Abstract

This paper will present an ongoing interdisciplinary research studying patriarchal social institutions and gender asymmetry in Central Asia primarily through feminist approach to social sciences. Based on social media analysis, political ethnography and semi-structured interviews with local and international experts, the paper answers the question why Central Asian region is experiencing increasing re-traditionalization of societies and revival of patriarchy manifest in the form of increased number of cases of domestic violence and violence against women. The research is built on and continues the previous project on multiple crises in the region, the author aims to place the “crisis of patriarchy” into the “vicious cycle” of “traditional and non-traditional” security threats that, according to Niklas Swanström (2010), the weakening states of Central Asia are facing. Gender roles and gender asymmetry play important roles not only in discussion of their relation to sustainable economic development and women empowerment in political representation but also in nation-building processes and nationalistic rhetoric in the region.