ABSTRACT
Kazakhstan has designed a single approach to address religious radicalisation. This approach combines state-activated coercion, cooptation and propaganda, all of which are used for preventing and rehabilitating religious radicals. Official criminal statistics demonstrate that in Kazakhstan a growing number of women have been sentenced for extremist crimes— both violent and non-violent. In Kazakhstan, prevention of violent extremism (PVE) and deradicalisation services are offered at the local level through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local government agencies. Rehabilitation centres in Kazakhstan are supposed to offer different types of psychological, theological and legal consultations to anyone in need. Most deradicalisation efforts use persuasion without explicit physical coercion. Rehabilitation services to non-violent radicals in Kazakhstan, both men and women, are mainly delivered by NGOs, which actually operate as quasi-governmental organisations and are funded from the state’s budget by the means of state orders.
