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The process of identity formation under the newly independent regime involved not only changing the names of the streets and talking about great people from the pre-So- viet past, but trying to give new value to local traditions, giving power to mahallas, and celebrating Navruz (the Central Asian spring holiday) and Eid (a religious holiday), which the Uzbek Government declared official holidays. Many mosques and religious schools opened during the first few years of independence. People began openly fasting during Ramadan, praying, learning the Qur’an, and practicing sharia. More people visit- ed Friday (Jumah) prayer, women covered their heads and dressed modestly, and more people conducted the pilgrimage (hajj and umra). More videos, audio cassettes, and CDs with sermons from imams, stories from hadith and adab (behaviour, good man- ners) became available and religious literature with information from different schools and from different theological schools (madhabs) flowed into Uzbekistan. Mass media, including newspapers, radio and television programmes, made a significant contribution to the revival of traditional Uzbek practices and Islamic rituals. As a majority of people returned to their previous cultural and religious values, life-cycle ceremonies underwent significant changes.
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Building a new image of women became a central element of the nation-building process and Uzbek ‘values’ and nationalist discourse played a role here. For instance, the Uzbek government attempted through the mass media, in particular television, to develop a picture of the ideal Uzbek woman. Programs like ‘Kelin-kiyov (‘Bride and 20
Kelin-kiyov – a bride and groom TV show where couples compete to be the ‘best’ couple (answering 20
Groom Show’) portray this ideal as a submissive daughter, shy bride, subordinate daughter-in-law, loving mother and hard worker.
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With religious consciousness being promoted as part of the new national identity, the government had to provide means for people to learn about Islam. In 1992 the Uzbek state opened the educational department under the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan. The Tashkent Islamic Institute named after Imam Al-Bukhari, (opened in 1971) was already preparing Islamic specialists and ran a women’s group. Ten special Islamic educational institutions started operating, two of which were for women and girls. By the decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1999 Tashkent Islamic University was established. The aim of the University was to prepare highly qualified specialists on re- ligious knowledge. By 1992 Islamic secondary schools functioned in almost every re- gion of the country. The school uniform for the girls was the long hijab, indicating the traditional nature of the version of Islam approved by the independent state. At these schools religious subjects such as the Qur’an, hadith (sayings of the prophet), Tajvid (pronunciation), Fiqh (the theory of Islamic law) and Arabic languages were taught alongside secular subjects.
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All the changes discussed above, and in particular the awakening of religious con- sciousness, were suddenly changed, eight years after independence. After the Tashkent bombing of February 1999, Uzbek authorities took a harder line towards Islamic groups (as they had towards extreme Islamic dress), propagandising ‘Uzbek’ Islam and dis- couraging the ‘foreign’ Islam which they blamed for the introduction of terrorism.
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3.2.2. Hijab
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The Soviet system’s policy on de-veiling Uzbek women was mirrored by an emerging movement encouraging women to take the veil after independence. The Islamic identity of Uzbek women had survived Soviet domination despite all the restrictions. After 1991, hijab became an important signifier of woman’s faith, and her religious and na- tional identity.
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Independent Uzbekistan has been influenced by international Islam and the religious knowledge movement known as da’wa (call, invite non-Muslims to Islam) had already started growing. People travelling to Mecca for pilgrimage and other foreign countries had begun bringing home different ideas and different outfits for their family members. A changing women’s dress code, under the influence of ‘foreign’, ‘alien’ Islam, was shaping women’s religious identity although Islamic dresses were also made by local dressmakers in Uzbekistan. In some parts of the Fergana Valley, especially among elder- ly women, the pre-revolutionary paranji was revived. However these women were in the minority (Fathi 2004, Kamp 2006, Tokhtakhodjaeva 1995). The most significant change after independence was the widespread use by women of Islamic clothing adopted as a proactive way of signalling their identity as Muslims.
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Among the Islamic forms of dress available to women, there are different degrees of covering the body, all of which are intended to convey a particular degree or expression of faith and national identity: people in Tashkent have begun to use different terms (orangan - covered, hijoblik - woman in hijab, romollik - woman covered in scarf or
islomiy - Islamic) for women dressed in an Islamic way. Explaining those terms, Shoira
Opa (otin) said: 21
hijablik (women wearing hijab) indicates a woman covered with a long, modest, wide
dress (a light coat of a plain dark colour) which does not show the body. The hands are covered with long sleeves and the head with a scarf which should be long enough to cov- er the woman’s breast. The term orangan (covered) indicates women who cover their head with a scarf, which might be shorter and does not cover her breast; in addition, she might wear a long dress but this could be any dress with long sleeves. In some parts of the city covered women are also known as romollik or islomiy..
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The other version of Islamic dress – the niqab (facial veil) - is an indicator of religious observance which was adopted under the influence of international Islam by very few women and very soon disappeared. In 2008, I was invited to the annual Qur’an compe- tition. It was in the mosque and the participants were students from the religious schools of different regions of Uzbekistan. Among the guests I noticed a woman wearing niqab, which was very rare in Tashkent at that time. I asked one of the teachers why the woman was wearing niqab. The teacher answered, ‘this woman wants to say her taqwa (piety) is stronger than ours!’ It was a sarcastic answer but it shows that this phe- nomenon was not accepted even by a teacher (practicing Muslim) in an Islamic college.
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Although during the first years of independence many women wore hijab, the number has since decreased. Women’s dress again became the focus of scrutiny after the Tashkent bombings in 1999 induced the state to toughen security, and women’s gar- ments again became an indicator of their religious identity. Rohat Opa (59) was even stopped in the street by a police officer and told that she should not wear her prayer
Opa (sister Uz.) is an honorary suffix and is attached to a person’s name. It is translated as ‘older sister’ 21
dress (hijab) in a public place. These tensions were still obvious when I carried out my fieldwork in 2007 - 2011. During my interview with Muqaddas Opa (55 years old), who is in women’s advisor in the Yangi Bozor mahalla, I asked if there were women wearing
hijab in the mahalla. She answered that there had been one, but that she had sold her
house and moved outside the town. Furthermore, Muqaddas Opa said,
Our mahalla is very active and progressive and it is one of the best mahallas in the city. Every day we have all types of activities for people living in this mahalla. I am very busy and I cannot pray five times a day. But I do my morning prayer and I don’t show it to everybody. It is difficult for us to learn the Qur’an as I am not young but I have already started reading a translation of the book.
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Muqaddas Opa’s attitude to dress, and to the need to relegate religious observance to the private sphere, was typical of the women of her mahalla whom I interviewed. This ma-
halla, as I mentioned, is situated in the centre of the town, and inhabited by people from
different nationalities who live their life close to a European, or modern, style. The women of this mahalla are not as traditional as the women of the Eski Bog mahalla. Muqaddas Opa wears a scarf (romol) and dresses in the Uzbek way as a ‘uniform’ when she goes to a funeral (janoza), but dresses in a ‘modern’ way when she goes to celebra- tions. During her work on the mahalla committee, Muqaddas Opa tries to follow the rules and regulations of the state and when she is among women or participating in reli- gious practices she makes sure to wear appropriate clothes. During my fieldwork obser- vation I noticed there were more veiled women in the Eski Bog mahalla then in the
Yangi Bozor mahalla. People of the Eski Bog mahalla have lived in their community for
a long time and their parents and grandparents knew each other. Islam is stronger in this
mahalla as there is a base for spreading, developing and keeping its ideas, hence women
of this mahalla were more religiously conscious.