called for non-violent establishment of a caliphate
including Central Asia and the Caucasus. Both men
and women, inspired by ideas of social equity and
justice, and frustrated by current economic and
political crises, rampant corruption, and ideologi-
cal vacuum, have joined this party. Participation in
such radical Islamic movements needs to be seen as
an outlet for the expression of social and political
dissatisfaction and de-Russification (anticolonial)
feelings among dissident people. The low resistance
of the younger generation to religious extremism is
partly explained by the weakness of official clergy,
who face financial and ideological problems in
their actions and who are severely restricted by
state authorities.
In general, an intensive process of re-Islamization
and democratization in the countries of Central
Asia and the Caucasus has led to a critique of the
Soviet ideological legacy and to a search for new
democratic ideologies combined with Islamic val-
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151–8.Anara TabyshalievaSouth AsiaApproximately half of the world’s 1.1 billion
Muslims live in three countries of South Asia: 145
million and 130 million in Muslim-majority Pakis-
tan and Bangladesh respectively, and 125 million in
Hindu-majority India. Yet, the global discourse on
Muslim women in civil society and democracy is
shaped largely by the experiences of the Middle
East where only 172 million Muslims live.
The Western media generally portray Muslim52 civil society and democracy ideologies
women as veiled and excluded from the public
sphere. This is not so for South Asian Muslim
women. They are rarely veiled and they are active in
civil society as leaders as well as members of organ-
izations. Similarly, South Asian Muslim women
participate in local and national politics as voters
and as people’s representatives. Since the return of
democratically elected governments in the 1990s,
Pakistan and Bangladesh have been ruled by
women leaders.
In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was elected head of
government from 1988 to 1990 and again from
1993 to 1996. She was forcibly ousted from power
because of her differences with the civil-military
elite that dominated Pakistan. Two elected women
prime ministers have governed Bangladesh since
1991: Khaleda Zia, 1991 to 1996 and 2001 to the
present, and Sheikh Hasina from 1996 to 2001.
Khaleda and Hasina have led the two major politi-
cal parties of Bangladesh since the early 1980s.
They also led the movement that finally toppled the
military regimes that ruled for two decades.
Detractors argue that these women entered poli-
tics through dynastic connections. Benazir and
Hasina inherited the political mantels of their assas-
sinated fathers and Khaleda that of her assassinated
husband. But the very fact that these women led
their male-dominated political organizations for
nearly three decades and enjoyed personal popular-
ity with the voters demonstrates that women are
acceptable as leaders in Muslim societies. Even the
fundamentalist Islamist parties in South Asia, such
as Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh,
accepted women in leadership positions when they
entered into electoral alliances with the mainstream
parties headed by women.
The Muslim world is not homogeneous. The
countries and regions have different social, cul-
tural, and political traditions. These differences
explain the varying levels of women’s participation
in the public sphere. For example, in contrast to the
Middle East where most countries are still ruled by
authoritarian regimes that strictly control civil soci-
ety, South Asia has a long tradition of Western-style
liberal democracy. Here the nationalist movements
against colonialism embraced visions of a demo-
cratic polity. After independence all three South
Asian states opted for democratic parliamentary
government, though Pakistan and Bangladesh were
later ruled by military regimes for long periods of
time. South Asia’s cultural tradition is characterized
by a mild observance of purdah. As a result, South
Asian Muslim women have been able to participate
in civil society and political organizations for nearly
a century.