Central AsiaThis entry is about women, gender, and the peace
movements in Central Asia. Women have made
substantial contributions to peacebuilding and con-
flict resolution in the five Central Asian states of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikis-
tan, and Uzbekistan as they have worldwide. Inter-
national recognition of women’s peacebuilding role
is a recent phenomenon (Marshall 2000), and much
of the recent global attention paid to it has focused
on the post-Soviet republics because of their
numerous and varied conflict zones. This has been
concomitant with the tremendous focus by global
development organizations and local non-govern-
mental organizations (NGOs) on “civil society” in
the region.
During Soviet times, women political actors were
virtually by definition part of state institutions such
as the Soviet Women’s Committee (Reardon 1993,
123). While Soviet communist ideals were egalitar-
ian and called for women’s participation in govern-
ment, the women who did assume leadership roles
were generally not allowed to address concerns,
including peacebuilding, that might threaten the
state.
Women’s post-Soviet peacebuilding contributions
have taken place in the context of the transition
from centralized Soviet to republican state control
and from a stridently socialist political system to
new state structures to varying degrees both social-
ist and capitalist. In this new milieu, the percentage
of women participating in government has decreased
in many categories. At the same time, a “third sec-
tor” NGO culture has flourished in which women
have assumed active leadership roles.
That women are “naturally” associated with
peace and men with war has long been seen as self-
evident both in Western society and globally, and
this is still accepted unquestioningly by some femi-
nists (for example, Reardon 1993). But opponents
of this view call it unnecessary essentializing (for
example, Smith 2001). In Central Asia, the impor-
tance of women in non-governmental activism
seemed curious to a Western observer given the
strong traditions of patriarchy in the region, who
then noted that such avenues allowed women lead-
ership opportunities not available to them else-
where in the society (Klose 2000). Structures of
Political-Social Movements: Peace Movements
governance that exclude women, then, may do
as much to encourage them to promote peace
through NGOs as local ideas about proper gender
roles discourage them from entering government
institutions.
Many Central Asian NGOs focus on conflict pre-
vention, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding
either exclusively or as part of a broader platform.
In a few cases women’s opportunities for activism
lie within organizations that predate independence
but that operate with new leeway. For example the
Women’s Association of Tajikistan, founded during
the final years of the Soviet Union, has been active
in post-conflict efforts focused on identifying needs
and coordinating government assistance following
the 1992–7 civil war (Schoerberlein-Engel 1997,
225). For the most part, however, the post-Soviet
NGOs represent a new kind of women’s activism,
much of it endeavoring to promote peace outside
state channels at a grassroots level, and often with
funds from international donors.
There have been only two major conflicts in the
post-Soviet Central Asian republics in contrast to
the adjacent Caucasus, in which several major con-
flicts have taken place. Islamism has played a role
in both cases, pitting Muslims against other Mus-
lims. In the civil war in Tajikistan, “neo-commu-
nists” and “Islamists” sparred, and in Uzbekistan
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan waged a cam-
paign against the government in 1999 and 2000 in
an attempt to create an Islamic state (Roy 2002).
Both movements have now been curtailed, espe-
cially since the United States began its “war on
terrorism” and removed the Islamist Taliban in
neighboring Afghanistan from power.
While major conflict has been rare, many areas
of small-scale and potential conflict exist in Central
Asia. Most are ethnically delineated. In Uzbekistan,
for example, the state aspires to mono-ethnicity
and has vigorously promoted Uzbek identity to the
consternation of its non-Uzbek population, which
includes ethnic Tajiks and Russians (Liu 1997). In
the Ferghana Valley, divided awkwardly between
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, complex
border disputes, many with histories rooted in the
early twentieth century, are ongoing (International
Crisis Group 2002). Extra-regional state actors are
also highly influential; Iran, Turkey, and Russia all
vie for influence, as do mainly Western multinational