World is 'effeminate' thanks to men's fashion, says President's daughter

The influential daughter of Kazakhstan's President said that the world has become "increasingly effeminate" because of men's new interest in fashion and beauty.

"Men are now paying more attention to themselves and fashion," Dariga Nazarbayeva, 45, told a women's congress. "They have started going to beauty parlours and hair salons a lot more often. They have started doing manicure.

"Looking at the appearance of contemporary young men, one may notice how much their notions of masculinity have changed, how this masculinity is sometimes being replaced by femininity." But, she added to the 400 women and the 10 or so men at the conference: "One cannot help but notice that the world of men has become increasingly effeminate... I don't know if we can see this as our gender's victory."

Ms Nazarbayeva, a businesswoman and former MP, is President Nursultan Nazarbayev's eldest daughter. Many Kazakh women see her as a role model, and she had been tipped to succeed her 67-year-old father until her former husband, media and sugar magnate Rakhat Aliyev, fell out with him last year.

A consumer boom sparked by Kazakhstan's growing oil revenues has given rise to a fast-growing health and beauty industry, with new spas, salons and fitness centres proving popular its biggest cities such as the capital, Almaty.