Highlighting the hidden struggles of LBQT women in Uzbekistan amid calls for decriminalisation

Trigger warning: This story includes descriptions of torture and violence.

As the global community marks the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the hidden struggles of LBQT women in Uzbekistan bring forward urgent calls for decriminalisation and systemic change. Uzbek activists, working tirelessly to amplify these voices, underscore that criminalisation of LGBT identities and strict patriarchal norms create conditions of unchecked violence and discrimination for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, who face isolation and danger within their own communities and families.

Among these stories of courage is that of Dinora (name changed), a transgender woman who has endured years of persecution and hardship. Detained under Article 120—a law criminalising “sodomy”—Dinora was tortured for simply living authentically. Her experience reflects the resilience demanded of Uzbekistan’s LBQT women. Despite her trauma, Dinora continues to advocate quietly, offering support to others in need.

Similarly, Gulnora, Zilola, and Manzura (names changed) navigate a society that views their identities as threats to family honour. Gulnora faced intense guilt and rejection, trapped between her true self and the societal expectations forced upon her by her family. Zilola, caught expressing affection for another woman, was forced into marriage and subjected to humiliating rituals to “cure” her. Manzura, who found some support within a loving relationship, still faces violent consequences from family members whenever her sexual orientation is revealed. Their lives embody the immense toll of societal and familial pressures, yet each woman has found ways to stand strong in the face of ongoing abuse.

Culture of impunity

The criminalisation of same-sex relations among men promotes a culture of impunity, embedding harmful stereotypes that target all LGBTI people. For LBQT women, especially, rigid gender expectations amplify their suffering, leaving them trapped between cultural norms and a legal system offering no recourse or protection. These women’s stories illustrate not only the isolation they face but also the extraordinary courage required to pursue dignity and self-acceptance.

As we share these voices during the 16 Days of Activism, we are reminded that the fight against gender-based violence must be inclusive of all women, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Real justice and dignity for LBQT women in Uzbekistan demand urgent legal reform: the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships and protections for sexual orientation and gender identity within domestic violence laws.

For Dinora, Gulnora, Zilola, Manzura, and countless others, we must continue to call for a world where they can live freely and safely, without fear of persecution. Their courage in sharing these stories is a testament to resilience—a resilience that we hope will inspire lasting change.

For more on the experiences of LGBT people in Uzbekistan and the urgent call for decriminalisation, read the full report in English.

On International Lesbian Day, we highlight the recent report by the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, emphasising the need for targeted policies to protect lesbians from violence and discrimination across Europe

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women face profound challenges rooted in discrimination, violence, and systemic inequality. The recent resolution and report  adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 03 October highlights the urgent need for comprehensive policies that address these issues. Intersectional discrimination, where sexual orientation and gender intersect for LBQ women and the marginalisation that stems from that intersection, complicates the landscape of human rights that LBQ women should have access to, requiring specific actions to ensure their protection. 

The report outlines that LBQ women, including trans and intersex LBQ women, experience multiple forms of violence and harassment, which can manifest in both public and private spheres. Violence ranges from physical assaults and psychological abuse to online harassment, often targeting women who do not conform to traditional gender roles. For instance, a survey by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency highlighted that 33% of lesbian women in Europe have avoided public spaces out of fear of violence or harassment, demonstrating the pervasive atmosphere of insecurity they face.

This violence is intensified for racialised LBQ women, who navigate an additional layer of discrimination. The report notes that racial stereotypes can subject them to heightened prejudice, affecting their access to healthcare, housing, and employment. Many racialised LBQ women report feeling pressure to conform to heterosexual norms, further marginalising their identities and experiences.

The effect of anti-gender movements

The increasing influence of anti-gender movements across Europe worsens these issues, aiming to silence and delegitimise the rights of LGBTI people, particularly LBQ women. The report emphasises the need for legislative frameworks that protect human rights, asserting that all women should have equal access to the protection and support guaranteed by international conventions, such as the Istanbul Convention. The resolution calls for Member States to enact anti-discrimination laws that address not only sexual orientation but also gender identity and expression and sex characteristics, creating an inclusive environment for all.

Education challenges prejudice

Furthermore, the resolution highlights the importance of inclusive education programmes as a means of challenging prejudice. Educational institutions must serve as spaces for progress, promoting understanding of diverse identities while dismantling harmful stereotypes. By co-creating a culture of respect and inclusivity, we can work towards reducing the stigma and violence faced by LBQ women.

Comprehensive policies 

To move beyond mere visibility and call for actionable change, the resolution notes that governments must adopt comprehensive policies that protect the rights of LBQ women, ensuring that their voices are heard in legislative processes. This includes but is not limited to recognising the parental rights of same-sex couples, ensuring equitable access to healthcare, and supporting emergency shelters that cater specifically to the needs of LBQ women.

By adopting the recommendations presented in the resolution, we can create a safer and more inclusive Europe where every lesbian can live authentically and with less fear of violence or discrimination. It is crucial to transform visibility into meaningful action, ensuring that no one is overlooked in the continuous fight for equality.

Today, the Council of the EU officially adopted the EU Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence

As 13 civil society organisations¹ which advocate for human rights, gender equality, and the right for all to live free from violence, we welcome this first ever binding EU legislation on this issue as a groundbreaking step.

The Directive adopts a holistic approach to combat violence against women² and domestic violence, incorporating measures relating to prevention, protection, support for victims, access to justice and prosecution of perpetrators. This achievement is the result of long-term advocacy by feminist movements and Members of the European Parliament championing the European Commission’s ambitious proposal. We extend our gratitude to everyone involved in making this Directive as strong as possible.

We applaud the fact that the Directive recognizes the perpetration of female genital mutilation, forced marriage and certain forms of online violence as crimes. Unfortunately, other forms of violence were ultimately not criminalised, including intersex genital mutilation and forced sterilisation. We deeply regret that some Member States managed to derail the unprecedented opportunity to criminalise rape with a consent-based definition at the EU level. Sexual violence against women is endemic across the EU, with widespread impunity. Consent-based definitions of rape allow for all cases of rape to be included and strengthen protection and access to justice for victims of rape. We continue to call on all Member States who have not yet done so, to move towards adopting consent-based laws.

Crucially, the Directive will require Member States to do more to prevent rape, by raising public awareness of the fact that sex without consent is a crime, through awareness raising programmes and educational materials. We encourage Member States to embrace the comprehensive prevention approach outlined in the Directive, in particular primary prevention initiatives, and to provide mandatory comprehensive sexuality education, which includes consent education and challenges harmful gender norms.

The Directive further guarantees comprehensive support to victims of violence against women and girls and domestic violence and access to both general and specialist support services, shelters, support for child victims, as well as access to comprehensive medical care including sexual and reproductive health services. This is the first time that EU law imposes explicit obligations on Member States to provide access to this essential medical care for victims of sexual violence. Member States will also have to provide training for professionals likely to come into contact with victims, on how to provide this support.

The Directive recognises that victims of violence against women and domestic violence who experience intersectional discrimination are at a heightened risk of violence, and obliges Member States to meet their specific needs. Targeting a public figure, a human rights defender, or someone for their personal characteristics will constitute an aggravating circumstance. In the implementation of the Directive, Member States must ensure that all victims and survivors of gender-based violence are protected, no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.

However, EU lawmakers yet again silenced women impacted by EU migration policies. The only concrete step forward for migrant women is that the text requires Member States to make shelters available to all women experiencing domestic abuse, regardless of their residence status. Nonetheless we condemn that the final text does not retain provisions on protecting undocumented women’s personal data from being transmitted to immigration authorities (neither in the context of accessing shelters, nor in terms of accessing justice). Member States must ensure that women are not deterred from going to the police because of their residence status, by including access to safe reporting in the ongoing revision of the Victims’ Rights Directive.

We call on the European Commission to provide guidelines and training to Member States, based on international standards and in consultation with civil society organisations. We urge Member States to fully implement the Directive as soon as possible. Recalling that the Directive sets minimum standards, we call on Member States to go beyond these and to realise the highest standards across the EU.

We call on the European Commission to review the Directive in the next five years and to work towards comprehensive and inclusive measures to address all forms of sexual and gender-based violence without discrimination.

We, together with our members across Europe, are committed to providing our expertise, and look forward to supporting a strong implementation of the Directive, to progress towards a Europe where everyone is safe from gender-based violence.

1. Amnesty International, Center for Reproductive Rights, EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C), End FGM European Network, European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA), Human Rights Watch, ILGA-Europe (The European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN), La Strada International, Organisation Intersex International Europe (OII Europe), Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), TGEU (Trans Europe and Central Asia), Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE).
   Our organisations work on a diverse range of women’s rights issues. In the drafting of this document, we have been led by the expertise of women’s rights organisations and women human rights defenders from communities most impacted by the specific forms of violence described in each section. Our commitment to the text below represents our coming together as a collective with shared values, even though not every organisation has its own policy or programme of work dedicated to each issue. ↩︎
2. Throughout this statement, the term “women” should be understood as including “women and girls”, as in the definition of “violence against women” proposed by the European Commission in the Directive, which encompasses “violence directed against a woman or a girl”.  ↩︎

In March 2021, a coalition of European networks working on LGBTI rights and including ILGA-Europe, EL*C, TGEU, OII Europe and EGLSF submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe a briefing note on violence and discrimination against LBTI women in sport.

We live in a world that is firmly based on a binary construction of gender, leading to structural oppression and discrimination of women in all their diversity, of anyone who is not on the power end of the binary as well as not fitting into these binary norms. 

As such, ILGA-Europe has always been and will always be firmly committed to working to achieve gender equality, women’s rights, and sexual and reproductive rights. Combatting the patriarchal systems of oppression and harmful gender norms and stereotypes, and upholding the principle of self-determination and bodily integrity and autonomy, are at the heart of our common fight.

ILGA-Europe is issuing this statement at a time when we see more and more actors disputing the very notions of gender, gender identity and gender expression, and seeking to position biology and social construct at odds with one another, where biology has more importance. We are witnessing a deeply worrying rise of voices from individuals and organisations which are denying the human rights and dignity of trans people and non-binary people. Not only are those voices fuelling division within communities and between communities, and driving a wedge between movements, they are deeply harming individuals and whole groups. In this context, it is essential for ILGA-Europe to reaffirm our commitment to standing up against any discourse aimed at negating the rights of some people, and to working together across different movements to build an equal future for all who are marginalised and oppressed on the basis of their sex or gender.

Our vision

ILGA-Europe’s vision is of a society where gender no longer carries unequal power relations and privileges between people. We are looking into a future where people can self-identify and be fully recognised for who they are, without the gender binary creating disadvantages, discrimination and violence. Sex and gender are both spectra. We are working for a future where the full beauty of those spectra is valued, supported and included. We also want a world where every person has the right to live freely according to their sex, their gender identity and their gender expression; where every person enjoys their right to self-determination and bodily autonomy.

We reassert our vision because we believe it allows us to find what unites our struggles and to build strong alliances within the movement as well as across movements. We believe in the importance of uniting to dismantle binary structures that harm us all, LGBTI and non-LGBTI people alike.

Our understanding of gender

Gender refers to the social construction of what any given society understands by being a man or being a woman. While gender is a social construct which varies from society to society and can change over time, the current understanding of gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities between those who identify as man and those who identify as woman, between those who fit into the binary norms and those who do not. Hierarchical understandings of gender also underpin unequal power relations that intersect with other inequalities in our societies, such as inequalities based on race, ethnicity, ability, and socio-economic status.

The naming of the difference between sex and gender is rooted in feminism, and at the heart of the women’s movement liberation from biological determinism. We acknowledge that essentialist definitions of sex and gender norms, stereotypes and roles based on a binary definition of sex and gender still profoundly impact women in all their diversity. We also recognise that our communities, our movement, our societies are today still deeply structured along binary lines, which continue to lead to inequality, discrimination and oppression against those identifying as women and non-binary.

We are naming that the existing binary understanding of gender is at the core of present inequality, injustice and oppression, and are challenging the structural inequalities and power imbalances that currently exist everywhere as a result.

Our objectives

To achieve our vision of societies where everyone can be themselves and free from discrimination and violence, ILGA-Europe works towards:

• The right to bodily integrity and autonomy for all, specifically LBTI women, for all trans people, for all intersex people, and all non-binary people
• Equal representation and participation in decision-making in the movement and in the larger society of women in all their diversity, of trans people, of intersex people and of non-binary people
• Ending gender-based and domestic violence in public and private spaces
• Economic empowerment of and economic justice for LBTI women, for all trans people, for all intersex people, and all non-binary people in all spheres of life
• Explicit and effective legal protection against discrimination for trans people, intersex and non-binary people through the inclusion of the grounds of gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics in legislation
• Explicit and effective legal protection against discrimination for women in all their diversity, including lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex women
• Legal gender recognition based on self-determination for all
• Right to health being fully realised, including equality in access to health care and treatment and sexual and reproductive health and rights
• Right to education in schools where every child and young person is respected for who they are and can find their place, and where they are protected against all forms of discrimination and violence; where curriculums teach about gender equality, sex and gender diversity in an affirming and inclusive way, and raise awareness about harmful gender stereotypes

ILGA-Europe stands firm on our core value of respect for and recognition of human rights, which are indivisible and universal, and which include cultural, social, economic, civil and political rights. As an organisation, we will continue to resist any attempt to play out the human rights of one group against those of another. We stand against the rise of exclusionary and divisive rhetoric, and name it for what it is, harassment and transphobia. It is not based in truth, it comes with no claims in fact. We will not engage with those that seek to project false information, or hate and division. We will however continue to support all our allies in using their voice to stand for gender equality for all, bodily autonomy and self-determination, and to build alliances with organisations working towards societies where everyone has equal access to equal rights, resources and recognition and all genders are celebrated.

As an organisation, we will continue to resist any attempt to play out the human rights of one group against those of another. We stand against the rise of exclusionary and divisive rhetoric, and name it for what it is, harassment and transphobia.

It is a pivotal moment in Europe, and beyond, when it comes to discussions of gender and gender equality.

With the European Commission’s next Gender Equality Strategy on the near horizon, it is vital to ensure that the Strategy and the resulting policies, programmes, and positions are comprehensive and modern, addressing the gender-based needs of all women and girls in Europe and acknowledging the existence of non-binary and third gender European and global citizens.

On our briefing note, you can find points to remember in these ongoing discussions on inclusive gender equality policies and how to best frame issues impacting LBTI women, as well as non-binary people, where appropriate.

This is a briefing note prepared by ILGA-Europe.

For more information, you can contact Cianán Russell, cianan@ilga-europe.org or Katrin Hugendubel, katrin@ilga-europe.org

The Polish Parliament is debating a draft bill entitled “Stop Abortion.” If adopted, this legislation will severely limit the already restricted grounds on which women can lawfully access abortion in Poland.

Over 200 human and women’s rights groups from across the globe, including ILGA-Europe, made a statement today and called on Poland’s Parliament to listen to the voices of women in Poland and reject a regressive legislative proposal that would erode reproductive rights.

The bill will place women’s health and lives at risk and violate Poland’s international human rights obligations, the groups said.

Prohibiting women from accessing safe, legal abortion violates a number of human rights enshrined in international law, including the rights to life, health and health care, nondiscrimination and equality, privacy, and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Please click here to read the full statement and the signatories.

#stoptheban

#solidaritywithpolishwomen