"I am Jane Doe": Anonymous reports of childhood sexual abuse are also being shared in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan

“I am Jane Doe”: Anonymous reports of childhood sexual abuse are also being left in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan

The “I am Jane Doe” flashmob, in which stories of experienced sexual abuse are shared on social media, is expanding increasingly. Following Kazakhstan, users from Kyrgyzstan have also joined this campaign — among the anonymously written messages are stories of women and men who fell victim to abuse in their childhood.

On October 7, Jogorku Kenesh deputy Elvira Surabaldiyeva drew attention to many such messages, reports write.

“The statistics of anonymous users from Kyrgyzstan writing about childhood abuse are horrifying… This is not only Kyrgyzstan: girls from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also writing about childhood abuse. What is being written there is terrifying. The age — four, five, six years old. We think this is a misfortune that only befalls girls. In reality, boys are also writing about this anonymously… That is why the topic of pedophilia — which is why it caused such a huge uproar — is an extremely painful topic. Many have gone through this,” she said at a parliamentary session.

According to her, another separate problem is that after what happened, children do not always receive support even from their close ones.

Surabaldiyeva noted that some parents, fearing public condemnation and the concept of “shame,” demand that their children remain silent.

“Many parents forbid talking about this, saying: ‘It will be a shame.’ This trauma remains with men and women for life,” the deputy said.

The experience of a former student at Cornell University in the US served as the catalyst for the start of the international campaign. In September 2026, the woman, whose real name is kept secret and who is identified in documents as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit against the university, a student fraternity, and seven men.

She claims that in October 2024, she was forced to consume alcohol and drugs, and was then subjected to gang sexual assault. The defendants have not yet been found guilty by a court, and the criminal investigation is ongoing.

Following the new wave of uproar, the New York State government intervened in the situation, and Cornell University engaged former US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to independently investigate how the university responded to the student's complaint.

Amid attempts to reveal the woman's identity, the hashtag #IamJaneDoe appeared on social media. Over time, it transformed from a campaign to support one woman into a large-scale flashmob where residents of various countries disclose their own stories of experienced sexual abuse.

In Central Asia, this flashmob spread particularly widely in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

In Kazakhstan, one of the participants wrote that she was abused by her own brother at the age of eight. Another participant (a man) stated that he first faced abuse by an adult neighbor at the age of five and could not tell anyone about it for many years.

Among the stories are cases where the authors mention their relatives, family acquaintances, neighbors, and other people in the child's close circle as the abusers. Users also say that due to the consequences of these terrible events experienced in childhood, they were forced to turn to psychotherapists years later.

Participants from Kyrgyzstan are also writing about events that occurred between the ages of four and six. Notably, there are also men among the authors, which contradicts the perception that sexual abuse against children is supposedly an “exclusively female” problem.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyzstan also responded to this wave of anonymous confessions. The agency urged citizens who have been victims of abuse to contact the police and stated that all applications would be registered and reviewed in accordance with the established procedure.

“If you have faced sexual abuse, please do not remain alone in this situation. You can contact the police and tell them what happened. You are not alone. We are ready to listen to you and help. Your application will be accepted and reviewed in the manner prescribed by law,” the ministry's message says.

In Uzbekistan, no official statements have been made regarding such reports yet.

Jane Doe is a placeholder name used in English-speaking countries (primarily the US, Britain, and Canada) when a woman's real name is unknown, kept secret, or not disclosed for legal reasons. This, in turn, recalls the #MeToo hashtag.

In 2017, a campaign under the hashtag #MeToo supporting victims of sexual abuse spread widely on social media (this hashtag was first used in 2006). This was prompted by more than 80 women bringing sexual abuse allegations against American producer Harvey Weinstein. Following this, first in the US and later in other countries, millions of people began posting with this hashtag about being victims of similar abuse. In this case, posts and videos uploaded in support of the former student have already been viewed tens of millions of times on TikTok and other platforms.