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Drawing on extensive research in the archives of Russia and Uzbekistan, Douglas Northrop here reconstructs the turbulent history of a Soviet campaign that sought to end the seclusion of Muslim women. In Uzbekistan it focused above all on a massive effort to eliminate the heavy horsehair-and-cotton veils worn by many women and girls. This campaign against the veil was, in Northrop's view, emblematic of the larger Soviet attempt to bring the proletarian revolution to Muslim Central Asia, a region Bolsheviks saw as primitive and backward. The Soviets focused on women and the family in an effort to forge a new, "liberated" social order. This unveiling campaign, however, took place in the context of a half-century of Russian colonization and the long-standing suspicion of rural Muslim peasants toward an urban, colonial state. Widespread resistance to the idea of unveiling quickly appeared and developed into a broader anti-Soviet animosity among Uzbeks of both sexes. Over the next quarter-century a bitter and often violent confrontation ensued, with battles being waged over indigenous practices of veiling and seclusion. New local and national identities coalesced around these very practices that had been placed under attack. Veils became powerful anticolonial symbols for the Uzbek nation as well as important markers of Muslim propriety. Bolshevik leaders, who had seen this campaign as an excellent way to enlist allies while proving their own European credentials as enlightened reformers, thus inadvertently strengthened the seclusion of Uzbek women-precisely the reverse of what they set out to do. Northrop's fascinating and evocative book shows both the fluidity of Central Asian cultural practices and the real limits that existed on Stalinist authority, even during the ostensibly totalitarian 1930s.

Muslim women --- Veils --- Women and communism --- Social conditions --- Social aspects --- History --- Political philosophy. Social philosophy --- Sociology of culture --- Islam --- Social policy --- Religious studies --- anno 1900-1999 --- Central Asia --- Headgear --- Hijab (Islamic clothing) --- Islamic women --- Women, Muslim --- Women --- Communism and women --- Communism --- Soviet Union --- Uzbekistan --- Relations --- Ȯzbăkistan --- Oʻzbekiston Respublikasi --- Republic of Uzbekistan --- Respublika Uzbekistan --- Usbekistan --- Uzbakastān --- Uzbakistān --- Ŭzbekiston --- Ŭzbekiston Respublikasi --- Uzbekiston Respublikasy --- Wuzibiekesitan --- ازبکستان --- 乌兹别克斯坦 --- Uzbek S.S.R. --- Советский Союз --- Ber. ha-M. --- Zwia̦zek Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich --- Szovjetunió --- TSRS --- Tarybų Socialistinių Respublikų Sąjunga --- SRSR --- Soi︠u︡z Radi︠a︡nsʹkykh Sot︠s︡ialistychnykh Respublik --- SSSR --- Soi︠u︡z Sovetskikh Sot︠s︡ialisticheskikh Respublik --- UdSSR --- Shūravī --- Ittiḥād-i Jamāhīr-i Ishtirākīyah-i Shūrāʼīyah --- Russia (1923- U.S.S.R.) --- Sovetskiy Soyuz --- Soyuz SSR --- Sovetskiĭ Soi︠u︡z --- Soi︠u︡z SSR --- Uni Sovjet --- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics --- USSR --- SSṚM --- Sovetakan Sotsʻialistakan Ṛespublikaneri Miutʻyun --- SSHM --- Sovetakan Sotsʻialistakan Hanrapetutʻyunneri Miutʻyun --- URSS --- Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas --- Berit ha-Moʻatsot --- Rusyah --- Ittiḥād al-Sūfiyītī --- Rusiyah --- Rusland --- Soṿet-Rusland --- Uni Soviet --- Union soviétique --- Zȯvlȯlt Kholboot Uls --- Związek Radziecki --- ESSD --- Sahaphāp Sōwīat --- KhSHM --- SSR Kavširi --- Russland --- SNTL --- PSRS --- Su-lien --- Sobhieṭ Ẏuniẏana --- FSSR --- Unione Sovietica --- Ittiḥād-i Shūravī --- Soviyat Yūniyan --- Russian S.F.S.R. --- Związek Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich --- ZSRR --- Związek Socjalistycznych Republik Sowieckich --- ZSRS --- Muslimahs --- Government policy --- Book --- Veil