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Paper abstract:

Women civil activists have been a significantly powerful voice in patriarchal Central Asia throughout its documented history, from the late pre-Russian Empire colonisation times to the modern early XXI century. While having substantial similarities to the Soviet past, women’s civil society in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have developed their civil destiny on rather diverse paths in independent years. Both have constantly been reconfiguring their work and activism due to turbulent political environments and remaining reliant on foreign development donors; at the same time, women activists in Kyrgyzstan have been the leitmotiv of several political revolutions, whereas activists in Uzbekistan found their secure ways to perform activism closely working with the government. Varying from grassroots groups of Muslim women, LBTQ activists and feminist groups to experienced large-scale networks of women NGOs and quasi-state women collectives, this myriad of women performing civil activism has inspired me to substantiate the phenomena of women activist professionals.

This paper is both an academic and activist attempt to describe and contrast contemporary women civil activists in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan through post-colonial and critical development perspectives and add one more post-colonial voice in authentic theory-making. In contrast to conventional liberal feminist and civil society interpretations, I argue that the primarily criticised professionalisation of women activists and women NGOs in both countries does not eliminate the essence of civil society but rather opens up more considerable manoeuvring opportunities for the survival of Central Asian women civil society in patriarchal communities and repressive and fragile political environment. I argue that women activists have fashioned hybrid identity and strategies – developing expertise in women’s policy advocacy in cooperation with donors and the state while preserving a women’s civil society’s commitment to fighting for gender equality and women empowerment.

As a feminist post-colonial and critical development study, this research accurately approaches existing theories with a higher emphasis on empirical data. The latter is based on the data gathered for my PhD dissertation throughout the 2019 – 2022 years - participant field observations in different localities of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and problem-centred interviews with more than 40 prominent women civil activists.

In the light of the upcoming PhD defence and publication of a book, it will be a tremendous opportunity for me to share findings with similar academic intellectuals passionate about Central Asia.