Aia Karymshakova

Biography

Aia Karymshakova is a passionate advocate for women’s rights, social justice, and accessible education. She is the founder and developer of Supernova: She Speaks, a nonprofit gamified storytelling app that raises awareness of gender inequality by immersing users in interactive narratives—from bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan to systemic patriarchy worldwide. Aia leads her school’s coding and poetry clubs and volunteers with The Myosotis Project to combat human trafficking. Fluent in Kyrgyz, Russian, English, and Mandarin Chinese – with working proficiency in Spanish and currently learning French, she brings a global lens to her work and writes poetry, essays, and code to amplify silenced voices.

Written

August 11, 2025

Aia Karymshakova

In Kyrgyzstan, a practice of bride kidnapping quietly destroys countless women’s lives– all disguised as tradition. Once taken, many girls become kelins — young daughters-in-law — embedded in a patriarchal household that demands unpaid labor, silence, and submission. She wakes before everyone else, cooks, cleans, and eats last. She is treated less like a family member and more like inherited property. Refusing this role isn’t just frowned upon — it’s dangerous. In some cases, it’s fatal.

August 11, 2025

Gender Inequality in Kyrgyzstan: Ala Kachuu and the Cycle of Kelinism

Written

October 28, 2024

Aia Karymshakova

This is the first blog in the 3-part series of The Myosotis Project’s collaboration with Youth x Youth. This blog series uses the Youth x Youth pedagogy of What Is, What If, and What Now, combined with The Myosotis Project’s mission of raising awareness and combating human trafficking. In this first blog, we begin by understanding and making sense of the problem of human trafficking.‍

October 28, 2024

What Is Human Trafficking: Understanding and Sensemaking the Problem

Aia Karymshakova

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