corporations seeking to exploit the region’s rich oil
and gas reserves (Olson 2001).
Contributions by women acting through NGOs
have included local activism inspired by inter-
national conflict resolution methods, such as in the
case of a rural women’s group in Kyrgyzstan that
participated in advocacy training, which it used to
appeal to the local land commission to change a
land redistribution system it regarded as unjust
(Estes 2000). In Kazakhstan, an NGO called the
Centre for Effective Gender Policy conducted a
needs assessment and found violence and sexual
harassment to be the most common problems
young women face (International Federation of
University Women 2001); in identifying these prob-
lems, the NGO addressed aspects of violence that
since the 1980s have been recognized by the United
Nations as part of the definition of “peace”
(Gierycz 2001, 15–16). Work on discrimination
and violence toward women has also been carried
out by the Almaty Women’s Information Center in
Kazakhstan (Center for Civil Society International
1998). Such activity is a vital starting point in
efforts toward peace of all kinds in societies with
high rates of gendered violence; one study found
that in Tajikistan, 67 percent of women were “reg-
ularly exposed to some form of violence in the
home” (United Nations Development Fund for
Women 2003).
The Kyrgyz NGO Foundation for Tolerance
International, which was founded and is headed by
a woman, works toward the prevention and reso-
lution of inter-ethnic conflicts in cross-border
areas. It monitors conflict situations, organizes
mediation processes, and conducts training exer-
cises (Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
2003).
At the United Nations-sponsored Common-
wealth of Independent States Regional Workshop
in Almaty in 1999, participants recognized a
“shared responsibility for the peacefulness and
prosperous future” of the region in response to
“the senseless horrors and tragedies of war” (Karat
Coalition 2003). Across Central Asia, women are
rising to this challenge and taking responsibility for
the peace and prosperity of their societies.Bibliography
Center for Civil Society International, Almaty women’s
information center, Seattle 1998, <http://www.civil
soc.org/nisorgs/kazak/awic.htm>.
V. Estes, Lessons in transition. Gender issues in civil soci-
ety development, in E. K. Klose (ed.), Give and take. A
journal on civil society in Eurasia, Washington, D.C.
2000, 5–6.
D. Gierycz, Women, peace and the United Nations.
Beyond Beijing, in I. Skjelsbaek and D. Smith (eds.),626 political-social movements: peace movements
Gender, peace and conflict, Thousand Oaks 2001,
14–31.
International Crisis Group, Central Asia. Border disputes
and conflict potential, Osh/Brussels 2002.
International Federation of University Women, UNIFEM
uses the technology to support women in LDCs, Global
Perspective(Geneva) 8:2 (May/June 2001), <http://
http://www.ifuw.org/gs-0601.htm>.
Karat Coalition, The priority of women from Central and
Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Inde-
pendent States, Warsaw 2003, <http://www.karat.org/
achievements/beijing_statements1.html>.
E. K. Klose, The third sector. A place of opportunity for
women, in E. K. Klose (ed.), Give and take. A journal
on civil society in Eurasia, Washington, D.C. 2000, 3.
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, Women
PeaceMakers program. 2003 Women PeaceMakers
biographical abstracts, San Diego, Calif. 2003.
M. Liu, The perils of nationalism in independent
Uzbekistan, inJournal of the International Institute
(Ann Arbor, Mich.) 4:2 (Winter 1997), <http://www.
umich.edu/~iinet/journal/vol4no2/uzbek.html.
D. R. Marshall, Women in war and peace. Grassroots
peacebuilding, Washington, D.C. 2000.
R. Olson, Turkey’s relations with Iran, Syria, Israel, and
Russia, 1991–2000. The Kurdish and Islamist ques-
tions, Costa Mesa 2001.
B. Reardon, Women and peace. Feminist visions of global
security,Albany, N.Y. 1993.
O. Roy, Islamic militancy. Religion and conflict in Central
Asia, in M. Mekenkamp, P. Van Tongeren, H. Van De
Veen, and G. R. Tinterow (eds.), Searching for peace in
Central and South Asia. An overview of conflict pre-
vention and peacebuilding activities, Boulder, Colo.
2002, 97–108.
J. S. Schoerberlein-Engel, Overcoming the ravages of
Tajikistan’s civil war, in M. M. Cernea and A. Kudat
(eds.), Social assessments for better development. Case
studies in Russia and Central Asia, Washington, D.C.
1997, 199–225.
D. Smith, The problem of essentialism, in I. Skjelsbaek
and D. Smith (eds.), Gender, peace and conflict, Thou-
sand Oaks 2001, 32–46.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNI-
FEM), New York 2003, Tajikistan quick facts, <http://
http://www.womenwarpeace.org/tajikistan/tajikistan.htm>.Diane E. KingSouth AsiaThe role of women in peace movements in South
Asia began with women’s participation in national
liberation movements from the early twentieth cen-
tury. Two developments of the nineteenth century
particularly helped Indian women’s entry into the
formal political space. These were the social reform
movements fostered by men such as Ram Mohan
Roy and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, and the grow-
ing popularity of movements that challenged British
imperialism. Women participated in the “Extremist
Movements” in the late nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries and took part in acts of extreme vio-
lence. It was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who