinet behind the glass doors are boxes of breakfast cereals. Aibike says she always stocked up on cereal, chocolate balls and bottles of Maxi Tea in different flavors - Veronica loved them.

“There is a proverb, we stuck to it: “Keep your son hungry and your daughter well-fed.” A man must make his own way. He will earn money anywhere: he can earn money through hard work, he can even steal, and he will be forgiven for it. And if my daughter is hungry, she will... - Aibike searches for words, - look for ways to earn money. Might be flattered by something. Therefore, keep your daughter well-fed to protect her from shame. There is another expression: “A girl has a thin road.” She must live carefully so as not to lose her honor. Left, right - it will be a shame."

Almost all residents of Kyzylorda are Kazakhs, representatives of the titular nation (in Almaty, for comparison, a quarter of the population is Russian). The name Veronica is unusual for Kazakhstan, especially for Kyzylorda. “Russian name,” they say in the family. Her grandmother, Aibike’s mother-in-law, an ethnic Russian, insisted on naming the girl that way. She stood under the windows of the maternity hospital for three days, screaming and crying: “At least you will remember me! People will ask her why such an unusual Russian name, and she will say: because my grandmother is Russian.” The head of the maternity hospital, Aibike recalls, shamed her: “Why do you treat your mother-in-law this way?” I say: “She’s asking for a Russian name, but just like I’m Russian, she’s black, Kazakh!” And she says: “As you said, do it, why are you making your mother cry!”

Due to the fact that the family spoke mainly Russian, Veronica’s mother sent her to a Kazakh class so that she could learn the language. In a language that was not spoken at home, Veronica studied so-so. I passed the final test exam poorly and became sad: I considered myself worthless.

Mother told Veronica: if you don’t have a higher education, it’s okay, I’ll open you a boutique or a cosmetics store. “I was just ashamed of what people would say when I married her,” admits Aibike. “The only daughter, she didn’t even get that education.” That’s the mindset we have here.”

For the summer holidays after 10th grade, Aibike took her daughter with her to Almaty, where her sisters and eldest son live. She wanted to buy an apartment there for her children for the future and went to look around. I even thought about leaving Veronica in the big city, sending her to college. But I took a closer look at her behavior and changed my mind. During those holidays, Veronica tried to work for the first time, walking around apartments and offices with a bag of books and offering to buy them. I worked only one day and quit: it’s hard. At home she argued with her mother’s sisters: she complained when she was asked to wash the dishes.

“I called my husband and said: Mukhtar, it’s too early for her to live alone,” says Aibike. “She acts just like a little girl.”

By the beginning of the school year, Veronica’s mother sent her back to Kyzylorda, to her father and grandmother. She stayed in Almaty to earn money for an apartment.

Arriving in Kyzylorda, 11th-grader Veronica often began to ask her father for overnight stays with her friend, classmate Nazerka. The family knew her: Nazerke herself stayed overnight at the Musabaevs’ home several times. Veronica's mother took a liking to her after she stayed overnight, cooked a delicious dinner and washed the stove until it shined.

When the girls became friends, Aibike even called Nazerka’s mother. Before letting my daughter spend the night, she asked what the situation was like there, whether there were men in the house. The girls said they stayed overnight together to study for their final exams.

Nazerke’s cousin, Janelle, stayed with them overnight. She was the same age as them, but she did not study at school, but at college. Janelle had many friends among, as they say in Kazakhstan, “district girls” - she constantly, according to her friend, participated “in showdowns in the district.”

Nazerke grew up without a father, and her mother, a nurse, worked on a rotational basis and did not appear at home for a long time - so the girls used an apartment free of adults.

“I thought: I’m at home and my grandmother. She’s bored with old people, what should she do,” says Mukhtar, explaining why he let Veronica go on a visit.

Aibike from Almaty sent her daughter pocket money until in January she discovered that Veronica was quietly asking for small sums not only from her, but also from her father and brother. Her parents punished her: they left her without money.

And in mid-February, Aibika’s husband called. He said: problems started with Veronica. She was detained at night, when children should not be alone outside the house, and the juvenile police handed her over to her father, writing him a fine. The daughter began to disappear from home more and more often. She says she got a job as a waitress at night (something minors are legally prohibited from doing), but refuses to say where.

You will be alone against the whole city

In the yard there is a children's wooden gazebo, painted in different colors. Inside there are narrow benches on the sides. Aibike spent many hours in this gazebo, looking at the windows of Nazerke’s apartment, where her daughter constantly disappeared. The door to the apartment was not opened for her when she knocked, and she hoped to watch for Veronica at the entrance.

In February, when her husband told her that something strange was happening to Veronica, Aibike returned home from Almaty to Kyzylorda. She tried to find out if her daughter really worked somewhere: she unsuccessfully tried to take a statement from her bank account, went to cafes in the city center, looking for her among the waitresses. Veronica rebelled and said: stop walking around, you’re disgracing me.

While the school year was going on, Aibike went to school. She complained that she could not cope with her daughter. At the school, according to Kholod’s interlocutor from among the employees, they offered to write a statement to the juvenile affairs inspectorate. What does this mean, Aibike asked. The school answered: maybe your parental rights will be limited, maybe they will be deprived of them altogether. “We didn’t threaten, we just described what the options might be,” Kholod’s interlocutor at school shrugs.

In winter and spring, Veronica began to often skip classes and fall asleep in class. The teachers noticed this, but did not sound the alarm. “I thought: well, I probably played on the phone all night,” says one of the school employees with whom Kholod spoke.

When Aibike made a scandal at school, Veronica said: “I don’t have any friends anyway, and you’re ruining my relationship with these ones.”

When her daughter completely disappeared and stopped answering the phone, Aibike went to the police. There they told her: judging by the billing, your daughter is in your own neighborhood, which means she is spending the night with a friend. Aibike did not write a missing person report, but she threatened her daughter in correspondence that if she did not return home, she would write one. Veronica answered: after this, I will never communicate with you again in my life.

Aibike walked through all authorities alone. She didn’t want to tell her family and friends about what happened in her family. “Because it’s embarrassing. Shame: my daughter is leaving home.”

But in the end, out of despair, Aibike asked her friend for advice. “I said, you had problems with your daughter, what did you do? She says: “I stripped her naked and kicked her out the door.” I asked another. She suggested: “Let’s go, we’ll beat these girls, and we’ll drag our daughter home by the hair.” Aibika did not like these tips. I asked the third one. She said: “In our youth, we all went for walks and spent the night with friends - but those whose parents were strict did not return home, and those whose parents were understanding did return.”

Not understanding what to do, Aibike began to google advice from psychologists. The specialist with whom she consulted said: her daughter is going through a period of separation.

Aibike began to restrain herself and write to her daughter only once every two days: “Amansyn ba?” — the usual Kazakh “Are you okay?” - to give her the opportunity to miss her family herself. But she couldn’t stand it, she lost her temper and again wrote her angry messages. Then she repented - and although it is not customary among Kazakhs for parents to apologize to their children - she asked for forgiveness: “Maybe I made a mistake somewhere... Just come back...”

In the end, Aibike went to fortune tellers - although Islam prohibits this. The last of the fortunetellers she went to could not tell her anything about her daughter, but warned: “I see that you will be alone against the whole city.”

And on August 6, Mukhtar Musabaev received a call from an unfamiliar number. The stranger said that his name was Zhanibek, he was a friend of Veronica. That she was next to him - and that they urgently needed to talk.

Wyatt

24-year-old Zhanibek (name changed at the request of the hero) first saw Veronica at the end of May. She came to play PlayStation at the computer club where he worked as an administrator. They met, followed each other on Instagram and began to correspond.

Veronica began coming to his work to chat. One time they went out for coffee. In a coffee shop, she let slip that she was still in school, and Zhanibek became wary: on the day they met, she said that she was 18 years old. “And when she said that she was born in 2007, I somehow didn’t really want to communicate with her, because she was still small ,” he says. “For some, perhaps, there is nothing special about this, but not for everyone, especially in Kyzylorda.”

Since then, they no longer saw each other, but only corresponded. Basically, Zhanibek says, Veronica asked him for money: for a taxi, for food. He sent. “I asked if you were having problems, maybe I could help, but she didn’t say anything.”

On August 6, Veronica called him and asked if she could come to his work: she said that she urgently needed to charge her phone. He offered to bring the charger to her. They met in the yard, he handed her the charger and began calling a taxi to go home. But then Veronica had tears in her eyes and asked him to cancel the taxi. “I asked, 'What happened? Maybe you can tell me?” - Zhanibek recalls. “And she slowly began the story.”

The description of events in this chapter is based on the story of Veronica Musabaeva. Relatives of the accused refused to talk to Kholod.

Veronica said that her friends Nazerke and Janelle, with whom she first just walked around the area and went to clubs, began blackmailing her six months ago.

At the beginning of January 2024, during the New Year holidays, Veronica and her friends were at the Djoo club, one of the few places in Kyzylorda where parties are held on weekends. There, at the club, Janelle said that she had a photo of Veronica naked. Veronica was outraged and deleted the photo from her phone.

It soon became clear that this photo was still preserved in the archive of Janelle’s phone - and she used it to create Veronica’s profile on the website “Kyzdar.net”, the most popular resource in Kazakhstan where advertisements of sex workers are published (translated from Kazakh the word is kyzdar means "girls"). As Veronica later said, Janelle did this without asking her.

Janelle and Nazerke, according to Veronica, began to threaten to show her naked photos and videos in which she was filmed drunk to her family and post them on social networks. “They said: we will earn money, but you will work,” Veronica recalled.

At that moment, Veronica said, she was in despair - and obeyed, because it seemed to her that the situation was hopeless.

While the profile on the Kyzdar.net website was being moderated, Janelle and Nazerke, according to Veronica, told her to look for clients in clubs: openly dance and wait for guys to come up to her and offer to go to her apartment. The first time this happened was on February 4, and then it began to happen regularly. They began to call her to saunas, hotels and rented apartments. Before this, according to Veronica, she “didn’t communicate much with guys.”

Janelle and Nazerke had something to blackmail her with. In addition to the pictures where she was naked and drunk, there was a video in which she was on mephedrone. One of her clients forced her to accept it in March.

She was not only blackmailed, but, according to Veronica, they threatened to beat her. Janelle, Veronica said, had many strong friends in the area.

Veronica began to live in the Nazerke apartment. In March, she said, the girls began beating her for misdeeds: for not cleaning the house well, for not washing the dishes.

The longer Veronica was engaged in prostitution, the more people found out about it - and the more she was drawn into the funnel of blackmail and fear.

In April, her classmate Daniyar found out that Veronica was engaged in prostitution. A friend describes Daniyra as a popular teenager around whom the companies gathered.

Daniyar, according to Veronica, said: "You make good money." And he demanded that she give him five thousand tenge every day.

Rumors crawled around the district - and new people who wanted to earn money began to appear on Veronica. In July, three guys stuck to her: a pans, a relative of Daniyar, and two of his friends. They demanded 450 thousand tenge from her: Abzal said that his brother works in the Kazakhstan National Security Committee (KNB, an analogue of the Russian FSB. - Approx. “Cold”) , and threatened to “create problems” - up to the murder.

Veronika began to pay these guys - but when they learned about this, John and Nazerka, they beat her: they said that they would give the money only to them.

On July 29, Veronika said, three guys were stuck on the street, put her in the car and took her to a country house. First, they promised to close in a housekeeping without food and water, then threatened to beat with a tourniquet from the wires, kill and drown in the Syr Darya. But they put them in the car and drove back to its area, saying goodbye to look for money. On the way, Veronica broke off the acrylic nail from her finger and threw the car into the trunk: she was afraid that she would really kill her, and wanted her body to find her body.

In early August, another blackmailer appeared. He called Veronica to a daily apartment, introduced himself as an employee of the Organization. According to Veronica, he took away all the cash from her that she had with him, and said: “I have your business. If you don’t want to be registered, then find 700 thousand tenge in a week. ”

Upon learning that she had returned without money, Zanel and Nazerka threw her two and a half -liter bottles with soda. They ordered urgently to find money - and threatened to shave her hair and eyebrows and cut the vulva with a knife.

The next morning, Veronika woke up - and decided that enough. Then she called Zhanibek.

On a bench with Zhanibek, they sat for an hour. At first he did not believe her - he thought that he was just pressing pity to ask him for money. But she showed him bruises on her forearms and on the back of his head and a small burn on her stomach: she said that a plastic bag was burned above her. And she gave it to read the chats in which she was threatened: he remembered the message, where it was said that if she did not get money urgently, her hair and eyebrows would be shaken, they would beat and "lower it in the area."

The fenced Janibek proposed to call the police - but Veronica was scary: she said that among the extortionists there were people who claimed to work in the organs. Then Zhanibek began to convince her to go to her parents. But Veronica was afraid of this. She asked him to call her father himself and told everything.

While he was recruiting her father’s number, Veronica was trembling, he recalls Zhanibek. He told Mukhtar, where they were, and while he was driving, he retold Veronica's words. She asked him to tell everything to him in advance, by phone, and not in the face.

Janibek was waiting for the appearance of his father with caution. He did not know how he would react to a meeting with his daughter. He did not immediately leave, but stood a little with them to make sure that his father was not angry and would not beat Veronica. But he hugged his daughter and led her home.

Zhanibek says that he still does not fully understand why the prospect of engaging in prostitution was less terrible for Veronica than that her native photographs would see her relatives.

Why are people not always able to seek help when they are faced with blackmail?

A person who is safe can rationally evaluate the risks: one thing is to encounter shame due to published photographs, it is completely different to go to prostitution. But in a situation of stress, the psyche works wrong, says psychologist Ksenia Shashunova, who specializes in working with children and adolescents.

Blackmail is arranged as a snowball, she notes. When something threatens a person, he hopes that everything will stop when he takes the next step that the blackmailers dictate to him.

And then, when the snowball is growing, threats and requirements do not stop, stress can be so strong - especially if this is a situation that a person has never encountered - that the will to resist the resistance simply breaks.

This happens when people are faced with physical violence: the second, third blow - and the person is already exhausted, he has no ability to resist. In the case of moral violence, the body can be preserved, but a person no longer feels either his own value or self -confidence that is needed to protect himself.

For the psyche, it does not matter what a person limits: handcuffs or moral humiliation, says Shashunova - the mechanisms are the same. According to her, people who fall into labor slavery often tell after salvation that it was impossible to resist for them: human dignity, their own “I” were on the verge of destruction.

“We have such a thing -“ Uyat ”. Shame, ”he says. “We don’t talk about such things in Kazakhstan - about the fact that the girls drink or smoke.” “Uyat,” he explains, is Stigma. The word that a person has been told from childhood to make it clear that with his actions he substitutes not only himself, but also relatives and friends. And that everyone around will condemn him.

“Probably Veronica did not want her to be ashamed of her family. After all, she was threatened that photos and videos would be uploaded to social networks, showed parents. And the fact that she is engaged in prostitution, apparently, she thought, can be hidden. Everything is anonymous there on the site, ”he argues. - Like any teenager, she was just afraid, I think. She made worse, thinking what he was doing better. ”

Spiritual values

Hearing about what happened to his daughter, Mukhtar Musabaev immediately, without reaching home, called his friends. They promised: "You just tell me the names of those who abused your daughter, and we will figure it out."

But Ibike said: “No. We will figure it out differently. Not one or two people are involved here. Everyone will answer, including customers. ” They, as it turned out later, were more than 200.

Immediately after the daughter finished her story, Aibike rushed to the police. She called a taxi, but to wait until it arrives, it was so unbearably that she herself ran to the department.

The idea of ​​his wife to plant everyone who called Veronica for sex, Mukhtar did not like.

Kyzylorda is a small city. You meet a person, ask what kind of family he is, and it turns out that he is your relative in the father, although you did not know him. If the police begin to look for everyone who paid Veronica, the scale of the case will be too large, Mukhtar was afraid. If each has 10 relatives and 10 friends, it turns out that the enemies of the family will become a tenth of all the inhabitants of the city.

“I was afraid that the whole city would be against us,” he says.

Mukhtar invited his wife to stop only at those who forced Veronica to engage in prostitution and extorted money. “But I said: no. I'll go to the end. I will punish everyone. For the sake of a daughter. "

Although until recently, she was ashamed to even tell her relatives about the problems in the family, Aibike decided to make a public situation.

“Apparently, something broke. It turns out, when a person is ashamed, ashamed, ashamed-at some point everything breaks out. ” She recalls that in the police department “screamed like a cut”: “Hold everyone! Do not leave a single one! Even witnesses! "

Aibike told all her sisters who live in Almaty. Those connected human rights activists to the case: the “Do not be silent” fund, which helps women - victims of violence, and Aytbek Amangeldy - brother Saltanat Nukenova, women who were beaten for many years, and then killed her husband , former Minister of Economy of Kazakhstan, Kuandyk Bimimbaev. This is the murder that occurred in November 2023, and the trial followed by it acquired a huge resonance and became iconic not only for Kazakhstan, but also for the entire Russian -speaking space. Brother Saltanat Aitbek Amangeldy, who sought punishment for the sister’s killer, is now engaged in human rights - and he undertook to help the Musabaev family.

After human rights activists joined the case, a scandal broke out. The head of the region ordered the directors of the school, where Veronica studied, the head teacher of educational work, a school psychologist and the class teacher. At the same time, the class teacher and the head teacher, according to the “cold”, remained working at the school as ordinary teachers (they refused to comment on the “cold”).

“We have more than 90% in our city - Kazakhs. There are family ties between people. We are a region where traditions, life are preserved. In areas, small auls, villages we have advice of elders, aksakals. Before making some decisions, we are consulting with aksakals. These traditions are more prevailing. Therefore, this news was a shock for us, ”says Chemardan Baymanov, deputy head of the Kyzylorda region on social policy.

In the Kyzylorda region, he says, everything rests on traditional values: “You must work for the benefit of society. Family life should be. ”

When asked how it could have happened that in a city that lives as one family, more than 200 people called a 16-year-old girl for sex, he replies: “I do not say that everything is perfect. There are moments. This means that the spiritual and moral these values ​​are slightly distorted. ”

“We have such a thing as Uyat. Shame. When this happened, the main reaction was this: “Wede!”. That is, very embarrassing, ”explains the deputy head of the region. -If you ask someone: "Who is engaged in prostitution?" You will immediately come across such a reaction: “Oh-by! How is it! " It’s difficult for our society to even fit this in your head. ”

The site "Kyzdar.net", on which Veronica was posted, is a huge and popular resource with announcements in dozens of cities of Kazakhstan. On the Kyzylorda page dozens of women are now offering their services. This site is also used by Saun administrators: they call women at the request of customers. “If you say at the reception that you need massage, they will ask:“ What massage? ” - explains the local resident. “The administrators themselves call the girls.”

After the police began to investigate Veronica’s case, the security forces detained the administrators of the three saunas, where they called.

The fact that the sauna is the place where they go to use the services of prostitutes, everyone is known among the locals. For 350 thousand people in the city, which can go from one end to the other in three hours - 40 saunas.

Half of men in Kyzylordo use the services of prostitutes, says the interlocutor of the “cold”, an employee of the budget sphere from Kyzylorda. “Quiet, peaceful. No one talks about it, but everyone knows. Yes, Kazakh culture is with us. But this conversation is simple, a dummy. Anyway - girls. "

The police know the best about prostitution in the saunas, he argues. “This is a well -known fact. Small town. Organization, for example, how did they not know [that minor Veronica is engaged in prostitution]? If she went to the saunas for several months. They even know about the birds that fly over the city. Didn't they know about her? "

“Even now the guys are calling me, friends. According to the jokes, they say: “Damn, because of this all the scandal of the girls there are no girls in the saunas,” says the interlocutor of “cold”, the Kyzylorda budgetary. - There are no girls for ordinary massage. Everyone is checking. "

One of the saunas where Veronica was called - “VIP Status” - is located on the outskirts of Kyzylorda, in the sleeping area near the Syrdarya River. In the evening it is dark there, a car gas station shines. In her electric light in the side of the road, the horses are wandered past five -story buildings. Owners of private houses sometimes send camels, horses and cows to graze to the city to save on the stern.

At the bus stop - social advertising. On the poster, an elderly woman in national festive clothing holds a bundle with a baby, the inscription is in Kazakh: "Grandfather is the support of the family, grandmother is the heart of a generation."

In the distance, the noise of a drunken crowd is heard. Between five -story buildings, a school and a police department, a sauna surrounded by a brick fence with a backlight along the perimeter was clamped.

Its administrator is under investigation. But the sauna itself both worked and works.

Leaning against the fence, five young men are sitting on the sauna, next to them on the asphalt is a beer eggplant.

- Hello! - one of them yells when he saw me from afar, and waves my hand. I wave in response - and the company explodes with a squeal, an orre and laughter.

- I love you! The man screams.

When I am approaching, he takes a step towards me.

“Let me give you a drive,” nods to a black car that stands by the sauna.

- Why are you not in the sauna, but then sit? I ask.

- Why a sauna? The sauna is a dirty place, ”a man wrinkles condemningly and shakes his head.

One of the siders squatting and with an enthusiastic expression on the face takes me on the camera camera.

I say goodbye and go deep into the courtyard. The man screams after me. The sound of a slammed car door and a wound motor are heard. He catches up with me by car, rides slowly, pressing to the side of the road. Screams from an open window, asks to sit down to him. I tell him loudly and many times: "No."

Three patrolmen are shown from the darkness of the courtyard. They go towards.

“Look,” I say. - The cops are coming, now you will get. Leave better.

The man does not leave anywhere. He asks from an open window if I have a husband.

The patrolmen equal to us and go silently, without changing the pace and not turning their heads.

The man in the car does not pay any attention to the police and again asks if I have a husband.

“Yes,” I say.

He instantly apologizes, raises glass, switches speed and leaves for the darkness of the courtyard.

- Can I go with you? - I ask one of the police officers. He raises his eyes in surprise.

The patrolmen silently go along their route. I'm going at a distance. Disrupting me, they turn to the next street.

How much families can break up

Aybike says that after the scandal erupted, none of Veronica's classmates wrote supports to her.

“Now the XXI century. She could contact the police, ”said Veronica’s peer, who studied with her in a parallel class.

Kyzylorda police opened criminal cases against 13 people . Saun administrators are accused under an article on the consolidation and involvement of a minor in prostitution, and adolescents, who, according to Veronica, kept it in slavery, also under an article about the torture. Men who forced Veronica to pay them money are accused of extortion; And the one who, according to her, forced her to try Mephedron is in the declension of a minor to drug consumption. In relation to the parents of the accused adolescents, cases of non -fulfillment of the obligations to educate minors were initiated .

Nevertheless, among representatives of the authorities in the region there is a skepticism that Veronica was really kept in slavery and forced to engage in prostitution. They say that for six months Veronika freely moved around the city, and did not sit locked up, corresponded with customers - which means she technically had the opportunity to seek help - and spent her free time with the same teenagers who are now accused of violence against her .

Veronica really spent time with adolescents, whom she later accused that they kept her in slavery.

In mid -July, Nazerke and Zanel decided that they would go to celebrate Veronica’s birthday to the recreation center near Kyzylorda, she says. On this day, Mukhtar and Aibike were waiting for the daughter of the house: they bought a cake, sent her a little money, wrote messages and asked to look at tea. She did not come. She said that the city is with friends.

Veronika recalls the recreation center, they went with the guys, one of whom also extorted money from her (his name “cold” does not indicate, since the case is still being investigated) . They purchased products, fried barbecue.

When asked why she agreed to meet her 17th anniversary with the people who mocked her, Veronica replies: “I did not care. I just wanted not to work. ”

Such duality, when in relations there is both friendship and violence in life, is often found in life, psychologist Ksenia Shashunova, who specializes in working with children and adolescents, told the cold. Violence in general most often occurs in close relationships - friendly or romantic - and can be combined with important things for a teenager, including joint nights and entertainment.

It is difficult to recognize that something is wrong with the teenager: if young children can give out the fact of what happened to them in the game or conversation, then older children are very likely to hide this, she says. According to a psychologist, adolescents can try to maintain the status of a “ordinary person” in their own eyes, convince themselves: “Everything is with me, I am the same as everything, nothing happened.” Continue to “be friends” with those who harm is one of the ways to convince themselves that everything is in order. Moreover, people who commit violence often try to protect the victim from other social contacts in order to maintain power over it and not allow other people to return it to reality, to make it clear that what is happening is not normal. In this case, breaking relationships with them becomes even more difficult, because it means to remain absolutely loneliness.

Сама Вероника до сих пор называет Назерке своей подругой. Она говорит матери, что жалеет ее.

«Я не думаю, что она забывала, что мы друзья, — говорит Вероника. — Когда мы оставались наедине, то мы всегда разговаривали. Когда ее мама возвращалась с вахты и Жанель уходила домой, я говорила Назерке, что хочу все бросить. Она говорила, что Жанель этого не позволит. И поддерживала меня».

Но в какой-то момент поведение Назерке изменилось: «Я думаю, она просто боялась Жанель. Но вместо того, чтобы помочь мне, она стала тоже избивать меня и издеваться надо мной».

Людям, которые находятся в безопасности, кажется, что нормальная реакция в подобной ситуации — обратиться за помощью. Но сильный стресс провоцирует у человека чувство дереализации: он уже не понимает, что нормально, а что ненормально, говорит психолог Ксения Шашунова. Во-вторых, если девушка вовлечена в проституцию, у нее может возникнуть ощущение, что она не заслуживает помощи, раз сама вступает в отношения с мужчинами. Особенно если все происходит в патриархальном обществе, где о подобном не говорят и где позор ожидает девушку в любом случае: будь то обнаженные фотографии или проституция, подчеркивает психолог.

Если бы взрослые говорили с детьми о том, как вести себя в ситуациях насилия , о личных границах, о неприкосновенности интимных органов, им было бы легче обращаться за помощью, считают в фонде «Не молчи».

Идея «полового воспитания» в школах кажется заместителю акима Кызылординской области Шахмардану Байманову «слишком прямолинейной». Где-нибудь в Европе, говорит он, подобные разговоры со школьниками — «про однополые браки, например» — воспринимаются нормально, но в Казахстане с его традиционными ценностями «со стороны общества будет негативное отношение».

С задачей «полового воспитания» в Казахстане, по словам чиновника, справляется специальный центр, созданный властями. Там девочек обучают «традициям, культуре, общению» и готовят к семейной жизни. «Это как бы школа благородности. С позиции семейного, хранителя семейного очага. Больше традиционное как бы, знаете, воспитание. Ценности семьи, ценности мамы, ценности отца, жузов, традиций». Например, рассказывают, как правильно проводить национальный обряд укладывания новорожденного в колыбель.

Это не значит, говорит заместитель акима, что власти Казахстана «ушли в архаику» и призывают всех жить в юртах. Нет, они применяют современные подходы, например, создают в соцсетях позитивный контент о традиционных ценностях, уточняет Байманов.

Произошедшее с Вероникой он считает из ряда вон выходящим случаем, который не свидетельствует о каком-то системном сбое. «Сейчас все думают, что раз такое произошло, значит, у нас система образования такая. Но подобного не происходит повально. И я не могу сказать, что из-за одного случая надо сразу в школы идти и говорить [о сексе с детьми]».

Тем не менее, сейчас власти Кызылординской области анализируют, где сотрудники школы допустили просчет, говорит заместитель акима. Сейчас он склоняется к тому, что главный пробел в том, что классный руководитель или заместитель директора школы должны были «организовать родителя, чтобы родитель выяснил, с кем общается ребенок. <…> Школа недостаточно обратила внимание родителей на проблемы».

Есть и другая сторона монеты, говорит один из собеседников «Холода», близкий к региональной власти. Это судьбы тех мужчин, которые «пользовались этими услугами» и сейчас утверждают, что не знали, сколько девушке лет. «Сейчас прямо это будет вообще, это будет такой ажиотаж. Вы представляете, если сейчас огласка пойдет, сколько семей [это затронет]? — рассуждает он. — Их будут вызывать в полицию, будут проводить расследование, очные ставки. Я просто думаю: когда семьи этих мужчин узнают об этом, начнется семейный раздор. Один процесс — а сколько сразу он зацепил участников, сколько человек сразу могут пострадать. У девочки сейчас дома хаос — и у в других домах тоже начнется хаос. Сколько может распасться семей».

На мужчинах, которые пользовались услугами Вероники, тоже лежит часть ответственности, говорит близкий к региональной власти собеседник «Холода». Но их поведение не то, на что в первую очередь стоит обращать внимание. Главный вопрос, говорит он, — «это все-таки нравственное воспитание».

Две пачки в день

На ужин Айбике Мусабаева готовит бешбармак. Это конина, выложенная на пласты отварного теста. Айбике делает это блюдо нечасто: оно дорогое. Вероника отщипывает руками кусочки теста с мясом и протягивает их под стол — кормит с руки собаку, крохотного белого шпица по кличке Айва.

«Таких собак вообще ни у кого в Кызылорде нет», — хвалится она, поднимая на руки щенка. В Казахстане, особенно среди ортодоксальных мусульман, не принято держать дома собак: они считаются, в отличие от кошек, нечистыми животными. Но родители решили подарить Веронике щенка после того, как она вернулась домой: правозащитница Дина Тансари, руководительница фонда «Не молчи», предположила, что питомец поможет ей оправиться от травмы. Психиатр диагностировал у девушки посттравматическое стрессовое расстройство и депрессию.

Вероника встает из-за стола, уходит в спальню, щенок бежит за ней. Она долго копается в ящике стола, а потом выходит обратно на кухню, подняв щенка на руки. "Here!" — улыбается она и показывает, что надела на собаку ошейник-ожерелье из жемчужинок с подвеской в виде двух вишенок.

Хрупкая миниатюрная Вероника ведет себя как ребенок. Долго канючит: тянет «Ну па-ап!» — просит отца позвонить кому-нибудь из его друзей, которые разбираются в электронике, чтобы они помогли ей восстановить аккаунты в соцсетях на купленном недавно родителями подержанном айфоне. Ее старый телефон забрали следователи, а ей очень хочется прямо сейчас и ни минутой позже зайти в свой инстаграм.

Она шутит, что собиралась везти собаку к грумеру, а отец взял и обкорнал щенка сам. Оправдывается перед матерью, почему сгрызла все ногти, хотя только две недели назад ходила на шеллак. Рассказывает, как вкусно ее бабушка готовит блюдо под названием «Мусор»: острый салат из маринованных сорных трав и листьев, которые обычно никто в огороде не собирает.

Только когда речь заходит о ее уголовном деле, Вероника опускает глаза в телефон, начинает на автомате что-то в нем перелистывать и говорит тихо и неразборчиво.

Дома у Мусабаевых непривычная обстановка. Снаружи их дом охраняет патруль, а в квартире круглосуточно вместе с ними живут охранницы, которых выделили им власти: они, меняясь раз в сутки, спят с Вероникой в одной кровати. «Мало ли что может случиться: суицид, например», — объясняет Айбике.

Отец так ни разу и не поговорил с дочерью о том, что она пережила. «Я стараюсь не погружаться. И себя не волновать, и ее. Чтобы она не вспоминала это. Стараюсь лучше пошутить, поподкалывать. Если я спрошу, может, не то ляпну. И себя опять начну накручивать».

Вместо разговоров Мухтар ходит на балкон и курит по две пачки сигарет в день. «Я сам с собой разговариваю: “Почему она не сказала? Где я пропустил? Где не уследил?”»

Айбике говорит, что в первые дни после возвращения Вероники домой сильно злилась из-за того, что дочь не сказала ей сразу о беде, в которую попала. Она винила себя, думала: может быть, она была к ней слишком строгой?

«Я орала как резаная. “Почему ты не сказала, почему! Эти люди говна твоего не стоят! Почему ты не сказала? Почему ты не сказала, почему ты не сказала, почему?” — вспоминает Айбике. — И я смотрю — она, бедненькая, вся зажимается. Плачет: “Мама, я не могла, я не могла”. Потом я посудила: она была как загнанный зверек. Они же все представлялись КНБшниками и УБОПовцами. И она думала, что наших сил против них не хватит».

Когда Вероника вернулась домой, все в ее поведении было для матери непонятным. Она постоянно просила родителей заказать в доставке роллы или пиццу — еду, которая для них была непривычной и слишком дорогой. Вероника говорила, что последние полгода подростки, с которыми она жила, не позволяли ей вдоволь есть то, что сами заказывали, и ей приходилось за ними доедать.

«В один из первых дней она мне говорит: мама, я одноразку хочу, — вспоминает Айбике. — Я говорю: так возьми, они же там на полке лежат. А у меня лежат в ванной бритвы одноразовые. Она говорит: нет, мама, не ту одноразку! Я звоню подруге. Говорю: что такое одноразка? Подруга мне говорит, ты что, это сигареты такие электронные. Я побежала скорей в аптеку, купила никотиновый пластырь».

Айбике говорит, что первые месяцы постоянно плакала. «Не могла принять… Дочку развращенную. Развратили ребенка». Но мысли о том, чтобы осудить Веронику, у родителей не было, говорит Мухтар: «Что я, зря ее до семи лет нянчил и ночами не спал? Неужели выгнать ее, вычеркнуть это, перечеркнуть?»

Судебные процессы по первым уголовным делам в Кызылорде уже начались. Приговор пока вынесли только двум фигурантам. Мужчина, который требовал у Вероники деньги, представляясь сотрудником полиции, получил 4 года и 6 месяцев колонии за вымогательство. Еще одного мужчину, который предлагал услуги Вероники своим друзьям, приговорили за вовлечение несовершеннолетней в проституцию к 6 годам и 8 месяцам колонии.

Личности тех, кто вызывал Веронику для секса, установили, говорит адвокат семьи Мусабаевых Гулайхан Турсуманова. Их вызвали в полицию и допросили. Но о том, чтобы в отношении кого-нибудь из клиентов возбудили уголовные дела, адвокатам Мусабаевых неизвестно.

По просьбе семьи все дела рассматривают в закрытом режиме, чтобы как можно меньше людей в Казахстане знали реальные имена Вероники и ее родителей. Но в микрорайоне, где живут Мусабаевы, все равно многие слышали о том, что произошло. Айбике рассказывает, что недавно зашла в парикмахерскую у дома к своей знакомой мастерице. Раньше они всегда болтали — тем более что у нее самой есть дочка, ровесница Вероники. В последний раз речь тоже пошла о детях, но Айбике почувствовала, что разговор не клеится. «Я поняла, что ставлю ее в неловкое положение. That's all. Больше я в эту парикмахерскую не ходила».

Даже подруги первое время не звонили Айбике. Потом признались, что не могли найти слова, не знали, как говорить о произошедшем.

Мухтар, который последнее время работал экспедитором — развозил по покупателям бытовую технику, — уволился. Он опасался, что кто-то из причастных к делу может вызвать его на какой-то адрес специально, чтобы причинить ему вред.

Айбике уговаривает дочку сменить имя. Та не хочет: имя ей дала бабушка.

Семья думает о том, чтобы уехать из Кызылорды. «О будущем если думать — о том, чтобы замуж выходить, например… Сейчас в такое положение попала она, что если замуж выйдет — будут разговоры», — говорит Мухтар.

Когда в суде рассматривали дело об убийстве Салтанат Нукеновой, в Казахстане началась масштабная общественная кампания: люди требовали принять закон о домашнем насилии. Власти согласились — но в итоге внесли в законодательство изменения, которые многим правозащитникам показались недостаточными. Статьи о побоях и причинении легкого вреда здоровью из административного кодекса перенесли в уголовный, но наказание для агрессоров осталось прежним: штраф и арест (пусть размер штрафа и срок ареста и увеличили).

Сейчас, после дела Вероники Мусабаевой, правозащитники хотят добиться мер по борьбе с проституцией: они требуют, чтобы власти заблокировали сайт «Кыздар.нет».

Власти Казахстана утверждают, что они не в силах его заблокировать. Как только они запрещают доступ к одному домену, его владельцы сразу же открывают «зеркало».

Проституция в Казахстане декриминализована: наказания нет ни для женщин, которые оказывают секс-услуги, ни для мужчин, которые ими пользуются. Единственное, что наказывается по закону, — это сводничество и организация притонов.

В марте 2023 года полиция Казахстана задержала 11 человек, которых назвали владельцами сайта «Кыздар.нет». Их обвиняли в сводничестве. Но уже спустя полгода уголовное дело в их отношении прекратили. В полиции объяснили, что в законе на тот момент не было нужной статьи о вовлечении в проституцию через интернет, которую можно было бы им предъявить. Эту статью в закон добавили — но о том, задержали ли администраторов сайта снова, не сообщалось.

Назерке и Жанель признают, что вымогали у Вероники деньги, но не признают, что держали ее в рабстве, говорит источник «Холода», знакомый с делом. Они утверждают, что она занималась проституцией по собственной воле и что на сайте секс-работниц зарегистрировалась сама. Получить комментарии Назерке и Жанель «Холоду» не удалось, их родственники отказались разговаривать.

Среди собеседников «Холода» в Кызылорде, в том числе наделенных властью, есть те, кто считает эту версию правдоподобной, — по их мнению, родителям Вероники выгодно утверждать, что ее держали в рабстве, чтобы «избежать позора».

Адвокат обвиняемых в вымогательстве мужчин, по словам Айбике, однажды бросил в ее адрес расхожее казахское выражение: «За дочкой следит женщина». «А есть и другая пословица, — говорит Айбике. — “Девочку воспитывают в сорока домах”. Как было раньше, например, когда жили в аулах: девочка выходит из дома, и если она грубо засмеялась или кривляется, то любой в ауле может сделать ей замечание, чтобы воспитать. А сейчас наши сорок домов — это что? Это те же сауны».

***

Первое время после того, как Вероника вернулась домой, она беспокойно спала, и мать с отцом ночами по очереди сидели у ее кровати. Отец укачивал ее, как малышку, прижав к груди.

На вторую ночь возле кровати сидела мать. Дочь уснула, свернувшись калачиком. Айбике поднялась на ноги — и в этот момент ей, проведшей к тому моменту уже несколько суток почти без сна, показалось, что она видит над постелью Вероники смутные очертания склонившейся к ней женской фигуры. В этом силуэте, говорит Айбике, она узнала Салтанат Нукенову.

Год назад, когда произошло убийство Салтанат и разразился скандал, Айбике старалась в него не вникать. Она с осуждением относилась к тому, что из гибели женщины «сделали шоу».

Муж Салтанат, убивший ее, во время суда утверждал, что их конфликты часто происходили, когда она была пьяной. Айбике вспоминает, что сама как-то за чаем в разговоре с подругой возмущалась: «Она же сама пьяная, никакая! Как так, почему она пила с мужем?»

Подруга обвиняла в произошедшем мать Салтанат, а Айбике поддакивала: действительно, дочка ходит с синяками, муж ее бьет, куда мать смотрит?

Теперь Айбике Мусабаева так не думает.

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About the simple and at the same time complex - the opportunity to work further. Life will change beyond recognition many times, but we, the editors of Kholod, want to stay close to you, our readers.

Support Kholod today so we can continue to do what we do best - be independent media. Thank you!

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