page_title: Hujum
section_title: Uzbek reactions
hierarchical_section_title: Hujum / Uzbek reactions
caption_attribution_description: Azad Qadın heykəli
context_page_description: Hujum was a series of policies and actions taken by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, initiated by Joseph Stalin, to remove all manifestations of gender inequality, especially on the archaic systems of female veiling and seclusion practiced in Central Asia. The era was often symbolized by the burning of the face-veil that women in the Muslim majority areas of the Soviet Union wore, but removal of the veil was not the sole goal of the campaign. The party recast their message of class revolution into the novel lexicon of women's liberation. By abolishing the means of oppression apparent in Uzbekistan and heralding in women's liberation, the Soviets believed they could clear the way for the construction of socialism. The campaign's purpose was to rapidly change the lives of Uzbek women so that they may participate in public life, paid work, education, and ultimately membership in the Communist Party. It was originally conceived to enforce laws that gave women in patriarchal societies equality by creating literacy programs and bringing women into the labor force.
context_section_description: Generally, the hujum met with impressive resilience and resistance from the Uzbek population. Uzbeks outside the party ignored new laws, or subverted them in various ways. They utilized the weapons of the weak: protests, speeches, public meetings, petitions against the government, or a simple refusal to practice the laws.
  Some welcomed the campaign, but these supporters often faced unrelenting insults, threats of violence, and other forms of harassment that made life especially difficult. Thus many Uzbek men and women who may have sympathized with the hujum campaign kept a low profile and opted out of the campaign altogether. Those brave enough to partake in the unveiling campaign were often ostracized, attacked, or even killed for their failure to defend tradition and Muslim law (shariah).
  The Soviet attack on female veiling and seclusion proved to pin Party activists in direct confrontation with Islamic clergy, who vehemently opposed the campaign, some going so far as to advocate threats and attacks on unveiled women.
  Every attack on the veil only proved to foment further resistance through the proliferation of the wearing of the veil among the Uzbeks. While Muslim cultural practices, such as female seclusion and the wearing of the paranji, were attacked by this campaign, they emerged from the hujum still deeply entrenched in Uzbek culture and society. Uzbek Communists were first and foremost loyal to their Uzbek Muslim culture and society. If the two clashed, they would most likely side with their own kind.
  The fundamental problem of the hujum was that women were trapped between the Soviet state and their own society, with little agency to make their own decisions. In the male-dominated society of Uzbekistan, men often went to great lengths to prevent their wives from attending Soviet meetings and demonstrations. Fear of the public opinions of their mahallas, many women decided against unveiling. The mahalla's judgment could be unmerciful. In Uzbekistan, there was little to no middle ground. If women resisted state pressure, they complied with social pressure, or vice versa. Women often sided with their husbands in their reaction to the hujum: they would follow their husband's instructions.
  Murder proved an effective method of terrorizing women into re-veiling. It also served to remind women where they stood in the social hierarchy. These murders were not spontaneous eruptions, but premeditated attacks designed to demonstrate that the local community held more authority over women's actions than did the state. Infamous premeditated murders of women that unveiled included those of Nukhon Yuldasheva and Tursunoy Saidazimova.
  An unveiling campaign was also carried out in the predominantly Shia Muslim Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The unveiling campaign in Azerbaijan was supported by the outreach efforts of the Ali Bayramov Club women's organization. The unveiling campaign in Azerbaijan is commemorated by the Statue of a Liberated Woman, showing a woman unveiling, which was erected in Baku in 1960.
caption: "Statue of a Liberated Woman" representing a woman tearing off her veil, Baku, Azerbaijan
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