Abstract

The study explores the experience of men living with their parents’ family immediately after marriage in Kyrgyzstan. Drawing on interviews with twelve Kyrgyz men, the analysis revealed five main themes: (1) parental pressure to select a suitable wife, (2) strategies for navigating tension within the extended family, (3) normalizing and justifying the wives’ position as kelins in the in-laws’ household under tradition, (4) a son’s role in maintaining relationship between parents and wife and (5) care and tradition continuity as a justification for co-residence. The themes are discussed in the framework of Family Systems Theory and postcolonial feminist authorship.