rights as rarely as before. Statistics on petitions
show that the majority of cases are concerned with
rape.
Major obstacles to the active use of the modern
courts by Caucasian women are the preservation of
the traditional sense of justice among Caucasian
men and women and the preservation of the tradi-
tional social status of men and women, which
partly relies on Islamic ideology.
Bibliography
(all works cited are in Russian)
Primary Sources
L. A. Chibirova (comp.), The Caucasian periodical
press on Osetia and the Osetians, 5 vols., Ckhinvali
1981–91.
V. K. Gardanov (comp.), Adygs, Balkarians, and Kara-
chians in the materials of the European authors of the
thirteenth–nineteenth centuries, Nalchik 1974.
Gidatlinsky ≠àda, Makhachkala 1957.
B. A. Kaloev (comp.), Osetians from the point of view
of foreign travelers (thirteenth–fourteenth centuries),
Vladikavkaz 1967.
H. O. Khashaev (comp.), The monuments of Daghestan
customary law of the seventeenth–nineteenth cen-
turies, Moscow 1965.
Secondary sources
I. L. Babich. The evolution of legal culture of Adygs,
Moscow 1999.
V. O. Bobrovnikov, The Muslims of North Caucasus,
Moscow 2002.
Customary law in Russia, Rostov-in-Don 1999.
H. M. Hashaev, Sharì≠a and ≠àda in Daghestan, Moscow
1949.
L. G. Svechnikova, The family law of Caucasian peoples
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Moscow 1994.
Irina BabichCentral AsiaSecuring equal access to legal assistance is a pre-
condition for achieving equal justice in a society. In
the Central Asian republics, equal access to justice
is a right declared by constitutions and therefore
the states have a legal obligation to provide the
arrangements necessary to exercise this right. How-
ever, there are few reliable data sources, statistics,
or specialized studies that could help to assess
usage patterns, especially when it comes to indica-
tors disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, and ter-
ritorial division that may provide more precise
information by highlighting underprivileged groups.
Overall analysis of the situation reveals that the
use of court services and other judicial mechanisms
for dispute resolution at family or community lev-
els is not common among the Muslim population.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the for-
central asia 373mation of independent republics, traditional ap-
proaches and mindsets become stronger, being
associated with “national identification.” The situ-
ation characterizing access to qualified legal serv-
ices that was never ideal during Soviet times was
further complicated by new economic, legal, cul-
tural, historic, and other obstacles that emerged in
the process of transition from centrally planned to
free market economies.
The economic barriers to access to the legal sys-
tem are significant in the Central Asian states.
During the Soviet past, legal services as a rule were
not free but could be afforded by the majority of
population, as the principal costs were largely
borne by the state. With the transition from cen-
trally planned to free market economy and the
commercialization of life, including legal and judi-
cial systems, and growing poverty of the population
in the region, many people without the necessary
financial means are unable to obtain legal aid, and
thus become discouraged from defending their inter-
ests in the courts that are often slow and expensive.
Therefore, the affordability of legal action has be-
come an important issue in the region.
Geographical distribution is a serious barrier, in
the Central Asian context, in determining access to
justice, given that the majority of the population
live in rural areas where legal services, for both
criminal and civil cases, are scarce. The situation is
even worse in remote mountainous regions. In con-
trast, in urban areas, the quality of civil legal aid,
lack of standards, and corruption lead to a high
level of distrust of the judiciary.
Another important factor in influencing the abil-
ity to use the legal system is strong cultural and
informational barriers. Central Asian women, es-
pecially in rural areas, are brought up in the spirit
of obedience and subordination to the will of the
elders and to the power of men. Traditions nurture
and cultivate young women as patient and submis-
sive wives. At the same time, women bear a dispro-
portionate burden of household responsibilities
and unpaid domestic work, with limited access to
and control over resources, including any time they
could use for self-improvement and learning. The
claiming of rights by women, whether in the family
or workplace, is not approved and is usually
viewed as washing dirty linen in public. This is fur-
ther exacerbated by the fact that the population
(both women and men), although highly educated,
has very low levels of legal awareness. As a result,
women are vulnerable when it comes to protecting
their own interests and rights through legal means,
and this may partly explain why cases concerning
polygamy or sexual harassment in the workplace,