Fathi's article uses Soviet sources to review otins (women Islamic teachers) in Uzbekistan. It provides a good insight into the role of some women in Soviet society and how, despite Soviet attempts to promote atheism, otins helped to preserve Islam and tradition. Before describing otins, it reviews issues such as the bride price, legal age for marriage, marriage, polygamy, the hujum, the veil, parandja, etc. See also Fathi (2006).
Contents: The Soviet State and the Central Asian Woman; The Traditional Role of the Otines; The Role of the Otines in the Survival of Islam; The Mahalla: a Place of Memory; Initiation; Authority in the Community; The Central Asian Family: An Obstacle to the Emergence of Homo Sovieticus; Islam and Independence
Comments: 3/8/10
On page 31, Fathi partially defines otins as follows:
According to the Uzbek dictionary of Islamic vocabulary, the word otine (otyn) exists only in the feminine and designates an instructor who teaches in a Quranic school for girls at the elementary level (maktab); the dictionary also specifies that the otine directs religious ceremonies, spreads the faith, and is responsible for religious education. This definition takes for granted the presence of the Islamic juridical institutions which held sway over the various Muslim populations of Russian Turkestan: on the one hand, the customary and Sharia based tribunals, abolished by the decree of 14 June 1921 of the newly formed Soviet Republic of Turkestan; and on the other hand the religious schools, shut down in 1928. (This was in fact the peak year for the anti-religious policies embodied in the hujum).Fathi states that during Soviet times, otins preserved tradition with their influence among the women; that they were most active within the mahalla; and that they participated in mahalla councils. She also states that they began training at age seven and were initiated at age 40 as that is the age of the Prophet Muhammad when he first received his revelation. As Fathi describes on page 34, they preserved a popular understanding of Islam:
They were, however, forced to lead a clandestine existence, and they had only very meagre means at their disposal to fulfill their duties: the rare religious texts they were able to save were not enough to allow them to acquire an extensive and formal knowledge of Islam. It was for this reason that the form of Islam they preserved was one of popular and oral traditions, based on a transmission of rites and prayers that they had learned by heart and which they would recite without understanding their meaning.It is interesting to note that Privratsky (2001, 86) states with regard to a Ramadan breaking the fast meal:
My wife had been in another room with the women, where the experience was similar, except that the women did not recite the Quran themselves but perked up their ears and listened to the men recite it from the other room. The female mullahs (Uz. otin) who preserved Islam in Uzbek homes (Fathi 1997; Poliakov 1992: 72-74) were largely unknown to the Kazaks.Cross References: Fathi 2006
Descriptors: 1990s, ACTORS, archival, diversity, F, history, interview, journal, mahalla, otins, SITES, Soviet, Uzbeks, women.
