Kyrgyzstan: First woman president makes a mark

When Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva was selected to be President of Kyrgyzstan, she became the first woman head of state in the predominantly Muslim Central Asian region. And she also took on a mission. Her mission is to pave the way for parliamentary democracy in a country that was formerly a part of the Soviet Union. Her first task was to stabilise the situation arising out of the ethnic clashes in the southern city of Osh, which is her hometown. Her next job will be to conduct free and fair parliamentary elections, and then clear the way for her people to elect a new president. "Electing a woman as the head of state shows our thinking is changing and that our nation is ready for real democracy," poet and journalist Olzhobay Shakir told IPS. On Apr. 7 this year Roza Otunbayeva was selected to head a Russian- supported Kyrgyz interim government, following widespread rioting in capital Bishkek and the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. "She was a compromise candidate, the only one with a clean image," political scientist Alexander Knyazev told IPS. Political analyst Turat Akimov agrees. "All the men were seen as being corrupt and dictatorial. They were forced to choose the only woman among them."