Central Asia and its history has long been a part of the Russian speaking Empire. This area has been highly dependent on Russia, as well as persecuted. During tsarist times, Muslims had fewer rights than the Orthodox believers. However, believers were allowed to practice their religion freely while women were quite conservative and wore veils. This was a part of their indigenous culture. Then came the Bolshevik Revolution
As the Bolsheviks started to come to power, they tried to rid the former Russian Empire, and new, soon to be, Soviet Union of Religion. However, to gain support by the Muslims believers in Central Asia, they were given more rights than the Orthodox believers, not being persecuted as much. However, the new ideas would not confide with the old traditional beliefs. The new communist government was determined to redefine gender equality. During this time the Red army was struggling, trying to fight the other smaller armies in the region. Combating this and implementing newer policies, they tried to prevent bride kidnappings and Polygamy for greater rights for women; however, this went largely ignored. This was the beginning of the Nativization or "korenizatsiia".
The early era of Soviet Central Asia encountered instability in the region due to liberal movements for women’s rights. Soon after the Red Army’s campaign in Central Asia, they had tried to implement the unveiling of women. A new department was created called the “Zhenotdel” to help impose the new Hujum policies. The Hujum laws were the name of the laws that tried to impose the new liberal rights for women in Soviet Central Asia. As the new veiling process started to take effect, there had been not been highly supported by the majority, those who did were mostly either educated or widowed women. Contrary to the idea of what the Slavic women had thought of “Freeing” the women in central Asia, the unveiling was not highly supported and even condemned.
Continuing with the new initiatives many more policies went unnoticed. Women were not allowed to get a divorce, and were mostly spoken for by their male counterpart. As seen with these events the Soviet equality ideology was struggling to take the “equality” effect that they easily imposed on their European counterparts.
Uzbekistan had shown the most resistance and since it had become the center for women’s liberation. The hujum laws also went largely unnoticed by those who were not involved in the politics of the communist party and tried to protest or not follow the new laws. Those who did follow the new laws were not warmly welcomed by the conservative population. They had been threatened, beaten and attacked since they could not defend their original “tradition”. However, many Uzbek communists were believed to be more loyal to their culture and would not support the oppressing Russian communist government.
The Soviet government also tried to influence the Central Uzbeks by encouraging the Tatar population to immigrate. They had long lived with the Europeans but despite being devote Muslims they had accepted European values and integrated with the Soviet society. With the help of the Tatar integration in Central Asia it was believed they would be looked up to as Muslim’s and Central Asians would follow in their footsteps.
After the first time in the Soviet implementation of the new policies with the help of Zhenotdel, the efforts had mostly gone to waste. Many who had first supported the idea had gone back to local tradition due to the fact that they were not accepted. The new Soviet government had, to say the least, failed in trying to integrate with the rest of the Soviet society. The cultural ignorance may have helped backfire the new policies, but also the fact that Zhenotdel was majorly led by Slavic women, who had a different mentality than the central Asian women.
After intense debate and policies trying to get rid of the veils, they eventually faded away. Literacy in Central Asia began to increase as well as employment. The women started to become much more equal to the rest of the Soviet Union’s European republican women.
After the struggle, the veil had continued to show as a sign of national tradition. Women, however, gradually continued to gain more rights. Despite being seen as “backwards”, (even to this day) they have shown that the will to keep their tradition and heritage alive. The cultural differences between the indigenous Central Asians and Slavic Europeans, showed the Soviet government the cultural differences that were in place during Tsarist times. Despite, the intense modernization of the Sharia law and the struggle that came from it, it had shown many the desire of many peoples how change can be bad. Now central Asian countries can be viewed as “European” but despite the modernizations, they may have no path to follow. The Soviet Empire had “successfully civilized” created a society of equal people. Women now had rights as men, could find employment and study. Despite the “civilizing” of many countries in Central Asia, many had continued their old traditions until today, and or even started resurrecting them after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Works Cited
Edgar, Adrienne. "Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia (Review)." Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia 2008: 207-209. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cws/summary/v010/10.3.edgar.html>.
Malik, Hafeez. MUSLIM RESURGENCE IN SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA. Diss. Villanova University, PA, March 19, 1990. 2 Apr. 2014, <http://www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/soc-swk/ree/Malik_Muslim_articles_previous.pdf>.
Martin, Virginia "C ENTRAL E URASIAN S TUDIES R." Central Eurasian Studies Socie May. 2009: 1-48.
Rupert, James . "The Strange State of Soviet Central Asia." Alicia Patterson Foundation. 15 Apr. 2011. 1 Apr. 2014. <http://aliciapatterson.org/stories/strange-state-s>.
