Samarkand (IFL 2000). The majority of Muslims in
Central Asia belonged to the Sunnì£anafìsect, the
most liberal of the four Sunnìschools, so that
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jews have also had
significant influence.
Conditions of life for women varied greatly be-
fore Soviet control. The pre-Soviet Kazakhs had no
tradition of veiling or seclusion, while in Islamic
Bukhara women were routinely secluded or com-
pletely veiled in public. Tajik women also were
almost totally secluded.
However from the seventh century, women in
most of Central Asia had, according to Islamic law,
the right to inherit, own, and sell both movable
and immovable property. Women acquired wealth
and property through marriage arrangements and
through inheritance. A man was obliged by law to
give his bride mahr, a negotiated amount of money,
jewels or other property, which became her own
possessions, subject to her own disposal, and which
served as two-thirds of her settlement if her husband
divorced her (Kamp 1998). Islamic inheritance law
provided that a man’s property was divided among
his children first, with sons receiving a share twice
as large as that of a daughter. Nevertheless, daugh-
ters received an inheritance too.
Once the Soviet Union gained complete control
of the region, it abolished Sharì≠a law, and made
polygamy and bride price illegal. Most of the
region’s 24,000 mosques were closed, pilgrimage to
Mecca was prohibited, and printing and distribu-
tion of the Qur±àn was banned.
There are however a number of respects in which
customary law has persisted through the Islamic
and Soviet periods into the present day.
Research has shown that for Kyrgyz and other
nomad peoples of Central Asia, shame and respect
are the factors that sustain customary law, which is
used more often than written law in relation to
family and community relations (Giovarelli and
Akmatova 2002). For example, Kyrgyz women
interviewed in 2000 said that the custom they
would most like to change is that of slaughtering as
many animals at funerals as any other participant,
which, despite official attempts at reform, remains
strong, because of the effect of shame on the family.
Customary law has a number of other features.
First is the strongly patrilineal and patrilocal family
structure prevalent in most of the region, together
with the influence of clan allegiances.
A second is the strong ethnic tradition predating
Islam: the “cult of fertility,” consequent high birth-
rate, and accompanying child mortality (Tabysha-
lieva 1998).
central asia 417Third is the increasing prevalence in Uzbekistan
and Turkmenistan of polygamous marriages. Al-
though contrary to criminal law and religious
law – they cannot formally be performed by a mul-
lah – such marriages are in Uzbekistan often con-
ducted in the mosque. In Turkmenistan polygamy
is not only traditional, but is officially permitted.
Fourth, bride kidnappings (mostly consensual –
often in fact elopement) are especially common
among former nomadic peoples such as the Turk-
men, Kyrgyz, and Kazakh. The real scale of kid-
napping without the consent of the bride, especially
in remote rural areas, is unclear. There are no pro-
grams to eliminate this practice, and discussion of
it remains a taboo (Tabyshalieva 1998). Recent
research shows that the shame of being unmarried
after age 30 appears to be more intolerable than to
be stolen because traditional society is so cruel to
unmarried women and men (Giovarelli and Akma-
tova 2002).
Where conflicts exist between customary law
and written law, customary law often takes prece-
dence in rural areas, because written law fails to
reflect the reality of the villagers’ lives. For example,
written law does not have the notion of family
property or household property (where the land is
held by whoever is in the family at that time).
Judges are known to use provisions of the proce-
dural code to sanction customary law over written
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