Culture and Modernity: Role of Turkmen Women in Shaping Turkmen Identity through Türkmençilik and Soviet Reforms

Abstract

As the first gendered interrogation of türkmençilik (Turkmenness), this thesis challenges dominant narratives that marginalize Turkmen women’s voices, exploring the dual role of Turkmen women as both upholders of patriarchal traditions and dynamic agents of national identity formation. While practices like arranged marriage, galyň (bride price), and virginity rituals reinforce gendered hierarchies, Turkmen women historically negotiated a cubic relationship—balancing the demands of the Soviet Party, patriarchal family structures, and türkmençilik. Through selective preservation, resistance, and adaptation, they reshaped traditions without fully surrendering to Soviet assimilation or patriarchal constraints. In doing so, they—perhaps unintentionally—forged a distinct Turkmen identity. This process is examined through an intergenerational lens, drawing on lived experiences, archival materials, locally produced scholarship accessible only within Turkmenistan, oral histories, folkloric traditions, and autoethnography.