Sekerbayeva has said that the traditional Kazakhstani culture found in the
steppes had been tolerant of people who were different, such as those who refused to marry or lived life as a different gender, citing the difficult life in the steppes helped people negotiate and find commonality among one another so that they could live and work together. She believes that this has been lost as more Kazakhstani people move to the cities. Footage of the protesters, including Sekerbayeva, both during the protest and the subsequent crackdown on protesters by the police, were widely published in the Kazakhstani press; Sekerbayeva was erroneously identified as the male leader of the protest in many of these reports. Photos of Sekerbayeva holding a sign with the slogan
shal, ket! () received particular attention; Sekerbayeva has since said that the slogan referred specifically to then-
president Nursultan Nazarbayev, but also more generally to the "typical patriarchal figure in Kazakhstan... an old man who can't do anything". In 2017, Sekerbayeva and Serzhan were unsuccessful at registering Feminita as a legal entity; as of 2021, repeated attempts to do so have been rejected by the
government, who have stated that the organisation does not align with its "spiritual and moral values".
Appearance at the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2016) In June 2016, Sekerbayeva was part of a group that travelled to
Geneva,
Switzerland, during the 117th session of the
United Nations Human Rights Committee, where she presented an alternative report on the violation of LGBT rights in Kazakhstan. She cited the ongoing use of "
corrective rape" of lesbian women with the intention of "correcting" their sexuality and "instilling" love of the male body, as being endemic in the country. In 2019, Feminita was able to successfully challenge a bylaw that included a derogatory paragraph about LGBT people; the law was eventually passed with the bylaw omitted. Subsequent attempts to hold the march in 2022 and 2023 have been rejected by the Almaty äkimdik.
Disruption at conferences and online harassment (2021) In May 2021, Sekerbayeva and Serzhan were verbally and physically assaulted by around thirty unknown men while speaking to a group at a café in
Shymkent. They had been in the city to present at a conference that was cancelled at short notice following pressure from who Sekerbayeva described as "Kazakhstani men" both in Shymkent and online. In June 2021, Sekerbayeva and Serzhan again had difficulties organising a conference, this time in
Karaganda, and received hostile opposition from male critics when the conference took place. == Notes ==