| Book Review | Journal of World History, 16.2

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| Book Review | Journal of World History, 16.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia. By DOUGLAS NORTHROP. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. xvii + 392 pp. $57.50 (cloth); $25.95 (paper).

In 1927 the Bolshevik Party launched a campaign, or hujum, to emancipate women by eradicating the veil from Uzbekistan. Although focused on encouraging women to unveil, the campaign's goal was nothing less than the transformation of Central Asia into a modern socialist society. Under the Stalinist regime, the unveiling campaign shaped Soviet policies in Uzbekistan and provided a powerful symbol for resistance to them. In Veiled Empire, Douglas Northrop traces the origins, intentions, and results of the hujum, arguing that gender relations played a central role in the creation of an Uzbek national identity and in the Bolsheviks' efforts to establish Soviet power in Central Asia. He shows how each side used Uzbek traditions and culture to its own ends, and how local responses to the hujum provided a constant challenge to Bolshevik rule and hegemony in the region. In doing so, this book provides a welcome addition to the scholarship on gender, nation, and identity in Soviet Central Asia.

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