A nice piece appeared in the Edinburgh News about a Kazakh lead singer in a Scottish band.

Gulzhan Ibrayeva who was the lead singer for the apparently popular Kazakh cover-band Kinky Durakee (Query to readers: Is this band famous? I’ve never heard of it). Now that Gulzhan has moved to Scotland with her husband Paul Finnie, the band has changed its name to Universal You and is hitting the top hot spots in Edinburgh.

The band started two years ago when Finnie came to Atsai as a contract administrator for British Gas and Ibrayeva was working as a translator. They got married and started Kinky Durakee. They have picked up a bass player and a guitarist and hope to become Edinburgh’s next local sensation.

Check out the Universal You website to hear their music or even buy the MP3s.

An Iranian website has put up a list of historically significant women in and near Iran and Khanum Boraksin, the wife of Batu, son of Chinghis Khan, makes the list.

1255-57 Regent Dowager Khanum Boraqcin of Hwarizim Sahi (or the Khanate of Kipchak) (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) She was the widow of Batu, who was khan (1227-55). When he died in 1255 his son and heir, Sartaq, had gone to pay court to Grand Khan Mongka, his father’s friend. But he died before he could return home to the Khanate of Kipchak. Mongka nominated the young prince Ulagci, who was either the brother or son of Sartaq, and made Boraqchin regent of the Mongol tribe (The Golden Horde) in West Turkistan, roughly covering present day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

According to some sources, women in the Mongol empire were quite powerful, especially the wives of the children and grandchildren of Chinghis Khan because while the men were off warring, the women were left in power. They also displayed great skill at political maneuvering to try to ensure power for their children and often ruled as regents when their sons were not yet of age.

Religious groups in Kazakhstan have always been monitored more strictly than in Western countries and for years they have been asked to provide government agencies with detailed information about themselves, but recently both the number of questionnaires and the pressure on groups to complete them has increased.

This comes after Nazarbayev made a statement at a Nurotan party meeting that religious groups must be watched and after a new State Program “On the provision of freedom of belief and enhancement of state-confessional relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2007-2009″ which calls for intense monitoring of religious groups.

Forum 18 has reported that neither the Islamic faith in Kazakhstan, whose Mufti is a member of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan under the Administration of the President, nor the Patriarch of Kazakhstan have ever received any kind of government monitoring. All other religious groups from Baptists to Catholics to Hare Krishnas appear to be targets of what some call intrusive questioning.

In addition, the way these surveys are presented is vague. Some of the questionnaires have no identification on them as to which government agency authorized them. And no one is clear on what the data is for.

Some leaders are told the information is for a “sociological survey.” One official told Forum 18 the information is needed for a database of religious organizations, but refused to say what the database is for. The official insisted that religious leaders can decline to fill in the questionnaires in if they do not want to, but some religious leaders told Forum 18 they face pressure to do so and fear consequences if they do not.

Among the questions asked on the form are:

the ethnicity of congregation members, their profession, political preferences, “the most influential and authoritative people in the community,” foreign missionaries, media contacts, “facts demanding attention on the part of state bodies,” military service of congregation leaders, their foreign language knowledge, media articles written, and the full names of leaders’ “close friends and comrades.”

Some religious groups report that they filled out the forms, others claim that they refused to do so either on religious grounds or because they felt it was unnecessary. As of yet, no groups have experienced problems for failing to do so.

Opposition party Nagyz Ak Zhol has changed its name to Azat, which means freedom in Kazakh. The party has also changed its leadership structure. Before the 29th of February, the party was led by a three co-chairs, Bolat Abilov, Tolegen Zhukeyev and Oraz Zhandosov. Now Abilov is the sole chair, unanimously in. Zhukeyev was elected secretary-general and Zhandosov it is widely believed will become deputy leader and focus on the economic platform of the party.

Nagyz Ak Zhol was founded in 2005 by Abilov, Zhukeyev Zhandosov, and Altynbek Sarsenbayev (who was murdered 2 years ago) when it split from the Ak Zhol party, led by Alikhan Baymenov who ran for President in the last election. Ak Zhol means “White Path” and “Nagyz Ak Zhol” means “True White Path” because the founders felt that the Ak Zhol party was too soft on the current administration and too willing to compromise and enter into dialogue.

However the similarity of the two names was confusing for voters and the antagonistic subtext of the name made it hard to work together with Ak Zhol and other opposition parties.

With Nurotan holding 100% of seats in Parliament and with the President as leader, many in the opposition are struggling to find a strategy that will make their voices heard in Kazakhstan.

Azat was also the name of an independence movement during the Soviet period, founded in 1990.