Turan Tales

My guest today, Almira Tabaeva, has been studying feminism and female agency in Central Asia. As an Uzbekistani citizen herself, she has drawn on her family archive and family memories to tell a bigger story about women in the region: their history, lives, and agency. Going against the currents of Western feminist thought, as well as the modernist ideas of the Soviet era, she has coined the term “Suzani feminism” to describe the reality of female agency in Uzbekistan. This is something we will discuss today.Almira holds a PhD in Education and is the author of articles on gender, education, and ethics in Central Asia. Her research draws on decolonial feminist theories and arts-based methods. Get full access to Turan Tales at turantales.substack.com/subscribe

The Ilkhom Theatre, founded in 1976 by Uzbekistani theatre director Mark Weil, is an institution like no other, not only in Central Asia but far beyond it. Brave, unconventional and visionary, it has provided a space for freedom of expression and social commentary, often going against the current despite a hostile political climate.And that spirit continued even after the tragic murder of its founder in 2007.To talk about the Ilkhom Theatre and the legacy of Mark Weil, I’m joined by Irina Bharat, Director of International Programs at the Ilkhom Theatre since 2005. Get full access to Turan Tales at turantales.substack.com/subscribe

In the context of Central Asia, there is one insufferable metaphor that makes my eyes roll every time I see it. And unfortunately, we all see it often. It’s the metaphor of the Great Game. Whether we are analyzing the diversification of Central Asian countries’ international partnerships or writing about investment in critical minerals, lazy editors love repeating the same old frame: the Great Game.But what if the metaphor were not only annoying but also inaccurate? What if the “Great Game” — the supposed 19th-century struggle for influence in Central Asia between the Russian and British empires — never existed?To talk about that, I am joined by Alexander Morrison, a historian of empire and colonial warfare at the University of Oxford. He is the author of numerous publications, including The Russian Conquest of Central Asia: A Study in Imperial Expansion, 1814–1914. Get full access to Turan Tales at turantales.substack.com/subscribe

In late June, my guest today and I travelled to Oziornoye, a Polish village in northern Kazakhstan. It was a special occasion: the 90th anniversary of the deportation of ethnic Poles from the eastern borderlands of the Soviet Union to Kazakhstan. But what exactly has the experience of Polish deportees in Kazakhstan been like?Today, we will talk about that with Ivan Sokolovskiy, an expert on the subject and a PhD candidate in Eurasian Studies at the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University. Get full access to Turan Tales at turantales.substack.com/subscribe

Since the 1990s, thousands of ethnic Kazakhs have left Chinese Xinjiang for Kazakhstan to live among their own people and escape Hanification. But crossing the border did not mean escaping China’s reach. Get full access to Turan Tales at turantales.substack.com/subscribe