The Secular and the Religious in Tajikistan

Contested Political Spaces

Bibliographic Data

ID3941304
AuthorsHélène Thibault (0000-0002-4484-733X, University of Ottawa, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume42
Issue2
Pages173-189
Publication date2013-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-4298 • E-ISSN: 2042-0587
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0008429813479297
OpenAlexW2036748548
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

The increasing practice of Islam in Tajikistan in the last few years has contributed to rising social and political tensions. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Northern Tajikistan between May and October 2010, this article intends to highlight underlying religious tensions in Tajikistan, which, I argue, are the result of the emergence of conflicting voices contesting current political spaces. My intention is to revisit two concepts abundantly used in the religious literature. First, I intend to deconstruct the dichotomous relation between the state and society and try to uncover the power relations that lie behind the making, dissemination and understanding of narratives addressing the place of Islam in society. Second, I reconsider the categories of the secular and the religious by illustrating the porous character of these concepts in the Tajik context. I do so by providing accounts of local perceptions of religious politics expressed by politicians and bureaucrats, ordinary believers and representatives of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan. Finally, I argue that the coexistence of different sets of religious and secular norms reveals that the struggle for political power in Tajikistan is now increasingly articulated around religious issues

Context (archaeology · Ethnography · Geography · Islam · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Relation (database · Secular state · Secularism · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Soviet and Russian History

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