Cultural parameters of gender policy making in contemporary Turkmenistan

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 567-583

  Liczek, Irina ^a  

^a NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER ROLE; POLICY MAKING;

ASIA; EURASIA; TURKMENISTAN; WEST ASIA;

EID: 33644513100     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-25-3-567     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Turkmenistan participated at the UN-sponsored Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. At this conference, Turkmenistan endorsed the Beijing Platform of Action that required all governments to take steps for improving the status of women for gender equality. In addition, Turkmenistan endorsed a number of international laws relevant to gender equality, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
2. Mala Htun, "Culture, Institutions, and Gender Inequality in Latin America," in Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, ed. Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Hungtington (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 189-99; quatation from 194.
3. Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, eds., The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 5.
4. Ibid., 4.
5. Martha Finnemore, National Interests in International Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
6. Ibid.
7. Shirin Akiner, "Social and Political Reorganization in Central Asia: Transition from Pre-colonial to Post-colonial Society," in Post Soviet Central Asia, ed. Touraj Atabaki and John O'Kane (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1998), 1-34.
8. Turkmen customary law regulated all aspects of nomadic life. Adat is an Arabic word meaning "custom."
9. Written Islamic law is based on the Koran and Prophet Muhammad's sayings. Other accounts explain that sharia includes not only religious instructions but Muslim civil and criminal legislation as well, laws covering aspects of everyday life, property, and decency. Turkmens accepted from sharia only issues of marriage, divorce, and division of property (see Ph. Mikhailov, "Polozhenie brak i razvod Tekinstsev zakapiskoy oblasti" ["The Status of Marriage and Divorce of the Teke Women from the Transcaspian Region"] [publisher and date unknown], 1-2).
10. It seems, however, that adat can be found in other Islamic societies beyond Central Asia. For instance, Norani Orthman's scholarship indicates the existence of adat in Malaysia. See also W. J. Karim, Women and Culture: Between Malay Adat and Islam (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992).
11. A. Lomakin, Obychnoe pravo Turkmen (adat) (The Common Law of the Turkmen [Adat]), 2nd ed. (Ashgabat, Turkmenistan: Ylym, 1993),7-8.
12. Bibi Palvanova, interview by author, Ashgabat, 21 November 2003.
13. Mikhailov, "Polozhenie brak i razvod," 1.
14. V. Belova, "Zhenotdely v Turkmenii (k X-letiju zhenotdelov)" ("Women's Departments in Turkmenia [Tenth Anniversary of Women's Departments]") Turkmenovedenie (Turkmen Science), nos. 7-12 (1928): 33-42.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Palvanova, interview by author, Ashgabat, 21 November 2003.
18. Mikhailov renders a clear description of this issue: "One has to take into account that the Teke tribe of Ashgabat were very poor and were making a living from agriculture, and due to insufficient water, the harvest was not enough to feed their families. Thus, to pay kalym was very difficult and often impossible to gather. In orderto become rich as soon as possible, the Teke sold their daughters for marriage at an early age. They wanted to get kalym installments and thus get access to more water, for watering their plots, because water was given only to married men without age limits. Polygamy among the Teke people was rather popular before the Russian rule" (Mikhailov, "Polozhenie brak i razvod," 14).
19. N. Bryullova-Shakolskaya, "Zhenshiny Turkmenistana" ("Women of Turkmenistan"), in Ot ichkari k Octyabrju (From Ichkari to October), ed. V. Nodelya (Tashkent, Uzbekistan: Sredazniga, 1927), 51-56.
20. Under Islamic law, marriage is legal only when consented to.
21. Mikhailov, "Polozhenie brak i razvod," 3-6.
22. Ibid., 4.
23. M. K. Gafarova, Duhovny oblick zhenshiny Sovetskogo Vostoka (The Spiritual Profile of the Women from the Soviet East) (Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Irfon, 1969), 72.
24. A. Djalilov, Iz istorii polozheniya zhenshin Srednei Azii do i posle rasprostraneniya Islama (The History of Women's Status in Middle Asia before and after the Spreading of Islam) (Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Irfon, 1974).
25. A. I. Mogilevsky, Okhrana prav zhenshin v Turkmenskoy SSR (The Protection of Women's Rights in the Turkmen SSR) (Ashgabad, Turkmenistan, 1979), 27.
26. However, according to Mikhailov, "The Koran considers polygamy as an inevitable evil, limiting the number of wives to four, while at the same time recommending monogamy" (Mikhailov, "Polozhenie brak i razvod," 4).
27. Lomakin, Obychnoe pravo, 2.
28. If a woman was divorced, the mullah had to check that three months had passed and that she was not pregnant, or that the mourning period ended if she was a widow (usually four months and ten days). In this manner it might be ensured that the bride was not pregnant, as marriage with a pregnant woman was invalid according to adat.
29. As a rule, kalym was received by the father of the bride, or in his absence by the close male relatives of the bride.
30. L. Vynuck, Uchenie zapiski (Scientific Notes) (Ashgabad, Turkmenistan: Ylym, 1968), 19.
31. M. Nurrulaeva, "Iz istorii raskreposheniya zhenshin Sovetskogo Vostoka" ("The History of Women's Emancipation in the Soviet East"), Kommunist Uzbekistana (Uzbek Communist) 2 (1974): 29-35.
32. Sovnarkom is the Council of People's Commissars. TsIK is an abbreviation for the Central Executive Committee.
33. Bibi Palvanova, Octyabr i zhenshiny Turkmenistana (October and the Women of Turkmenistan) (Ashgabad, Turkmenistan: Izdatelstvo "Turkmenistan," 1967), 30.
34. Djalilov, Iz istorii polozheniya zhenshin, 39.
35. Turkistan is the former name of Central Asia and was in effect until the administrative delimitation of the USSR.
36. Nurrulaeva, "Iz istorli raskreposheniya zhenshin," 45.
37. Palvanova, Octyabr i zhenshiny, 129.
38. Ibid., 111-12.
39. Bibi Palvanova, Emansipatsiia musul'manki (The Emancipation of Muslim Women) (Moscow: Nauka, 1982), 102.
40. Palvanova, Octyabr izhenshiny, 140.
41. Ibid., 152-53.
42. Ibid., 153.
43. Ibid., 154.
44. Gafarova, Duhovny oblick zhenshiny, 41.
45. The title of Palvanova's presentation was "The Status of Women of the Soviet Republics of Central Asia in Conditions of Social and Economic Progress" (United Nations, 8 January 1963).
46. Ibid., 2.
47. N. Vishneva-Safarovna, Soviet Women: A Portrait (Moscow: Progress, 1981), 35-36.
48. "International Instruments and National Standards relating to the Status of Women" (15 February 1972), 24, E/CN.6/573. New York: New York University Library.
49. "International Instruments and National Standards relating to the Status of Women, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Draft Resolution" (23 February 1972), E/CN.6/L.599/Rev. 3. New York: New York University Library.
50. Women in the USSR (On the UN Decade for Women) (Moscow: Progress, 1985).
51. Ibid., 24.
52. Ibid., 20.
53. Mala Htun, Sex and the State (London: Cambridge University Press 2003), 44.
54. Articles 7 and 16.
55. Turkmenistan became a UN member state on 2 March 1992, and consequently the United Nations opened a country office in 1994.
56. "The Beijing Women's Conference," in The World Conferences: Developing Priorities for the Twenty-First Century, Department of Public Information (New York: United Nations, 1997), 57.
57. The Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action (New York: United Nations, 1996), 116.
58. "The Beijing Women's Conference," 57.
59. Ibid., 62.
60. Ibid., 63.
61. The Women's Union was established in 1992 as a public organization with very close links to the government at all levels, It has structural subdivisions at the central level, and at local levels, in all the velayats (regions) and etraps (villages). During Soviet times the Women's Union existed as the Women's Council, and because of this history it was able to maintain its network at both central and local levels as well as maintain support and participation of the government in its activities. The goal of the Women's Union is to support women's rights, assist women in adaptation to the transition toward a market economy, and protect the health of women and children.
62. For instance, there were limitations on women's working night shifts and their employment in hazardous places, or the provision that forbids pregnant women or women who have children under age three to go on business trips. This was based in part on the assumption that men could not take on child care, that only women could.
63. Registration of women's NGOs under the Women's Union enabled activism and the development of the women's movement in Turkmenistan. Women's NGOs that wanted to be independent had difficulties with registering.
64. "Report on the National Action Plan Implementation as a Follow-up to the Beijing Platform of Action" (Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, 2001).
65. The education sector received 92 percent of its financial allocations from the state budget; the remaining 8 percent was covered by UNICEF funds. Likewise, the health sector received 87 percent of its funds from state allocations, and the remaining 13 percent was contributed by the World Health Organization.
66. I am referring to the cost sharing of the Women's Union in the UNDP gender projects.
67. The difference is that during Soviet times this structure was called the Women's Council and operated within the structure of the Communist Party, and its head office was in Moscow.
68. The enrollment of girls in primary education fell by 11 percent during 1989 and 1997, from 94.3 percent to 83.1 percent, respectively. Doran Bernard, "Running Hard, Falling Behind: Education in Central Asia," in Societies in Transition: A Situation Analysis of the Status of Children and Women in the Central Asian Republics and Kazakhstan 2000 (Almaty, Kazakhstan: UNICEF, 2001), 111-40.
69. Sometimes this trend is reversed as women are more ready to accept lower-remunerated jobs, whereas men are more exigent and therefore their unemployment period is longer. However, men are more likely to find a job since they are "more mobile professionally and do not bear the burden of housekeeping." See Gender Differentials in Socio-economic Indicators (Ashgabat, Turkmenistan: UN Population Fund [UNFPA], 2001), 37-38.
70. In Turkmenistan 26 percent of the members of Parliament are women, ranking it first among countries in Central Asia and eleventh in the world as far as the representation of women in the Parliament is concerned.
71. The first CEDAW report was submitted to the CEDAW Committee at the end of 2004.
72. Women's Status Report (Ashgabat, Turkmenistan: UNDP, 2001) 64.
73. Especially when written law - such as the constitution - has little meaning in practice and is not implemented and the judicial branch is not independent.
74. Women account for 54 percent of the population of Turkmenistan.