Muslim women in Central Asia: The impact of Soviet legacy

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: ÖZGE ÖZ

Danışman: PINAR KÖKSAL

Özet:

This thesis analyzes the pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia from a historical perspective to understand the impact of the Soviet regime on Muslim women’s lifestyles. It specifically focuses on the underlying reasons of laws and policies put into effect by the Soviet officials in the name of emancipating Muslim women in Central Asia. The main argument of the thesis is that even though the Soviet officials had a genuine intention for the emancipation of Central Asian women from the patriarchal structure both in the public and private spheres of life, the policies and their implementation were shaped in accordance with the basic motive of regime survival. In the first years of the Soviet regime, mostly ideological intentions shaped the women’s emancipation project. However, in time, the Soviet officials needed to make more reforms in the political, economic and socio-cultural areas not just for the ideological aims such as emancipation of the women, but also for the survival of the Soviet Union. These reforms would be the main reason of the questioning the real intentions of the Soviet policies in terms of gender equality. This general attitude would have its impact and repercussions on gender issues in the post-Soviet era as well.