access to religious knowledge, assume leadership,
and mediate in communal affairs.
The otinserves as model for women, who, after
decades of Westernization and modernization ef-
forts, first by tsarist Russia and later by the Soviet
Union, had been expected to abrogate their “suffo-
cating” and “backward” adherence to tradition and
Islam. An otincommonly fulfills official religious
functions just like female preachers in Iran. She acts
as the female equivalent of the mullah and instructs
girls in the basics of Islam and the proper way to
behave in the given local context. With her students,
she introduces women to official Islam mediated by
popular rituals and local traditions.
Soviet policies aside, the majority of the peoples
inhabiting Central Asia and the Caucasus still
adhere to traditional values, because women con-
tinued to regale their audiences with stories of their
Islamic past. These tales demonstrate God’s hand in
the affairs of humanity and give hope that faith and
proper conduct can overcome all hardships and
that good deeds will be rewarded in their own time.
Muslim identity was kept alive, albeit surrepti-
tiously, through the stories told by women.
The narratives lean heavily on Sufi literature in-
terwoven with pre-Islamic traditions passed down
through the generations. Women such as Fà†ima,
the daughter of the Prophet Mu™ammad, his wife
≠â±isha, and pious local women are held up as mod-
els to emulate, or at least to motivate girls to inter-
nalize their qualities of piety, to submit to the will
of man and God, and to display quiet suffering and
self-sacrifice.
These qualities are often embodied by revered
saints and are valued even now. Mothers teach
them to their daughters by example, through nar-
ratives, and by pointing to the otinwhose author-
ity among women and power in the community can
be extensive. Older women debate socioreligious
issues and reinforce communal ties by evoking
shared values and blood ties – real or imagined – in
recounting local history and legends. These stories,
laden with moral messages and liberal doses of
admonition to miscreants help shape the cultural
fabric of the collective. The religious and historical
narratives women hear and pass on to others shape
their concept of Self and Other within the bound-
aries of shared Muslim identity.
For women, the opportunity to affirm Muslim
identity arises in the context of the ritual meal
(sufra) held after a shrine visitation (ziyàra). This
practice is common in the Turco-Iranian cultural
zone and predates Islam. During sufra, women sit
together in honor of the saint whose intercession
with God has been sought and apparently been480 memory, women, and community
granted. Details of the saint’s life are recounted;
her/his character is lauded; and readings from the
Qur±àn may be offered. The host, who invites rela-
tives, friends, and neighbors, provides a repast con-
sisting of ritual foods commonly associated with
the occasion. Histories are exchanged and created
during an event that, in traditionally gender segre-
gated societies, solidifies communal ties among
women who may not all be related to each other
and whose contact is limited by traditions that com-
monly censure women’s social gatherings – unless
held under the mantle of religious activity.
Soviet gender policies and mandated atheism did
little to change the region’s traditional cultures,
which had been forged over the centuries, combin-
ing animism, shamanism, Zoroastrian tradition,
and Islam. Individual and collective identities arose
from ties to land, clan membership, belief in com-
mon ancestry, and loyalty to a particular leadership
figure. The predominantly traditional Muslim soci-
eties that today constitute the population of the
Caucasus, such as the Chechens, Tatars, and Azer-
baijanis, and Central Asia’s Kazakhs, Turkmens,
and Tajiks, to mention but a few, have relied heavily
on women to maintain and communicate Muslim
identity.
Construction of identity, collectivity, and the
transmission of memory are grounded in popular
religious activities that allow women from different
social and ethnic backgrounds to meet and ex-
change experiences and ideas. They tell and retell
myths, histories, and legends, emphasizing local
ideals and norms, thereby creating a yardstick by
which the audience can measure their individual
and collective demeanor and adherence to the pos-
tulated ideals. They also add something of their
own experiences to the blend of narratives. Thus
they add their legacy to history and vitalize Islam
for the next generation. Islam provides the mirror
through which identity – Self and Other – is viewed,
crystallized, and reaffirmed.
Note: ziyàra and sufraare transliterations from
the Persian and denote a ritual complex that con-
sists of a “small” pilgrimage – the big one being the
™ajj – and a ritual meal that is commonly held in a
garden or park in fulfillment of a vow made during
a pilgrimage to a shrine or tomb. Persian is used
because it is universally understood in the region to
convey the religious significance of the event.Bibliography
N. Abadan-Unat, The impact of legal and educational
reforms on Turkish women, in N. R. Keddie and
B. Baron (eds.), Women in Middle Eastern history.
Shifting boundaries in sex and gender, New Haven,
Conn. 1991, 195–214.