for female students were established within impor-
tant Islamic institutions. Women started to attend
the mosques – which until then had been an exclu-
sive male prerogative – and to wear the veil again.
In Uzbekistan, the state established women’s com-
mittees at the level of the ma™alla(neighborhood
community): the primary task of the committees is
to inform and to support families on all issues, such
as finding jobs or providing financial help. Reli-
gious activity within the ma™allais continuously
increasing. Girls still receive an elementary reli-
gious education from the otins, the female equiva-
lent of the mullahs: they have a rudimentary
knowledge of the Qur±ànic precepts, but they are
unable to decipher the Arabic script. The otins pre-
pare girls for marriage and motherhood and pro-
vide basic religious instruction; they are in charge
of prayers and important celebrations within the
community such as weddings and births. Every
ma™alla has its otin, but sometimes one otin
is shared by two or three ma™allas. Within the
ma™alla, women meet generally every Saturday to
pray in a room reserved for them and to receive
advice about the Qur±àn, about the fundamental
rules of the Sharì≠a, and about correct Islamic
behavior. Women who attend these meetings are
often over 50 years old. After the religious part of
the meeting, women drink tea, eat previously pre-
pared food, and chat. Many women, mostly in
rural areas, where the level of education is lower,
are attracted by religious groups which preach the
return to authentic Islamic values and to the tradi-
tional family. Soon after the independence of the
Central Asian republics, some organized groups of
Islamic women emerged: they are national non-
governmental organizations acting on the territory
of groups generally incorporated in political parties
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Lahore 1995.Chiara De SantiIran and AfghanistanThis entry introduces the historical and contem-
porary developments of women’s religious gather-
ings and associations in Iran and Afghanistan. It
presents the ways in which national and Islamic
state led projects and movements, at different histo-
rical moments, have shaped voluntary associational
life in both locations. While considering the unin-
tended consequences of state led approaches to
associational life, attention is also paid to the inter-
relationship and levels of cooperation between infor-
mal, seemingly private religious women’s gatherings
and grassroots religious associations in the public
domain. It demonstrates how religious gatherings
and associations have been vehicles that both rein-
forced and challenged national and Islamist move-
ments with their strictly delineated gendered norms
of behavior. They have also served as pathways to
participation in public matters and have enlarged
women’s scope of action to tackle harsh social,
political, and economic realities. Women’s religious
associations are heterogeneous and must be consid-
ered in relation to the interplay between specific
national and regional contexts, as well as women’s
socioeconomic, religious, ethnic, and political ori-
entations. Particular consideration should be given
to the increasing exchanges and linkages with
global movements, international associations, and
human rights groups around the world.