Women in PostSoviet Central Asia

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Women in Post-Soviet Central Asia

• Russian 375

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70 Years of Soviet Rule

• New roles ideals constructed for women
• Marriage Education secularized
• Women included in electoral process
• Traditional CA and Islamic practices discouraged
• Reconfiguration of social structure of CA life
  through legislation and ideology

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What did women do?

• Alternately resisted and rejected and
  accommodated changes
• Women themselves participated in the
  transformation of society
• Many women accepted the rewards/opportunities
  offered by state

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Urban and Rural

• Soviets pushed family life into the open
• In urban areas, tall blocks of apts. replaced
  traditional structures
• Mahalla survived but Soviets transformed it
  into an institution of local governance by
  formalizing decision-making processes and
  creating mahalla committees accountable to
  republic-level bureaucrats

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Urban/Rural

• Mahallas connected to higher educational
  institutions, local enterprises etc through
  Communist Party representatives
• Special commissions to deal with specific
  problems (e.g., womens problems, veterans
  problems) to organize ideological campaigns
• Mahalla charged with social welfare of its members

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Urban/Rural

• Role of mahalla continues and functions as during
  Soviet era
• Today (as before), many women have first contact
  with the state through their mahalla
• The mahalla survives but clearly penetrated by
  Soviet values and co-opted into a new purpose as
  Uzbeks preserve it as an artifact of their
  traditional ways (following independence, many
  tasks of the mahalla regulated by law Law on
  the Organs of Self-Governance of Citizens

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Living Space Segregation

• Hujum first campaign to end seclusion of women
• Introduction of European-style living in urban
  areas (typical Soviet-built apt. small)
  effectively eliminated spatial divisions for men
  women that characterized pre-Soviet CA
• In rural areas, multiple families frequently
  shared space

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Rural Space

• Some traditional practices continue
• Some minimal segregation on formal occasions
  (varies from region to region) e.g., funerals,
  morning osh, bibi seshanba, mushkulushod,
  kelin korish, and beshik toi
• Western-style furniture found in rural areas
  along with traditional style

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Contd

• Television
• Movies

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Dress and make-up

• Head scarves and ishton prevalent in rural
  areas not so in urban areas
• Reports of resurgence of veil but veil has not
  really gained wide currency
• Veiling views by many CA women as a positive
  outcome of Soviet experience
• European dress found in every dowry (rural and
  urban)
• Urban women rarely appear without make-up

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Family Structure

• Pre-Soviet structure classic patriarchy (system
  characterized by early marriage of girls, who
  upon marriage live with their husbands family
  under the domination of the oldest male, who is
  usually a brides father-in-law. New brides
  usually subordinated not only to males, but
  senior women

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Family Structure

• Trend in CA towards smaller, nuclear families
• Economic policies of Soviets likely responsible
  for this trend (e.g., land water reform,
  collectivization of production, movement of women
  into production)
• Loosening attitude towards traditional social
  rules (e.g., now acceptable for elderly parents
  to live on their own)

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Family Structure

• 59 of Uzbek families nuclear (Jabborov, 1996)
• Nuclear families on rise throughout CA
• Most CA women marry (in 1990 average age 22
  this dropping in post-Soviet period)

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Education

• By 1990s, over 90 of CA women literate
• Rate is dropping
• In post-Soviet period, number of women attending
  school declining
• Rural girls particularly disadvantaged

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Conclusion

• Lives of women profoundly changed
• Traditional practices persist (mushkulkushod
  etc) but CA women almost universally work outside
  the home, attend school, speak some Russian,
  rarely veil, wear European clothing, even drink
  alcohol.

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Conclusion Contd

• Introduction of co-educational schools coupled
  with massive influx of women into workforce made
  pre-Soviet ideal of social and public
  gender-differentiated space difficult to maintain
• Soviets introduced rewards for work and subsidies
  for children made women dependent upon the state

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Forces for Change

• Legislation (granted women legal equality with
  men, expanded educational occupational
  opportunities for women, gave women political
  participation, weakened patriarchal structure of
  family)
• Womens organizations (established institutions
  for improving status of women through education
  and healthcare, intro. Women to social
  political activities legacy continues with
  proliferation of GONGOs and NGOs)
• Media (provided women with articulated model of
  womanhood provided a means for women to
  communicate directly with state)

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Whats up now?

• In CA states with the re-imagination of the
  Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek states,
  and the reconfiguration of national identities,
  have a post-Soviet ideology that by large
  espouses a retrogressive role for women

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New ideologies

• Since 1991, media promoting feminine qualities
  of women
• Emphasizing responsibilities as wives and mothers
• In some Uzbek publications, polygamy discussed
  openly (polygamy not a sin and, in fact,
  provided women with social protection

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Post-Soviet

• Official doctrine places family at center of
  national life in Uzbekistan
• Women consolidate the family and society,
  making them attractive and prosperous, and
  illuminating our life with light of love,
  kindness and colorWise and smart, kind and
  tender, women lavish attention on us and our
  familiesThe raising of status of our mothers,
  sisters, spouses, daughters, respect towards them
  and easing their working conditions should become
  a goal for our state
• Karimov in 1999 (Minnesota Advocates for Human
  Rights, 2000)

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Post-Soviet

• Soviet network services being eliminated
• Women forced to abandoned jobs so men can work
  and because daycare services have been eliminated
  or reduced
• Number of women in education workforce dropping

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Post-Soviet

• Women have challenge of integrating new Central
  Asian values with their preference for
  state-provided protective measures in period of
  ongoing economic, political, and social change

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