Between the Posts, Into the Void: Making Sense of Feminism and Decolonization in Bishkek and Almaty

The specificity and variety of the experiences of feminist organizing in the former “sec- ond world” is rarely explored in the studies of transnational feminist praxis. This paper explores the (queer) feminist discourses of the region, described as the most “distant Other” of the former USSR – Central Asia. I look at the ways artists, activists, and aca- demics from two cities in the region, Bishkek and Almaty, articulate their understand- ings of feminism from an intersectional and decolonial perspectives. I argue that local (queer) feminist activists are producers of unique knowledge(s), bound neither to a “return to tradition” nor to accept ready-made solutions from the “West,” which posi- tions itself as an “origin” of contemporary debates on gender. By engaging with the inner coloniality of the feminist movements in the former USSR, the article contrib- utes to the transnational debates on the inclusivity of feminism(s).

Author

• Kravtsova, Victoria

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.30965/22142290-bja10036

Keyword

• Central Asia
• feminism
• postsocialism
• decolonization
• gender
• postcolonialism

Date created

• 2022

Related url

•  https://brill.com/view/journals/caa/caa-overview.xml

Type of Work

• Article

Source

• 22142290-bja10036

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Central Asian Affairs Journal

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/work/r781wg74c

In Collection:

• Central Asian Affairs

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