From the Heart of Kulob

From the Heart of Kulob analyses everyday life in Kulob, the home region of Tajikistan’s president and the political elite which has governed the country since 1992. Rather than focusing on the elite, the book asks what it means to be a woman, a man, a Muslim and a moral person for “ordinary” Kulobis, or people who emphasise how their daily lives are characterised by poverty, hardship, and uncertainty. Instead of treating gender as being synonymous with “women's lives”, the author considers how shaping gender is a reciprocal process underpinned by intersectionality, patriarchy and structural violence. The chapters address how gender relations, forms of moral personhood and Muslim subjectivities are fashioned via the senses, the performance of emotions, the aspirations for a better life, and a range of forms of humour and steadfastness. Unlike studies of Muslim societies that emphasise the centrality of piety and good behaviour to the formation of moral subjectivities, From the Heart of Kulob draws attention to the rude, transgressive, cunning, funny and contradictory acts that also constitute a fundamental part of becoming a gendered and moral person in Tajikistan.