In the Soviet Union, the was a campaign by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to remove all manifestations of gender inequality throughout the Union Republics of Central Asia. Beginning in the Stalinist era, it targeted practices that were widespread among Soviet Muslims, such as female seclusion from society, female veiling practices, and the inheritance of women as property after the death of their husbands.Northrop (2001a), p. 115.
The was symbolized by publicly burning Muslim women's veils on a voluntary basis, though the government sponsored gangs to assault women, "tearing the veil from their faces in the streets". The Communist Party began re-emphasizing their message of women's liberation within class consciousness. By abolishing Central Asian societal norms and heralding in women's liberation, they believed that they could clear the way for the construction of socialism. The campaign's purpose was to rapidly change the lives of women in Muslim societies so that they would be able to actively participate in public life, formal employment, education, and ultimately gain independent membership in the Communist Party. It was originally conceived to enforce laws that gave equality to women in patriarchal societies by creating literacy programs and bringing women into the workforce.
The campaign was initiated on International Women's Day: 8 March 1927. It was a change from the earlier policies that were in place under the Bolsheviks, who prioritized unrestricted religious freedom for Central Asians.The Bolsheviks and Islam, International Socialism – Issue: 110 Despite initial resistance, the campaign was a sweeping success: the rate of female literacy increased significantly, while polygamy, honor killings, child marriages, and veiling diminished in kind. By the 1950s, the paranja (a Central Asian full-body veil) had become a rare sight. The Soviet campaign inspired a similar effort in neighboring Afghanistan, though it achieved only limited success and was entirely reversed after the fall of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.
Background
Pre-Soviet traditions Veiling in Central Asia was intricately related to class, ethnicity, and religious practice. Prior to Soviet rule, nomadic Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen women used a yashmak, a veil that covered only the mouth.Edgar (2003), p. 137. The yashmak was applied in the presence of elders and was rooted in Mediterranean and West Asian customs (see namus).
Tatars emigrating from Russia were unveiled.Kamp (2006), p. 35. Though Muslim, they had been under Russian rule since the 16th century and were in many ways people of the middle and upper classes. Only settled Uzbeks, Tajiks and peoples of the Caucasus had strict veiling practices, which Tamerlane and Mongols supposedly initiated.Kamp (2006), p. 136 Even among this population, veiling depended on social class and location. Urban women veiled with chachvon (face veil) and paranja (body veil), although the cost of the veil prevented poorer women from using it.Khalid (1998), p. 222. Rural Uzbeks, meanwhile, wore a chopan, a long robe that could be pulled up to cover the mouth in the presence of men.Kamp (2006), p. 132.
Traditional culture
Pre-Soviet Central Asian culture and religion promoted female seclusion. Cultural mores strongly condemned unveiling as it was thought to lead to premarital or adulterous sex, a deep threat to Central Asian conceptions of family honor.Kamp (2006), p. 50. Many mullahs also considered the full body veil Islamic, and strongly protested any attempts to alter it. Female seclusion in homes was encouraged for the same reasons although home seclusion was far more oppressive. Female quarters and male quarters existed separately, and women were not allowed in the presence of male non-relatives.Kamp (2006), p. 29. Women from rich families were the most isolated as the family could afford to build numerous rooms and hire servants, removing the need for leaving the home. The traditional settled society encouraged seclusion as a way to protect family honor, as religiously necessary, and as a way of asserting male superiority over women.
The Jadids
Arrayed against the traditional practices stood the Jadids, elite Central Asians whose support for women's education would help spur Soviet era unveiling. Jadids were drawn primarily from the upper ranks of settled Uzbeks, the class in which veiling and seclusion were most prevalent. Very few were interested in banning the veil.Khalid (1998), p. 228. However, Jadid nationalism did promote education for women, believing that only educated women could raise strong children.Khalid (1998), p. 225. The Jadid's female relatives received good educations and would go on to form the core of Soviet-era feminism. The elite nature of the movement, however, restricted the education initiative to the upper class. Despite the Jadid's limited reach and modest goals, the mullahs criticized the Jadids harshly.Kamp (2006), p. 42. Mullahs believed that education would lead to unveiling and subsequent immorality, an opinion most non-Jadids shared. The Jadids prepared the ground for women's rights in the Soviet era, but accomplished little outside their own circle.
Tsarist rule Starting in the 1860s, the Tsarist conquest of Central Asia both increased the number who veiled and raised the status of veiling. Russia ruled Central Asia as one unit called "Turkestan", although certain zones retained domestic rule.Massell (1974), p. 18. The Tsarist government, while critical of veiling, kept separate laws for Russians and Central Asians in order to facilitate a peaceful, financially lucrative empire.Sahadeo (2007), p. 158. Separate laws allowed prostitution in Russian zones, encouraging veiling as a firm way for Central Asian women to preserve their honor.Kamp (2006), pp. 135–136. Russian conquest also brought wealth and, subsequently, more hajj participation. Hajj participation sparked a rise in religious observance, and in public displays of piety via the veil. Tsarist control thus primarily served to indirectly increase the veil's use.
Russian control shifted Central Asian's attitude toward the veil by encouraging Tatar immigration. Tatars had spent centuries under Russian rule and had adopted many European customs, including forgoing the veil. As Turkic speaking Muslims, they also had a unique engagement with Central Asian life.Kamp (2006), pp. 35–36. Faced with this synthesis of Islamic and western practice, Central Asian women began to question, if not outright attack, veiling. By opening up Central Asian society to Tatar immigration, Russians enabled the spread of ideas that conflicted with traditional Central Asian mores.
Soviet pre- policies
Although the communist revolution promised to redefine gender, Soviet rule until 1924 did little to alter women's status in Central Asia. From 1918 to 1922 Soviet troops fought against revived Khanates, basmachi rebels, and Tsarist armies.Massell (1974), p. 14. During this time Tsarist Turkestan was renamed the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR).Kamp (2006), p. 61. Initial central control was so weak that Jadids, acting under the communist banner, provided the administrative and ruling class.Khalid (1998), p. 288. The Jadid's legislated against polygamy, Sharia, and bride price, but did not enforce these rulings. Veiling remained unaddressed.Kamp (2006), pp. 68–69. Moscow did not press the case; it was more interested in reviving war-ravaged Central Asia than altering cultural norms. Earlier, Soviet pro-nationality policies encouraged veil wearing as a sign of ethnic difference between Turkmen and Uzbeks.Massell (1974), p. 46.
This era also saw the mullahs gradually split over women's rights.Keller (1998), pp. 33–34. Many continued to decry the USSR's liberal rulings, while others saw women's rights as necessary towards staying relevant. While Soviets were ideologically interested in Women's Rights, local instability prevented bold policies or implementation.
1924 ushered in a limited campaign against the veil. In accordance with the Soviet pro-nationality policy, the TASSR was split into five republics: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.Kamp (2006), pp. 106–121. The Soviets also took this time to purge the Jadids from government, either through execution or exile.Khalid (1998), p. 300. Soviet rule encouraged the founding of the anti-veiling Women's Division, or Zhenotdel. Few married women joined as their immediate community strongly condemned unveiling. Consequently, its workers were usually Jadid educated women or widows.
State policy, operating through the Women's Division encouraged unveiling through private initiative rather than state driven mass unveilings. Stories written by activist authors encouraged unveiling and emphasized that women were not morally degraded by the decision to unveil. These stories targeted widows and impoverished women, as they had the least to lose by unveiling. Despite the Division's attempts, few women choose to unveil. The few who did unveil usually had Jadid or communist families. While some women unveiled during trips to Russia, many re-veiled upon returning to Central Asia.
Still, the chachvon and paranji aided women's rights by calling attention to disparities between male and female power. Compared to the chachvon and paranji, nomadic women's yashmak veiled comparatively little and was applied only in the presence of elders. Soviet authorities took this as evidence of women's freedom and praised the nomad's gender norms.Edgar (2003), p. 149. Women's rights, though, were still curtailed in nomadic culture. Women were not given the right to divorce, had fewer inheritance rights, and were generally under the sway of male decisions. While the Women's Division attempted to use the yashmak as a rallying call for women's rights, its low symbolic appeal relative to the chachvon stymied change. The post-Jadid, more explicitly communist government encouraged women's activism but ultimately was not strong enough to enact widespread change, either in settled or nomadic communities.
Soviet motivations
The was part of a larger goal to "create a cohesive Soviet population in which all citizens would receive the same education, absorb the same ideology, and identify with the Soviet state as a whole."Edgar (2006) The government of the USSR maintained a policy of state atheism and headcoverings were seen as a symbol of religiosity.
The Zhenotdel, mostly composed of women hailing from Russian and other Slavic areas, believed that such a campaign would be welcomed and adopted by the Muslim women in Central Asia. Throwing off the veil in public (an individual act of emancipation) was expected to correspond with (or catalyze) a leap upward in women's political consciousness and a complete transformation in her cultural outlook.Northrop (2001b), p. 132.
Campaign
Launching the campaign In 1927, Tashkent, Uzbekistan became the center of the campaign for women's liberation. The campaigns aimed to completely and swiftly eradicate the veils (paranji) that Muslim women wore in the presence of unrelated males.
The brunt of the campaign fell on the shoulders of the Slavic women of the Zhenotdel, who wished to complete the campaign in six months (allowing them to celebrate their success alongside the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1927). The campaign was officially launched in Uzbekistan on International Women's Day (March 8, 1927).
Mechanics of the in Uzbekistan To eradicate the intended target (that is, the paranji), the Zhenotdel workers designated their time to organizing public demonstrations on a grand scale, where fiery speeches and inspirational tales would speak for women's liberation. If all went according to plan, Uzbek women would cast off their paranjis en masse.