Social portrait of the Kazakh Muslim woman: a retrospective and a modern state

Abstract

In our days post-Soviet countries are experiencing a process of religious renaissance. For Kazakhstan this is due to the revival of Islam. As a result of the vacuum in the religious sphere, formed as a result of the seventy-year rule of atheistic ideology, there are contradictions in the scientific and social discourse on issues of Islam. One of them is the problem of women’s religiosity, especially the wearing of the hijab and the execution of religious practice. Untimely resolution of these issues can lead to social tension. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compile a social portrait of a Kazakh Muslim woman
The article deals with the works of Kazakh, Russian and foreign scholars dealing with this issue, as well as an analysis of expert interviews. To form the image of a Muslim woman in a traditional Kazakh society, visual methods (photo analysis) are used.
In the course of the study, a historical and religious analysis of the role of Islam in the life of the Kazakh people was prepared, and a retrospective portrait of a Muslim woman was compiled on the basis of historical data. Also modern trends in female religiosity have been explored. Hypotheses were
confirmed about the great prospects for the development of Islamic identity among the Kazakh people
and the absence of a single social portrait of a Muslim woman due to objective reasons in modern Kazakhstan
society. In the future, the data obtained can be used to prepare lectures on the following disciplines: religious
studies, history, ethnology, sociology of religion.
Key words: Muslim woman, Islam, hijab, tradition, ideology.