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This paper highlights the intergenerational transformation of gender norms in Uzbekistan by focusing on the shifting identities of women raised during the Soviet era and those coming of age in the post-Soviet Islamic revival. Drawing on oral histories, semi-structured interviews (taken from 40 mothers and their daughters), and authentic materials such as female magazines (Saodat, Guliston), current research work investigates how notions of womanhood, piety, labor, and autonomy have been questioned, inherited, or reinvented between mothers and daughters in society. Women raised under Soviet programs were shaped by concepts of socialist modernity, state feminism, and secular citizenship. In contrast, their daughters are growing up in a social environment increasingly molded by Islam, traditional norms, and neoliberal constraints. This generational distinction raises serious concerns regarding the way individuals live, behave, and form their moral identity. What remained of the Soviet “new woman” in modern-day Uzbekistan? How do women reconcile or oppose inherited expectations in the framework of religious resurgence and national rebirth?

This paper relies on various theories, such as Joan Scott’s notion of gender as a historical category and Saba Mahmood’s theory of pious agency, to explore how women negotiate structural shifts through embodied practice and private memory. It argues that generational dialogue between women is not merely a reflection of change but an active site of cultural production and historical consciousness. By focusing on women’s personal narratives, this study adds to the larger field of gender history by exposing how political transformations are internalized and reshaped in everyday life. It also contributes a Central Eurasian viewpoint to worldwide debates regarding the legacy of state feminism, the growth of religious identities, and the ongoing complexities of women's responsibilities in postcolonial cultures.

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The Zebiniso Girls' Boarding School in Tashkent was one of the first educational institutions for orphaned girls in Uzbekistan. It was founded on the principles of harmonious and comprehensive development for the new generation of girls.Unique for its time, the school provided more than just standard tuition-it offered singing and dance lessons, taught musical instruments, poetry writing, painting, and even sewing and embroidery techniques.Physical education was also a mandatory part of the curriculum.Organizing such a "new method" (usul-i jadid) school for girls was no easy feat, especially given the socio-political climate of the time.Religious radicalism was rising alongside a vibrant reform movement.The Kadimists favored preserving traditional lifestyles and religious practices, resisting the Jadid movement's efforts to modernize Islamic education and society.This period was particularly challenging for young women in Central Asia, as religious fanatics strongly defended their views.Attending such a progressive school could expose girls to risk.

Interestingly, some of the girls who attended Zebiniso were from families persecuted by the Soviet authorities. These children, due to their "undesirable" social origins, would normally have been excluded from educational opportunities under the Soviet regime.One of the teachers at the Zebiniso school was Zarifa Saidnosirova (1908-1986), a future prominent Uzbek chemist, and the female artist. She was the daughter of the Jadid Saidnosir Mirjalilov, who was executed by the Soviets. In order to protect herself, Zarifa hid her origins and changed her surname.It is clear that the founders of Zebiniso School were aware of Zarifa's heritage, and her presence at the school was an act of their tremendous courage.

Another notable graduate of Zebiniso was Sharifa Abdullaeva (1914–1989). Her father, Abdulla-xon, and uncle, Muhammad-xon, were financial backers of the Jadid periodical Sadoi Turkiston (1914-17). This journal played a crucial role in intellectual circles, gathering leading Jadid figures such as Munawwar Qari, Abdulla Awloni, Ḥamza Ḥakimzoda Niozi, and Abdulhamid Cholpon. Abdulla-xon was tortured by the Soviet Cheka to death.Another student who attended the Zebiniso School was Sora Eshontoʻrayeva (1911–1998), a future People's Artist of the USSR. Sora began her acting career in the school’s drama club, led by Abdurauf Fitrat. Later, upon Fitrat’s recommendation, Cholpon sent her to study in Moscow.

The Zebiniso School nurtured an entire generation of prominent female figures in education, science, culture, and the arts. Zebiniso Maktabi was a beacon of progressive thought for women, leaving an indelible mark on the national educational and cultural landscape of Post-Jadid Uzbekistan.

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This paper focuses on the role of women as grassroots peacebuilders in southern Kyrgyzstan following the violent conflict of June 2010. While women are commonly portrayted as victims in post-conflict narratives, this research highlights their contribution in rebuilding trust between ethnic groups and community resilience. This paper based on primary sources as reports from local NGOs, interviews with women leaders, media narratives and observations in the field, I examine how women initiated and led small-scale reconciliation efforts like informal dialogue between groups and community projects in Osh.

By using the frameworks of women peacebuilding and everyday citizenship, I argue that women’s actions though often ignored show a form of gendered governance from below, filling the vacuum left by the state institutions. Women-led NGOs and local informal women-leaders played a key role in mediating tensions, distributing humanitarian aid and creating safe spaces for dialogue between communities. These efforts contributed to the long-term peacebuilding and redefined women’s roles in the public sphere. These women’s collective actions show a form of everyday governance and social transformation, demonstrating moral and gendered nature of citizenship in Kyrgyzstan.

By centering women's post-conflict activism, this paper contributes to the broader field of gender history in Central Eurasia, it is challenging assumptions about women’s political invisibility and passive position in conflict and post-conflict contexts. It reveals how women’s informal leadership operates as both a survival strategy and a form of transformative agency, offering a new view the intersection of gender, power and peace in the region.

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The proposed paper examines gender relations in the Buryat-Mongolian community, focusing on women’s agency in sustaining Buryat-Mongolian identity amid Eurocentric hegemony in the 21st century. The Buryats, a Mongolic people, pursued a nomadic way of life in Central Asian steppes before their lands were colonized by the Russian Empire in the 17th century. The Soviet regime fueled the erosion of their livelihoods and ethnonational identity by interfering in the local economy and social structure, eliminating the traditional Mongolian script, and prohibiting religious practices and Buddhist learning. The collapse of the Soviet Union marked a new era for the Buryat-Mongols that opened opportunities to revive its ethnocultural tradition, while bringing new challenges posed by globalizing Western modernity.

I argue that amid these shifts women’s agency has emerged as a de facto underlying force that has helped sustain collective Buryat-Mongolian identity. This is seen in the creation of matrilineal genealogy as a way to ensure clan’s vitality despite persistently patriarchal structures; feminization of lay Buddhism to support the post-communist revival of the Buddhist tradition; reconfigurations in intrahousehold work and care arrangements under market-based economic conditions; and women’s leadership and social organization in preserving Buryat-Mongolian language and cultural heritage. The scope of women’s agency, however, has been constrained by colonial policies of the authoritarian state, as well as broader geopolitical and socio-economic forces. Nonetheless, women have leveraged power structures, transnational networks, and community-based mechanisms to navigate Eurocentric hegemony and sustain Buryat-Mongolian identity.

In existing scholarship, the history of Buryat-Mongols has largely been relegated to the margins of Eurocentric hegemonic discourse with little consideration of their agency, whereas the gender lens of this history has been nearly absent. To address this gap, my study—based on over 200 interviews and fieldwork conducted in Buryatia, Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and India between 2019 and 2024—offers a gender perspective on the Buryat-Mongolian community by illuminating gender strategies and practices that support its vitality. This research seeks to challenge conventional conceptions, Eurocentric approaches, and patriarchal narratives by moving away from the marginalization of women towards recognizing their agency, power, and resilience in a decolonial context. In doing so, it serves to shape a more holistic ethnocultural landscape and create a more granular understanding of gendered experiences in Eurasia, while contributing to the decolonization of knowledge and thinking.