This proportion was maintained until 1989 (Khas-
bulatova 2001).
The Soviet state was not persistent in implement-
ing its declared policies to promote the partici-
pation of women in governing the state. Except in
a few cases, women were not appointed to top
decision-making positions in the government.
Throughout Soviet history, only two women were
appointed (at all-union level) to the position of
minister (culture and health). Periodically, a few
more women headed the presidiums of the Supreme
Soviet at the republican level (equivalent to a
speaker of parliament). The Communist Party con-
trolled the process of involvement of women in
executive powers through giving them secondary
positions, whether in councils of ministers, line
ministries, or party committees at territorial levels.
Only once, a woman from a Muslim republic, Yad-
gar Nasretddinova, was able to achieve the highest
levels of power in the Soviet system from the 1940s
to the 1970s, occupying at various times the posi-
tions of Chair of the Supreme Soviet in the Uzbek
SSR and Chair of the Upper Chamber of the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
The substance of the seemingly progressive ob-
jective of increasing access and participation of
Muslim (and all other) women in public office was
distorted by the Soviets because a top-down ap-
proach was predominant in the process of its im-
plementation. The demands for promoting female
candidates came from central to local bodies (quo-
tas). The practices of the Soviet period demon-
strated that actual capabilities and talents of women,
including their educational and professional abili-
ties, were least required by the state and society.
What really mattered was the social origin of those
being promoted, or their conformity to and com-
pliance with the general aims. This was one of the
major principals for the formation of the echelon of
delegates and deputies of the Soviet ruling elite.
Such realities often resulted in non-professional
women and men being promoted to positions of
power; women patronized by the government
occupied a visible but often decorative place in
public office. The impact was dubious as the public
mentality for many decades captured the image of
a female politician negatively, often seeing them as
incapable of meaningful decision-making.
However, the overall impact of Sovietization was
that Muslim society was changed and gender segre-
gation was in principal liquidated. The farewell to
the past was not an easy one given the victims of the
Khudjum campaign but it was still a step forward.
At the same time, actual equality was never680 public office
achieved as there was no social base for a wider
and real women’s movement in Muslim republics.
Instead, Sovietization brought new challenges. The
lives of Muslim women during Soviet times were
regulated by the state and family, with numerous
invisible and hidden barriers women had to over-
come themselves.
The quota system for women so widely practiced
by the Soviet regime was abolished in 1989. This
resulted in an immediate and sharp decline in the
proportion of women involved at all levels of local
and central governmental bodies. In the post-Soviet
republics, a comparatively higher level of women in
public office is observed so far only in Turkme-
nistan with 26 percent of members of parliament
being women (the highest in the Commonwealth of
Independent States). The representation of women
in administrative and managerial posts is 36 per-
cent and in senior posts approximately 16 percent.
In other Muslim republics these figures are lower.
For instance, in Uzbekistan, women have a repre-
sentation in the parliament of only 9.9 percent. The
percentage of women in supreme organs of govern-
ment stood at the beginning of 2002 at only 13.7
(Uzbekistan 2002). In Tajikistan, after the election
of 2000, the percentage of elected women in parlia-
ment was about 14.9, and in administrative and
managerial posts 15.5 percent.
The Soviet policies were not consistent in pro-
moting women in public office but the current
situation gives even more reasons for concern.
Growing poverty and unprecedented revival of cus-
toms and traditional attitudes pose the danger of
losing the gains achieved in the past at huge costs.
The national governments made international
commitments after the Caucasian and Central
Asian republics gained independence in 1991, in
terms of protecting and promoting gender equality.
In compliance with them they established institu-
tional mechanisms and are working toward further
improvement of national legal frameworks. In the
majority of Muslim countries of Central Asia, equal
rights and opportunities laws have been drafted
and in Kyrgyzstan were approved by the parliament
in early 2003. However, the traditional patriarchal
attitudes that replaced communist ideology prevail
and women remain associated with “social” or just
“women and family” issues in public office, usually
stranded in secondary positions.
The quota system practiced in Soviet times
discredited itself as an avenue for letting non-
professionalism and conformism dominate decision-
making; therefore despite international commitments
for soft quotas, even some women’s non-govern-