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Paper abstract

Uzbekistan’s first law targeting violence against women (2019) appears against the backdrop of decades of understudied resistance and struggle on the part of non-state actors, such as activists, survivors and volunteer organizers. This article draws on fieldwork, interviews and content analysis to offer examples of these continuing grassroots struggles. We situate, discuss and analyse three prevalent strategies of ‘exit’ and ‘voice’ – protest in the act of self-immolation, seeking out shelter and participation in consciousness-raising – that are variously employed by women in contemporary Uzbekistan to combat their experiences with domestic and gender violence. We frame these cases in the context of the past politicization(s) of women’s bodies and read them as portals to two examples of collective self-organizing in Samarkand, Uzbekistan – an old grassroots women’s shelter and a new digital counterpublic – calling attention to the complicated role played by privileged actors that shield such parallel and collectivized initiatives from encroachments by the state.