Matt Kupfer ’12 can often be spotted conversing in Russian with his fellow classmates, playing traditional Russian instruments, or advocating for Laurel Moon. His claim to fame, however, is his summer internship during a monumental period in Kyrgyz history and his involvement in empowering women in Kyrgyzstan.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I’m from Paradise Valley, Arizona (right near Phoenix).
Q: What is your major?
A: I’m a double major in International & Global Studies and Anthropology, with a minor in Russian Studies.
Q: What clubs and organizations are you a part of on campus?
A: I’m also an editor of Laurel Moon Literary Magazine, Brandeis’s oldest literary magazine, and an outgoing Vice President of Internal Affairs (pretentious title, I know) for Brandeis Russian Club. In addition, I participate in ELL Initiative as an English language tutor for a dining hall employee.
Q: How did you become interested in Russian culture?
A: It’s hard for me to say how I got interested in Russian Culture. I always just tell people that it’s inexplicable, because that’s an easy answer. In truth, I learned some Russian history in high school and thought it was interesting. And I also met an exchange student from Kyrgyzstan (a Russian-speaking country) when I was in high school. She and I became good friends and she taught me a lot about Kyrgyzstan. I just thought it was really interesting that there was this whole region of the world, the countries of the former Soviet Union, that had undergone such monumental changes in a period of only a little over 70 years–from monarchy, to communism, to post-communist governments often of an authoritarian bent. In addition, I was influenced by a few interesting movies about the region–“Everything is Illuminated” being one. And, I guess the relative obscurity of much of this region pleased my inner hipster. In retrospect, these reasons seem pretty bizarre, but when I started college I just knew that I wanted to study Russian language and I’ve never regretted it. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut.
Q: What lead you to pursuing a project in empowering women in Kyrgyzstan?
A: I can’t say I really had a reason for pursuing a project that worked to empower women in Kyrgyzstan. It just kind of found me. I originally went to the southern city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan to work as an intern for an NGO that teaches young people about issues like HIV/AIDS and narcotics. As Osh is one of the major stops along numerous drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan to Europe and Russia, this topic is extremely important. However, after being in Osh for about ten days, interethnic conflict broke out between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Approximately 500 hundred people were killed, thousands injured, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a few thousand buildings destroyed. It seemed to happen almost overnight. One day everything was normal in Osh, and the next day it had become a warzone. Living with an family of ethnic Uzbeks, who made up a majority of the victims of the violence (although there certainly also were Kyrgyz victims), I got at least a taste of the fear the Uzbek community was experiencing. After the violence ended for days later, I was evacuated to the captial of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. From there, I had two choices: I could go home to America, or I could look for another meaningful project in Kyrgyzstan. I decided to stay in Kyrgyzstan and ended up finding a position as a volunteer at the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in Bishkek. IREX was putting on a conference called Tech Age Girls to teach Internet technology skills to young female leaders from across Kyrgyzstan, in order to help them become local activists and help their home communities. I ended up assisting in the staging of the conference and helping to document it by taking photographs and making two short films about the conference.
Q: Describe what it may be like to be a woman in Kyrgyzstan and why it is important to help empower them?
A: I don’t want to say that life for women is bad in Kyrgyzstan. Really it’s very mixed, as it is in many countries. Many women in Kyrgyzstan pursue higher education, and women leaders are not uncommon. In fact, since the April 2010 ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a woman, Roza Otunbaeva, has served as interim president of Kyrgyzstan. That’s a first for Central Asia. Otunbaeva will soon peacefully transfer power to Almazbek Atambaev, who served as Prime Minister under her and was chosen as president in an election that was more-or-less free (although, in typical post-Soviet style, there were some “irregularities”). This peaceful transfer of power will be a first for Central Asia. So Roza Otunbaeva is definitely a female leader who young women in Kyrgyzstan can look up to. However, at the same time, women face a number of significant issues in Kyrgyzstan. Domestic and family violence are, unfortunately, pretty big problems across all of Central Asia. The practice of bride kidnapping still exists in Kyrgyzstan, especially in more rural areas. Although technically illegal, women who are kidnapped for marriage in Kyrgyzstan often consent to marrying their captor for fear that rejecting will shame their families. In addition, Kyrgyzstan is a country where there is still a bias towards men and often an expectation that women will place their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers above their careers. This mixed nature of the women’s right situation makes Kyrgyzstan the perfect place for projects to empower women–there are not significant legal obstacles to prevent them from taking leadership roles in society, but aspiring female leaders could use more support and programs to help them achieve their goals.
Q: How is the climate for women changing in Kyrgyzstan?
A: It’s hard for me to say how the climate for women in Kyrgyzstan is changing. Of course, having a female president was a major development. And, I’m hoping that the Tech Age Girls program, which has already been going on for two years, will help show more and more young women that they too can be the future leaders of their country.
Q: What was it like being in Kyrgyzstan during a period of interethnic conflict?
A: Being in Osh, Kyrgyzstan during the four days of violent interethnic conflict was very frightening, of course. And it was deeply saddening to see a great city like Osh turned into a war zone where hundreds of people were being killed and thousands were having their homes and livelihoods destroyed. But, at the same time, I feel that experiencing such a conflict, which locals referred to as “the war,” was a good lesson for me. For the last ten years, our country has been engaged in foreign wars, and yet the wars have seldom had any effect on our lives at home. The average American really has no clue what war is like, what feels like to live in fear that your whole life could come crashing down around you at any moment. I know that I will be less likely to support America waging war abroad now that I have had a taste of what it is like to live in a warzone.
My experiences during the Osh conflict also showed that, even when things are at their worst, there is still hope. During the four days of conflict, I was helped by many wonderful people, both Kyrgyz and Uzbek. People tried to keep me safe, welcomed me in their homes as a guest, and even tried to offer me money when they thought it would help me stay safe. Though the city of Osh was very dangerous during the conflict, I can’t say there was ever a moment where my life was put in immediate danger. I can thank all those people who helped me for that. I think it speaks to the character of the people of Kyrgyzstan, that, even during a conflict, their hospitality never wavered and they were always willing to help. For that, I owe them a lot.
Q: Do you plan on doing similar work after graduation? What are your post-grad plans?
A: I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do after I graduate. Ideally I would like to continue to work on learning the Russian language. Learning Russian has been a wonderful journey from the start. It’s a little cliché, but they say that having a second language is like having a second soul. That’s really true. Not only was Russian key to my understanding of what was going on around me in Osh, but it has also opened up an entire world of culture for me and helped me to make friends from many countries.
I also definitely want to return to Kyrgyzstan, hopefully to teach English or do something else meaningful. And, I want to continue to learn to play the komuz, the traditional three-stringed instrument of the Kyrgyz. At the moment I can only play a few American folk songs on it. Although this may have the makings of a popular YouTube channel, I would like to learn some real Kyrgyz melodies. I’m not entirely sure what career I want to pursue in the future. But I hope that, whatever it is, it will take me back to Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.