During the Soviet period, the emancipation of
Central Asian women was extolled as accom-
plished: this discourse was subjected to criticism
during the Gorbachev era. The official data
claimed that the quotas of representation within
government and party organs reserved for women
had been achieved (in the 1970s, in Uzbekistan,
women constituted about 47 percent of employees
in the government and party apparatus); female
illiteracy had been almost eradicated (the percent-
age of literate women aged between 9 and 49 had
risen from 2 percent before the revolution to 99
percent in 1970); and all professional careers and
all levels of education were open to women.
Nevertheless, women were far from having reached
full equality with men: discrimination against them
persisted in all fields. Women, especially indige-
nous women, were concentrated in manual, lower-
skilled, and lower-paid jobs; there was no increase
of female employment during the last decades of
the Soviet Union; in the 1970s, women did not
occupy prestigious posts in the high spheres of
industry or in crucial sectors of the economy. There
was evident inequality between women of the
indigenous nationalities and the Russians, who
obtained the best posts. In the republics of Central
Asia, feminist movements were not present because
of the peculiarity of the system. The Woman
Question was an affair of state that controlled and
eventually financially supported women’s associa-
tions. The Soviet establishment claimed that since
the emancipation of women had been completely
accomplished, there was no necessity for any femi-
nist movement.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
gaining of independence by the Central Asian
republics, the Woman Question started to assume a
new importance. After 1991, some international
women’s conferences were held in Alma-Ata,
Kazakhstan. In this context it is not possible to
speak about “feminism” in its traditional meaning:
Central Asian feminists criticize Western feminism,
which, in their opinion, does not take into consid-
eration the issues relating to women with different
experiences. Central Asian women, as bearers of
values of the national cultural identity, feel their
role is to defend these values rather than to sustain
feminist values: the Woman Question has entered a
second stage as regards the issues of national and
cultural identities. There are some feminist move-
ments in Kazakhstan (such as WLCI, the Women’s
League of Creative Initiative, founded in 1994, one
of whose primary goals is to “study and spread the
ideas of feminism”) and in Uzbekistan, but the
debate is still at an initial stage. Indeed, the feminist588 political-social movements: feminist
movements started to emerge at the same time as
the revival of traditional society which is supported
in part by Central Asian states and governments. In
Tajikistan and in Kyrgyzstan, some women’s non-
governmental organizations have formed with dif-
ferent aims and constitutions, but it is very difficult
to speak about organizations with a declared and
marked feminist outlook; they are mostly associa-
tions and foundations directed to the improvement
of women’s conditions in different fields. The
Women’s Resource Center in Tashkent, established
in 1994, is a center that supports women: one of its
aims is the provision of information on legal rights.
In Uzbekistan, some female councils and commit-
tees which act at all levels of public life have been
established by state organs, but they seem still to be
weak. Some Turkmen women reckon that in their
country a feminist movement cannot develop be-
cause of the strong traditions of the society.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
emergence of poverty, inflation, unemployment,
and economic crisis, Central Asian women are
involved in the daily struggle to survive. Probably
the Woman Question and feminist movements will
receive a greater impulse during the next few years,
when the transition from a state planned economy
to a market economy has been concluded. Central
Asian republics will be more settled and women will
be freer to think how to locate themselves within the
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