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Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to examine the activities of female elites in religious endowment (waqf) economy of cultural and religious establishments as well as their involvement in rental agreements and sale transactions as lessor and purchaser accordingly.

Paper long abstract:

The role of women in daily life of Central Asian, especially Khorezmian society in the Late Modern period, and their participation in socio-economic and cultural relations remains one of the least studied and often misinterpreted topics of scholarship. There are certainly enough reasons for such a lacuna in historiography and misperception in many existing literatures. In particular, the historical works and manuscripts produced in Central Asia, of course, do not commonly depict or even contain general information about the social and economic positions of women in society. Because this topic is far from the goals of these historical sources and, most importantly, the day-to-day activity of women in society heavily influenced by Islamic culture, which has been regarded as rigid taboo and often viewed reality behind the scenes. However, the existence of qāḍī documents that illustrate counter side of the phenomena, thus make us to rethink the gender history of the region. In particular, some traces of women’s involvement in the share of inheritance, in the act of benevolence and property relations in the 19th – early 20th centuries can be observed in notarial acts from Khorezm, which have survived to the present day.

The aim of this paper is to examine the activities of female elites in religious endowment (waqf) economy of cultural and religious establishments such as madrasas, mosques, tombs, premises of Koran reciters (qārīkhānas) on the basis of notarial deeds. Moreover, I shall also focus on the bulk of rental agreements and sale transactions that reflect the involvement of royal ladies in these practices as lessor and purchaser (or seller) accordingly.

The paper is based on waqf deeds and other types of notarial documents, which are held in the National Archive of Uzbekistan under the inventory numbers I-125 – ‘The Archive of the Khans of Khiva’ and I-323 – ‘The Collection of Waqf Deeds’. There are more than 100 lease and sale documents of female elites in the inventory number I-125, whereas ‘The Collection of Waqf Deeds’ comprises more than 50 waqf deeds that deal with the activity of women in various positions. Hitherto, these archival sources have not been introduced by researchers into the scientific circulation and they have been leaving untouched. Therefore, this type of primary source is quite important for the study of gender relations in Central Asia.

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Paper short abstract:

This is the first study of gender and women’s experiences during the Kazakh famine. The social norms of the Kazakh society provided different options for males and females. I propose to gender the famine by discussing three themes: motherhood, son preference, and sexual violence and sexual barter.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is the first study of gender and women’s experiences during the Kazakh famine of 1930-1933. I propose to gender the famine by focusing on three major themes. Firstly, I provide a discussion of motherhood in this time of calamity. Motherhood, or traditional parental norms more broadly, collapsed in a similar way to other catastrophes across the world. Yet, it is also important to understand the specifics of Kazakhstan on this matter. The second part offers a discussion of who survived the famine. I argue that many parents preferred saving their sons at the expense of their daughters and consequently more boys survived the famine than girls. What is called son preference manifested itself strongly in this time of calamity; what was important was to save the lineage of a man which was defined exclusively in terms of male heirs. The last part discusses sexual violence and sexual barter. I show that rape and prostitution were less widespread in Kazakhstan, while sexual violence and barter frequently took a different form. Instead of directly raping them, abusers usually forced women to marry them as second wives. Unlike many examples in world history, sexual barter usually took place not between women and men, but between abuser men and male relatives of female victims. Fathers sold their daughters and husbands sold their wives for food. Son preference and sales of females are reflections of how strongly patriarchal the nomadic society was.