When I was the year old teenager disappointed with the world around me, I lived in Kazakhstan β a post-Soviet country located in the middle of the Eurasian continent. I was born and raised in Almaty β the largest and the most populated city of this Central Asian country. It was indeed a unique place β its culture somehow combined religiousness and Unitarianism, tradition and modernity. The majority of Kazakh people were Mongolian-looking Muslims. However, they were inconsistent in their Islam practices.
I used to think Kazakh men were so unjustifiably lucky β to be surrounded by sexy virgins. Apart from the Kazakh majority, there was a large population of Slavic ethnicities like Russians and Ukrainians. They were Orthodox Christians.
Their moral requirements for their women were generally less strict. They did not expect to marry a virgin as often as Kazakh guys did. They preferred to marry a gentle caring woman who was good at cooking and kept the house well.
I felt out of place in that environment. It made me rather angry. In particular, I was angry at men. It used to get me that they would happily label a girl who somehow expressed her sexuality with a derogatory term, while at the same time they prided themselves for being mighty conquerors for one-night-stands. Also, they would consider premarital celibacy to be the greatest virtue for a woman, while the thought of limiting their own sex lives was ridiculous to them.
They wanted their wives to be virgins, while they before marrying many of them would trick inexperienced girls into sexual intercourse and leave. It puzzled me how women would remain virgins if men slept with them β whether by deceit or rape; and how men would have sex, if all girls decide to become chaste. On the surface and most simplistic level, I rebelled against the double standards, which suppressed female sexuality.
