Gender roles and Muslim women’s activism in post-2014 Crimea

ABSTRACT

The article addresses changing gender roles and Muslim female activism in post-2014 Crimea. It focuses on the civil society organisation Crimean Solidarity (Krymskaia solidarnost’), which appeared in 2016 as a result of the Russian authorities’ criminalisation of Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Party of Islamic Liberation). At the time the study was conducted, August–November 2019, 70 male members of Hizb ut-Tahrir were in prison. Crimean Solidarity unites the families of arrested men, their lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, and other sympathisers. The article is based on interviews with the women of Crimean Solidarity and analysis of their public speeches during the organisation’s monthly meetings. I argue that the 2014 ‘Crimean crisis’ contributed to a change in gender roles in the families of arrested party members and opened up space for women activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir in public spheres previously occupied mainly by men. This study contributes to the ongoing academic discussions on gender roles, women’s agency, and empowerment in conflict zones. It also sheds light on the contemporary situation of the Crimean Tatar people in post-2014 Crimea.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender roles
• Muslim women’s activism
• Hizb ut-Tahrir
• Crimean Solidarity
• Crimean Tatars

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Arabic word salafiya means a return to the origins of the Islamic tradition and the example of the first Muslims – the pious predecessors (as-salaf as-salih). Crimean Tatars call Salafis ‘Wahhabis’ (after the eighteenth century Arabian Islamic reformer Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab).

2. The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist organisation founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. The movement’s self-stated aim is the establishment of a state ruled by sharia law. Its most famous slogan worldwide is ‘Islam is the solution’.

3. I informed all interviewees why the research is being conducted, that anonymity is assured, and how the data I was collecting are being stored. I recorded their voluntary consent to participate in my research. I could not seek approval to conduct interviews from a local ethics committee for approval because according to national law it is not required.

4. https://crimean-solidarity.org/.

5. https://www.facebook.com/crimeansolidarity.

6. The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea (DUMK), or the Crimean Muftiate, is a centralised Islamic organisation created in 1992 to coordinate processes in the religious life of Crimean Tatars. The Muftiate is headed by the mufti, who is elected by the delegates of the Qurultay of the Muslims of Crimea.

7. The Mejlis was formed in 1991 and for many years has functioned as a representative body of the Crimean Tatars both in relations to the Ukrainian state and the foreign states and organisations. In 2016 it was banned as an extremist organisation in Russia.

8. Speech at the monthly meeting of Crimean Solidarity on 29 June 2019.

9. Speech at the monthly meeting of Crimean Solidarity on 26 May 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elmira Muratova

Elmira Muratova is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Crimean Federal University in Simferopol. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Taurida National University (2005). Her major research topics include the Crimean Tatars, ethnic and religious relations and conflicts in Crimea, and the history and contemporary development of Islam in Crimea. Her most recent publications have been devoted to various issues relating to ethnic and religious developments among the Crimean Tatars following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.