Islamic Education in the Soviet Union and Its Successor States by Kemper Michael; Motika Raoul; Reichmuth Stefan

Author:Kemper, Michael; Motika, Raoul; Reichmuth, Stefan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

But this turned out to be anything but easy. On 11 November 1928, the TsK secretary’s office reviewed the problem of “hooliganism in the context of the removal of the chador.” During the meeting it became clear that “the current campaign against the chador was connected to the activities of several violent individuals, who have started to persecute and kill Turkish women who wanted to take off the chador.” The TsK called upon the competent authorities to take immediate measures.92 The Azerbaijani Central Executive Committee prepared a draft law forbidding wearing the chador93 and suggested amendments to the Criminal Code. For wearing the chador, the law now stipulated “up to three months of hard labor, alternately a fine of up to 300 roubles, along with the confiscation of the chador.”94 While practically all party officials had been involved in the anti-chador campaign,95 in March 1929 the TsK’s presidium decided to include the wide masses and particularly the intellectuals into the campaign as well.96

Due to these measures, the relationship between the authorities and the population deteriorated extremely. In reference to a chador-campaign report, the TsK drew the conclusion that the most serious resistance originated in regions like Qala-Mashtaga, Khizi, Ordubad and others.97 The increasing anti-Soviet atmosphere urged the TsK to retreat from previous demands. In a new directive to the Baku Committee of the ALKSM, the TsK stated that hooliganism had discredited Soviet policy and the party line on the removal of the chador, and that there were several incidents of violence against the Muslim clergy. The TsK called upon all newspapers, particularly those from the youth organizations, to launch a parallel campaign against hooliganism.98 The situation became even more complicated when S.M. Efendiyev, one of the leading Azerbaijani party officials, published an editorial article in the central party organ Kommunist in which he tore to pieces the entire previous antireligious policy. Efendiyev made the Commissar of Education, M. Quliyev, responsible for the increasing influence of the clergy: “instead of closing maktabs and madrasas in certain regions of Azerbaijan (Zaqatala), our Commissar of Education is preoccupied with forbidding men in fur hats and women in chadors to enter a theatre.”99 As Dzh. Gadzhibeili noted, “criticism made by the head of government followed a typical pattern of behaviour which the Party leader always presented in cases of failed policies; he preferred to shift the blame down onto the local authorities.”100 Surely, the Commissar of Education Quliev had merely acted on instructions issued by the Central Committee’s Presidium, of which Efendiyev himself was a member at that time. In this way the TsK tried to protect itself from any negative outcomes resulting from its own campaigns.

However, the government suffered its most serious setback when it set about to close mosques on a massive scale. Before the revolution, the number of mosques in Azerbaijan was estimated at 3,000; probably this number also included mosques located in Zangezur, Gekchin, Borchaly, and other regions that no longer belonged to Azerbaijan after the establishment of Soviet rule.

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