Moral Economies of Reproduction in Central Asia and the Caucasus

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Bringing together ethnographic research and critical perspectives on reproductive economies, this panel interrogates the intersections of moralities, markets, religious ethics, and agency in Central Asia and the Caucasus. We explore how infertility treatments, egg donation, and surrogacy are shaped by market forces and embedded in social norms and religious frameworks, where gendered expectations of motherhood, family honor, and economic survival converge in complex ways.

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are increasingly available in Central Asia and the Caucasus, yet access remains stratified—shaped by geographic and economic inequalities and negotiated within contested moral landscapes, where state policies, religious discourses, and gender expectations define normative reproductive behaviors. In Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, both patients and care providers legitimize ARTs by emphasizing adherence to Islamic prohibitions against third-party reproduction, positioning biomedical care as a morally permissable conduit for the divine will.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan and Georgia have emerged as key hubs for surrogacy and egg donation—practices often stigmatized as commodified reproductive labor, despite serving as vital income sources for women supporting their families. In Kazakhstan, surrogates adopt elaborate secrecy strategies to conceal their work, while those who migrate to Georgia benefit from the separation from their home communities and relative anonymity. Georgian surrogate mothers reconcile surrogacy and motherhood by framing surrogacy as a morally acceptable way to fulfill their maternal role while using linguistic and emotional strategies to differentiate the surrogate child from their own.

This panel contributes to broader discussions on gendered economies, evolving moral frameworks, and religious discourses in post-socialist contexts.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Madeleine Reeves, U of Oxford (UK)

Papers

• Moral Conceptions: Religious Contexts of Fertility Care in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - Shahnoza Nozimova, George Mason U

• Managing Stigma, Framing Labor: Transnational Surrogacy between Kazakhstan and Georgia - Polina Vlasenko, U of Akron

• Surrogacy as a Maternal Duty: Reconciling Poverty, Morality, and Motherhood in Georgia - Elene Gavashelishvili, Ilia State U (Georgia); Nino Rcheulishvili, Ilia State U (Georgia)

Discussant

• Inna Leykin, Open U (Israel)