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Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 25.3 (2005) 567-583



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Cultural Parameters of Gender Policy Making in Contemporary Turkmenistan

This study examines the historical progression of the main cultural parameters that influence gender policy making in contemporary Turkmenistan. The central question addressed is how Turkmenistan accommodated the progressive international commitments it made to improving the status of women while simultaneously openly supporting the revival of patriarchal trends based on customs and a religious heritage dating back to nomadic times.1 To answer this question, I disaggregate “culture” into pre-Soviet patriarchal nomadic practices, Soviet-era egalitarianism, and the current postindependence era, in which global norms of gender equality, as introduced by international organizations and endorsed by Turkmenistan, are combined with a resurgence of the pre-Soviet norms.

The rich literature on the subject indicates that before the Russian presence in the area, the roles of men and women were prescribed by nomadic customs and later by religious practices of Islamic origin. Age-old local cultural traditions and customs mingled with elements of the Islamic faith and regulated women’s place and role in society on terms unequal with those of men. Officially, Turkmen customary law was maintained in parallel with written Islamic law until the October Revolution of 1917.

The main achievements related to women’s emancipation occurred during Soviet times, and they aimed to discredit the local culture and religion as backward and reactionary. The Soviet power developed a comprehensive legislative basis that guaranteed the equality of men and women in family life and society for the first time in the histories of the region. The goal of attracting women to the construction of socialism involved a tireless campaign for changing [End Page 567] their traditional cultural outlook through long-lasting educational agendas and multiple opportunities to undertake public roles, such as formal employment and political leadership, on the same level as men.

Falling back on these two opposing legacies, and functioning within an atmosphere of nation-state building that tries to revive anything “Turkmen,” the current parameters of the situation of women in Turkmenistan maintain the progressive Soviet legislation along with the conservative pre-Soviet discourse that puts traditions and customs of a patriarchal nature at the forefront of human relations. At the same time, new commitments have been assumed in the international arena, namely, to promote gender equality and to undertake measures to advance women’s status in Turkmenistan.

It is in this context that the question of what role culture plays in defining gender relations in Turkmenistan is investigated. As Mala Htun argues, “Cultural norms and values provide frames within which changes in gender relations are interpreted and determine how different societies conceive of achieving gender equality.”2 Following Htun’s line of thought, in the first two parts of this study I provide a historical account of the main cultural trends that defined women’s status in the Turkmen society until independence. In the third part of this article I present the commitments Turkmenistan has made in international forums since independence, specifically to advance women’s status and overall gender equality. Taking Htun’s argument a step further, I investigate the current conditions created for gender equality policy wherein the synthesis of the local culture of Turkmenistan and the new culture of international organizations on gender equality will be explored.

The literature on international norms, especially those works that specifically address the impact of international organizations on the behavior of states, through the concept of “socialization,” a process by which international norms are internalized and implemented domestically, is relevant to the proposed analysis. The importance of international norms and their diffusion in the domestic politics of states has been highlighted in recent constructivist literature by scholars such as Martha Finnemore, Thomas Risse, Margaret Keck, and Kathryn Sikkink. Their works point out that socialization of international norms that brings changes in domestic political configurations of particular nations “crucially depends on the establishment and the sustainability...

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