Details

Abstract / Summary

TITLE: New Path (Selected Pages). DESCRIPTION: In 1925, the Women's Division of the Communist Party in the newly formed Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic created an Uzbek-language women's magazine, Yangi Yo'l [New Path]. Its content was created mostly in Uzbek, by Uzbek writers, for an Uzbek-speaking public. Yangi Yo'l's core mission explained to Uzbek women that their lives could improve, if women would take advantage of new opportunities: gaining literacy, sending daughters to school, working for pay outside the home, learning about their rights under Soviet law, and becoming politically active. The magazine was published monthly from 1925 until 1933. The 1929 issues continue themes found in previous years: the value of education for girls, support of unveiling, condemnation of violence against unveiled women, and participation in labor. A new theme also emerged: a legal ban of the paranji (women's veiling robe). Authors stressed that this was not just a Party idea; many Uzbek women were calling on the government to ban veiling as a solution to the violence against unveiled women. Authors also taught their readers about new Soviet Uzbek laws on marriage. As of 1928, Sharia was no longer in use, and the Uzbek code for marriage set minimum age for marriage for girls at 16 and for boys at 18. Other laws prevented polygyny, insisted that girls' ages be checked before a marriage could be registered, and required a person’s own consent. Early issues from 1929 told stories about law-breakers arranging marriages for young girls and about the process of legal Soviet marriage registration. Other articles discussed Islamic laws on marriage, contrasting those with Soviet laws. Although writers for Yangi Yo'l agitated throughout 1929 for a ban on paranji-wearing, they learned in June 1929 that the Uzbekistan Communist Party had decided against such a decree and had declared that this agitation showed the women's incorrect understanding of the Party's correct path toward change. The 1929 issues demonstrated a growing adherence to the "Party line." The journal began focusing closely on whatever the Party decided was the issue of the day, such as increasing literacy among women or mass collectivization of agriculture. Throughout 1929, the journal devoted increased attention on religion, and by the end of the year, a new member of the editorial staff, Sobira Xoldarova, was making her influence clear. Xoldarova, a committed Communist, was rescued by the Party from an early marriage and difficult life, and then was educated at a Party institution in Moscow. When she returned to Uzbekistan, she edited the journal Xudosizlar [The Godless], which belonged to the Party's atheist group. Her articles attacking religion and Islam as restrictive for women appear in issue 11. Yangi Yo'l's authors were convinced that the Soviet government would bring beneficial progress and change and that women themselves should actively participate and bring those changes into their own lives and families. The earliest copies, from 1925 and 1926, had print runs of 2,000 copies. By 1928, the print run expanded to 4,000, and in 1929 to 6,500. The journal was published in Arabic-script Uzbek language until 1930. The selected pages from this issue are accompanied by a brief English summary and translation, compiled and created by scholar Marianne Kamp.

Field of Interest

Women and Social Movements

Collection

Women and Social Movements, Modern Empires Since 1820

Copyright Message

English-language summary and translation, © Marianne Kamp, 2016

Content Type

Periodical article

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Page Count

11

Publication Year

1929

Source Title

Yangi Yo’l [New Path], no. 7, 1929, pp. 3-4, 8-10, 16-17

Subject

Women and Social Movements, History, Women and Social Reform, Women and Rights, Women and Family, Women and Education, Mujer y Reforma Social, Mulher e Reforma Social, Mujer y Derechos, Direitos da Mulher, Mujer y Familia, Mulher e Família, Mujer y Educación, Mulher e Educação, Uzbequistão, Communist Party. Women's Division, Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic, Uzbekistan, Political and Human Rights, Indigenous Women, Women and Education, Women, Colonization, Empire, and Post Coloniality, Equal Rights for Women, Social and Political Leadership, Empire and Education, Empire and Family Life, Northern Uzbek, 20th Century in World History (1914--2000)

Topic

Equal Rights for Women, Social and Political Leadership, Empire and Education, Empire and Family Life

Translator

Marianne Kamp, fl. 2000

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Mujer y Reforma Social, Mulher e Reforma Social, Mujer y Derechos, Direitos da Mulher, Mujer y Familia, Mulher e Família, Mujer y Educación, Mulher e Educação, Uzbequistão