First year law students (college freshman) in northern Kyrgyzstan wrote the following essays on aksakals ("white beards" in Kyrgyz or respected elders who process disputes) in Kyrgyzstan:
"Sometimes in Kyrgyzstan's villages we have aksakals but I never saw it. I heard that they give an advice, sometimes, they're like a judge. They make decisions, but sometimes it's illegal. It's bad, but if somebody rapes another person, this girl must go to the police, but sometimes the police can't do something with it and then the girl goes to the aksakal and they help her in this situation. I think, it's good in the situation, where the Police- can't do anything."
"When my sister divorced, with her husband she went to aksakal. They gave her an advice and then she took her child. I think that it is a good idea to have in our country aksakal."
"One husband beat up his wife because he was drunk and his wife went to the aksakal. And the aksakal decided that the husband was guilty. And the aksakal decided that he needed to beat him up because he can't hit his wife. What I think about aksakals is that it is a bad system because aksakals don't have law."
"When a husband and wife divorce then an aksakal gives their opinion about that."
"I understood many things. The family (aksakal) elder is a person who plays a big role. He solves a lot of things. He is the head."
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