The Role of Women in Non-Formal Education and Uyghur Cultural Preservation in Diaspora in Turkiye

• In Event: Gender and Global Citizenship Education in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Proposal

This presentation will explore the ways in which Uyghur women in diaspora are working to preserve their cultural traditions among the next generation through their participation in a Uyghur women’s bazaar in Istanbul. This bazaar, founded by a Uyghur (female) entrepreneur, and supporting the operation of small businesses run solely by Uyghur women, is an all-female space permitting only female customers to enter and shop within. As such, it provides a space for conservative Muslim Uyghur women to generate economic activity and support their families through a means that is acceptable within their own cultural values.

As Uyghur culture and language are increasingly under threat in their home region due to shifting Chinese government policies forbidding many forms of Uyghur cultural expression, Uyghurs in diaspora now have a more critical role in maintaining the resilience of the culture and transmitting it to the next generation. The efforts of the Uyghur community in diaspora towards cultural preservation are significant, as otherwise, Uyghur culture could disappear in a matter of years. However, a contentious question within the community in the sustenance of Uyghur culture has been the role of religion. Though this debate began in the Uyghur homeland, it has continued into the diaspora, with some strongly favoring a more secular approach and others a more conservative Islamic lifestyle. Nowhere is this difference more visible than among the Uyghur population in Turkiye.

Turkiye has one of the largest populations of recent Uyghur arrivals, and thus, unlike the growing population of Uyghurs who were born in diaspora, many Uyghurs in Turkiye still have a lived experience with Uyghur culture from the homeland. However, many Uyghurs in Turkiye practice a conservative form of Islam, demonstrated, for example, with women choosing to wear a hijab or niqab, and some even wearing a burka. Separation of genders is also very common in shared spaces. Women shop owners in the Uyghur women’s bazaar are religiously conservative, and some had not been permitted to work outside the home by their husbands prior to starting businesses in the bazaar where only women can enter.

Women usually play a critical role in maintaining the cultural identity of their communities. UNESCO argues that women transmit cultural heritage through their central role in most societies in caring for and educating their children (Mathilde VO, 2021). As the producers and reproducers of family life, they play a vital role in transmitting cultural values and traditions to future generations, especially when formal education venues (e.g., schools, religious institutions, etc.) for transmitting culture do not exist. This presentation will discuss the ways in which this Uyghur women’s bazaar provides the space for non-formal education, cultural preservation, women’s economic development and their empowerment through the lens of Islamic feminism (Abu-Lughod, 2013). Islamic feminism is a theoretical lens that challenges western assumptions about Muslim women that they need to be “freed” from Islam in order to be empowered. Not incidentally, this is also the narrative about Uyghur women currently being pushed by the Chinese state. Rather, Islamic feminism seeks to promote gender equality and women's rights within the context of Islamic beliefs and principles. Such a framing may enable western scholars to take a more critical approach to their research on Uyghur communities by shifting their own assumptions and biases. It will thus contribute to discussions about decolonizing the field of Uyghur Studies, much of which, due to the current political environment in the Uyghur homeland, is currently largely based in western institutions and on western theories of development. It also challenges the Chinese state narrative of what it means to be a ‘modern’ Uyghur woman.

Author

• Rebecca A Clothey, Drexel University