Paranja Explained

Paranja, paranji, or faranji (from ;[1],, ; ;) is a traditional Central Asian robe for women and girls that covers the head and body.[2] [3] It is also known as "burqa" in Arabic. It is similar in basic style and function to other regional styles such as the Afghan chadari. The part that covered the face, known as the chachvan (;) or chashmband, was heavy in weight and made from horsehair. It was especially prevalent among urban Uzbeks and Tajiks,[4] [5] but was not commonly worn by people in the mountainous regions of Tajikistan. It was also worn during the Shaybanids' rule (1510–1600).[6]

In the 1800s, Tajik and Uzbek Muslim women were required to wear paranja when outside their home.[7] Paranji and chachvon were by 1917 common among urban Uzbek women of the southern river basins. This was less frequently worn in the rural areas, and scarcely at all on the nomadic steppe.

One historical account of the paranja is from Lord Curzon, who travelled to Bukhara in 1886.[8] During his time there he never saw a woman between the ages of 10 and 50, for they were all concealed. The heavy black horsehair veils were "too bad and coarse for a seive", the women walking in loosely wrapped blue gowns with the empty sleeves pinned could have been "mistaken for clothes wandering about", and big leather boots covered their feet.[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Curzon noted that "Ladies of rank and good character never venture to show themselves in any public place or bazaar." He condemned this as a kind of tyranny, an exaggerated and erroneous notion of morality found everywhere in the East, but nowhere so striking as in Bukhara.[14] [15]

In the beginning of the Soviet Union under Lenin's leadership, following Russia's October Revolution which brought about state atheism, Soviet officials accepted the covered women since Muslims were seen as allies with early communists of Russia against the old regime and the Russian Orthodox Church. Later under Stalin, however, Soviets sought to discourage or ban the veil and the paranja.[16] [17] The unveiling by the Soviets was called the hujum in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR).[18] As the Soviet Communists secured their control of Central Asia, chachvans and paranjas were banned.[19] [20] The paranjas were burned on orders of the Communists, who upheld the doctrine of Marxist-Leninist atheism.[21] In the 1920s, the government "brought gangs of militant young atheists to Central Asia who physically assaulted women, often tearing the veil from their faces in the streets of Tashkent, Samarkand, and other cities."[22] However, some veil-wearing Muslim women responded by killing the women who were sent to take their veils off.[23] Some Uzbeks violently opposed the anti-paranja, anti-child marriage and anti-polygamy campaign which was started by the Soviet Union.[24]

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan President Emomali has claimed that veils were not part of Tajik culture.[25] The veil was attacked by the government of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev.[26] [27] [28] They are seldom worn now in Central Asia while most devout Muslim women prefer hijab or headscarf.

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Словник ісламізмів . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180311021425/http://www.jnsm.com.ua/cgi-bin/u/book/mySIS.pl?showSISid=46609864-4036&pageSISid=3&action=showSIS&h=f . 11 March 2018 . 24 April 2018 . Словник ісламізмів.
  2. Book: Ahmad Hasan Dani. Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson. Unesco. History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Development in contrast : from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. 1 January 2003. UNESCO. 978-92-3-103876-1. 357–.
  3. Book: Kamoludin Abdullaev . Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan . Shahram Akbarzaheh . 27 April 2010 . Scarecrow Press . 978-0-8108-6061-2 . 129– . Faranji (Paranja). (...) [The] term is (...) used for a cloak designed to cover the head, face, and body of Tajik females. The traditional Tajik faranji is a light robe made of silk or cotton with vestigial sleeves on the back and ornamented with embroidery, tassels, buttons, or other decoration. The Faranji is paired with a veil made of heavy horsehair that is used to conceal the woman's face. Before the Soviet period, women and girls were required to wear a faranji over the top of the head upon leaving the household. This garment was popular among (...) the females in the urban Tajik North (primarily the regions of Ferghana, Bukhara, and Samarqand); women in the mountainous regions of Tajikistan, including Badakhshon, were not familiar with the faranji and never covered their faces..
  4. Web site: Traditional Costume of Uzbek Women of the Late 19th and 20th Centuries Khorezm - San'at - Archive of San'at magazine. sanat.orexca.com. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171012083804/http://sanat.orexca.com/2009/2009-4/binafsha_nodir-2/. 12 October 2017.
  5. http://www.karakalpak{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. com/jegde.html
  6. Web site: From the History of the Evolution of Uzbek National Costume - San'at - Archive of San'at magazine. sanat.orexca.com. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170217053910/http://sanat.orexca.com/2006/2006-3/national_costume/. 17 February 2017.
  7. Web site: Asian Muslim Women's Fashion History. www.aquila-style.com. 24 April 2018. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170818060350/http://www.aquila-style.com/focus-points/asian-muslim-womens-fashions-of-the-past/8011/. 18 August 2017.
  8. Web site: Face veil, womens, (chachvan), looped construction, horsehair/ cotton, unknown maker (gypsy nomad woman), Russian Turkestan, c. 1900. www.powerhousemuseum.com. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160820071037/http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=12271. 20 August 2016.
  9. Web site: Bokhara - The forbidden city. eurasia.travel. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170510083829/http://eurasia.travel/uzbekistan/cities/bukhara/history_of_bukhara/bokhara_-_the_forbidden_city/. 10 May 2017.
  10. Book: Craig Benjamin. Samuel N. C. Lieu. Samuel N. C. Lieu . Walls and Frontiers in Inner-Asian History: Proceedings from the Fourth Conference of the Australasian Society for Inner Asian Studies (A.S.I.A.S) : Macquarie University, November 18-19, 2000. 2002. Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University. 978-2-503-51326-3.
  11. Book: Eliakim Littell. Robert S. Littell. Littell's Living Age. 1889. T.H. Carter & Company. 438–. Book: The Living Age. 1889. Littell, Son and Company. 438–. Book: The Fortnightly Review. 1889. Chapman and Hall. 130–. Book: The Fortnightly. 1889. Chapman and Hall. 130–.
  12. Book: Ronald Grigor Suny. Terry Martin. A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin. 29 November 2001. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-534935-1. 194–.
  13. Book: Douglas Northrop. Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia. 4 February 2016. Cornell University Press. 978-1-5017-0296-9. Book: Russia in Central Asia in 1889 & the Anglo-Russian Question. 1889. Longmans, Green, and Company. 175–. archived PDF Web site: [Ronald Grigor Suny, Terry Martin] a State of Nati(BookZZ.org) . 2016-08-02 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160814182435/https://www.scribd.com/document/233753278/Ronald-Grigor-Suny-Terry-Martin-a-State-of-Nati-BookZZ-org . 2016-08-14 .
  14. Book: Ármin Vámbéry. Sketches of Central Asia: Additional Chapters on My Travels, Adventures, and on the Ethnology of Central Asia. 1868. Wm. H. Allen & Company. 170–171. archived
  15. Book: Craig Benjamin. Samuel N. C. Lieu. Samuel N. C. Lieu. Walls and Frontiers in Inner-Asian History: Proceedings from the Fourth Conference of the Australasian Society for Inner Asian Studies (A.S.I.A.S) : Macquarie University, November 18-19, 2000. 2002. Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University. 978-2-503-51326-3.
  16. Book: Bourdeaux . Michael . Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2003 . 2002 . Taylor & Francis . 9781857431377 . 46 . en.
  17. Web site: Background: Women and Uzbek Nationhood. Human Rights Watch. 16 September 2010. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20081102085930/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/uzbekistan/Uzbek0701-01.htm. 2 November 2008.
  18. Web site: Citizenship in Soviet Uzbekistan . Hierman . Brent . January 20, 2016 . Dissertation Reviews . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20161201081736/http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/13361 . December 1, 2016 .
  19. Web site: Tajik women's paranja. www.powerhousemuseum.com. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160307193306/http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=319780. 7 March 2016.
  20. Book: Kamoludin Abdullaev. Shahram Akbarzaheh. Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. 27 April 2010. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-6061-2. 381–.
  21. Book: Aray . Osman . Eyyuboğlu . B. Baykal . Kikō . Sōgō Kenkyū Kaihatsu . The newly independent states of inner Asia and Turkey's policy . 1999 . National Institute for Research Advancement . 9784795574175 . 577 . en.
  22. Book: 46. 21 October 2010. Global Security Watch--Central Asia. ABC-CLIO. Reuel R. Hanks. In an extreme case from the 1920s, the government promoted the khudjum campaign, a movement that encouraged women to voluntarily discard the paranja, as the veil is called in the Turkic-speaking regions, but also brought gangs of militant young atheists to Central Asia who physically assaulted women, often tearing the veil from their faces in the streets of Tashkent, Samarkand, and other cities..
  23. Web site: Clothes of the Past. www.khiva.info. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171015041719/http://www.khiva.info/gb/clothes_earr/cl_of_past.htm. 15 October 2017.
  24. Web site: The untold story of Uzbekistan's dancer extraordinaire. www.aquila-style.com. 24 April 2018. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170818070326/http://www.aquila-style.com/focus-points/mightymuslimah/tamara-khanum/26863/. 18 August 2017.
  25. News: Pannier . Bruce . April 1, 2015 . Central Asia's Controversial Fashion Statements . Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150715184950/http://www.rferl.org/content/central-asia-fashion-islamic-risque-western-national-mentality/26932437.html . July 15, 2015 .
  26. News: 'Women in mini skirts don't become suicide bombers'. BBC News . 13 August 2016. 24 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171025174249/http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-36846249. 25 October 2017.
  27. Web site: Kyrgyz Women Warned Of Dangers Of Islamic Dress. 29 July 2016 . 24 April 2018. www.rferl.org. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20161005142834/http://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-islam-hijab-women/27888178.html. 5 October 2016.
  28. Web site: #Биз Кайда Баратабыз? . . 2016-08-14 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20170710011625/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QjZIRFi2n4 . 2017-07-10 . https://youtu . be/8QjZIRFi2n4 Web site: Photo . 2016-08-14 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160828025857/http://presskg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2-23.jpg . 2016-08-28 .

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