Sickle and Veil: Communist Gender and Policies Towards Muslim Minorities in Eastern Europe

Communist gender policies were often violent, placing many people, particularly women, in difficult and marginalized positions. Targeted individuals were rarely consulted, yet their clothing and bodily practices were consistently policed and politicized. Across Central Asia, veils, the fez, shalvari, circumcision, and even Muslim names were banned or stigmatized.

Sickle and Veil offers a comprehensive transnational history of communist gender policies by looking at how ideas about gender were crafted, travelled across borders, adapted to fit local needs, and negotiated at both community and personal levels in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. Drawing on extensive archival research across six languages and multiple countries, this book brings connectedness to the fore. By tracing internal developments, turning points, ruptures, and controversies, the book deconstructs established national historiographies. It demonstrates how Soviet policies in Central Asia significantly influenced the ways in which other communist regimes approached Muslim populations in their own contexts.

With attention to both high politics and everyday life, Sickle and Veil gives voice to those who resisted, complied with, or adapted to these interventions. It reveals how gender, religion, and power intersected in the communist imagination, and how policies directed towards religious minorities were driven not only by atheism but also by deeper anxieties about modernity, conformity, and control.