Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (2011)

The men of rural Kyrgyzstan still like to marry their women the old-fashioned way, by abducting them off the street and forcing them to be their wife.

Bride kidnapping is a supposedly ancient custom that’s made a major comeback since the fall of Communism and now accounts for nearly half of all marriages in some parts.

Vice traveled to the Kyrgyz countryside to follow, aid and abet a young groom named Kubanti as he surprised his teenage girlfriend Nazgul with the gift of marriage/kidnapping.