Representations of Armed Women in Soviet and Post-Soviet Tajikistan: Describing and Restricting Women’s Agency

Abstract

In both Soviet and post-Soviet Tajikistan, representations of armed women are a key propaganda topic for the regime, as it allows the production and imposition of gender roles, including norms of femininity. This article analyses the representations of armed women presented in both the state press and state-funded research in Soviet and post-Soviet Tajikistan. The analysis reveals the making of the Soviet periphery and questions the continuities and ruptures between Soviet and post-Soviet regimes. Part one analyses how Tajikistani armed women were represented in the collective memories of the Great Patriotic War, revealing gender hierarchies and hierarchies between Soviet centre and periphery. In the second part of the article, I analyse how representations of armed women changed in the post-Soviet regime. In the post-conflict context, women are mainly celebrated by the nationalist state for their peaceful attitude and “pure” behaviour. Whilst Tajikistani women are encouraged to join the police forces by the government, the state press dedicated to women promotes a double burden for women: to be a woman in uniform and to be a mother.