After the October revolution of 1917, the lifestyle of Muslim women in Central Asia changed dramatically. This was due to the gender policy of the Bolsheviks. This study analyzes the Soviet Central Asia from a historical perspective to understand the impact of the Soviet regime on Muslim women’s lifestyles. It specifically focuses on the underlying reasons of laws and policies put into effect by the Soviet officials in the name of emancipating Muslim women in Central Asia. The main argument of the study is that even though the Soviet officials had a genuine intention for the emancipation of Central Asian women from the patriarchal structure both in the public and private spheres of life, the policies and their implementations were shaped in accordance with the basic motive of the regime to survive. In the first years of the Soviet regime, mostly ideological intentions shaped the women’s emancipation project.
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