Paper long abstract:

Women play a significant role in music-making, performance, and development of musical and poetic heritage in Tajikistan. They are very active in sharing their musical skills on various occasions of life cycle events. This paper discusses female musicians of Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast of Tajikistan, particularly focusing on the women’s involvement in the tradition of qasīda-khonī, a distinct musical, cultural practice of Central Asian Ismaili Muslims that has been shaped by history, language, geography, and religion. Based on the ethnographic research materials collected by the author, the paper examines the contribution of performers and how the tradition of qasīda-khonī has become an important genre for the expressions of women’s voices in Islam, despite the musical performance, and women’s participation in general, being condemned and regarded as unlawful and a deviation from religious norms by various orthodox religious authorities in Islam. However, women always have been active in music-making and performing in the Muslim world and have had access to a wider range of musical instruments and that is because the status, rights, privileges, and powers of women vary greatly in the Muslim cultures. (Shiloah, 1980; Morris and Rihtman, 1984; Doubleday, 1999).

The paper examines the attitude towards both music and women, historically shaped by Islamic religious doctrine and re-shaped by Soviet anti-religious policy. It also provides the contextual basis for an investigation of the qasīda-khonī tradition and the status and role of women involved in the performance, and the cultural and musical life of contemporary Tajikistan.