Fashioning the nation: Gender and politics of dress in contemporary Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This article investigates gendered nationalist ideologies and their attendant myths and narratives in present-day Kyrgyzstan through an investigation of clothing items and practices. Clothes “speak volumes,” revealing tensions between gendered narratives of nationhood and various interpretations of what “proper” Kyrgyz femininities and masculinities should be. Clothing thus becomes both a sign and a site of the politics of identity, inscribing power relations and individual strategies of Kyrgyz men and women onto their bodies. Individual clothing choices and strategies take place within the general context of discursive struggles over what authentic and appropriate representations of Kyrgyzness should be. Thus, such clothing items as ak kalpak (conical felt hats) and the practice of Muslim women covering their head (hijab) acquire social and political meanings that stand for wider processes of identity contestations in the country.

The Mosaic of Muslim Religiosity and Social‐Political Attitudes in Kyrgyzstan: A Gender‐Based Exploration

“…The issue of whether girls should have the right to wear the headscarf (hijab) in school is not trivial because this issue symbolizes one highly visible aspect of the apparently never‐ending struggle between the secular government and various members of the Islamic community (see Suyarkulova for details). The quote from McBrien and Pelkmans's informant who is quoted in our review of the literature certainly suggests that some Muslims see the headscarf as a definite negative symbol.…”

Marriage quandaries in Central Asia

“…Young men are pressured to marry before they leave for work to more firmly tether them to their villages and homes (Isabaeva, 2011;Reeves, 2011;Ibañez-Tirado, 2019). Single women working abroad are fretted over by family and nationalists alike (Roche, 2016;Suyarkulova, 2016;McBrien, 2020). Power relations, inequality and subordination are thus part of marriage relations -a dimension that feminist studies have addressed since the 1970s.…”

Gender and nation in post-Soviet Central Asia: From national narratives to women's practices

“…Mohira Suyarkulova (2016) has been researching this topic in Kyrgyzstan, in the context of religious and ethnic revival. She shows that clothing reflects the dialectical relations between nationalism and gender narratives very clearly, and the conflicting and sometimes violent practices they bring about.…”