GENDER EQUALITY AND SECULARISM: ISSUES OF THE SEPARATION OF RELIGION FROM STATE POWER IN CENTRAL ASIA DURING THE COLONIAL REGIME

Abstract

Gender equality and secularism in the context of the Central Asian region during the period of tsarist rule represent complex processes that included both reformist movements and attempts to separate religion from the state. The article examines the ideas of Jadidism, an influential current of Muslim modernism that played a key role in the reforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Particular attention is paid to the views of the Jadids on gender equality, to their efforts to modernise education for women and to separate religious institutions from state structures. The discussions surrounding these questions are analysed, as well as the influence of the reformers on the public consciousness of that time.