"The Past as Prologue?"

A New Publication

Timur Kocaoglu, "The Past as Prologue? Challenging the Myth of the Subordinated, Docile Woman in Muslim Central Eurasia," In: Gender Politics in Post-Communist Eurasia, edited by Linda Racioppi and Katherine O'Sullivan See. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, 2009.

In his chapter on Muslim women, Professor Timur Kocaoglu of Koc University, Istanbul, examines the activities of the pre-Soviet Muslim and Turkic reformists in Central Eurasia, including Crimea, who promoted women's emancipation and political rights of women at least two decades before the Soviets came to power. Early Soviet leaders cultivated the myth of subordinated Muslim women and took credit for the developments in subsequent years. Professor Kocaoglu shows that this myth not only misrepresented the political reform movements among the Muslim societies in Russia but it still persists today in scholarly literature. He also discusses the activities of Shefika Gaspirali (1886-1975) in Crimea, which were an important part of the modernist movement to educate and emancipate Muslim women.
The text of " Past as Prologue?" is available here in PDF format. (760 KB)

Posted: 14 February 2010.