Islam, Gender and Education in Kazakhstan (Central Asia)

Islam, Gender and Education in Kazakhstan Nazgul Mingisheva (Karaganda Bolashak University, Kazakhstan) [e-mail] Paper presented at the ASN World Convention Columbia University, April 19-21 2012 Please do not cite without the author’s permission © Nazgul Mingisheva

Abstract My paper is focused on the preliminary results and hypothesis of my research on Islam, gender and education in present-days Kazakhstan. The research purpose is to discover some relationships between dynamically developed Islam and present gender relations, in particular, among young people. The Kazakh officials started to build the concept of traditional Islam in the last years. I would research how the governmental discourse about understanding of Islam shapes young people’s discourse. In addition, I consider some attitudes of young male and female about family, education, work, public, and religious values. The basic research method is open interview with senior male and female students who identify themselves as Muslims and represent gender inequality in their discourses. My fieldwork consists of observations for last two years and interviews completed from October to December of 2011 in Karaganda city in Central Kazakhstan. Introduction After the extremist attacks in Western and Southern Kazakhstan in October and November of 2011 and the governmental declaration to design the concept of the traditional (moderate) Islam in Kazakhstan it is the time to rethink and re-interpret social processes through religious, powerful, and gender relations to better understand how Islam and authorities could shape gender discourses in present-days Kazakhstan. I would suppose that young people represent how gender attitudes are changed and constructed under religious and power discourses. The object of my research is young men and women who identify themselves as Muslims and study at universities in Kazakhstan. For recent years a number of such students are growing. It is evident when these

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