Constructing the Uzbek State 17_575_Laruelle.indb 1 11/14/17 2:00 PM CONTEMPORARY CENTRAL ASIA: SOCIETIES, POLITICS, AND CULTURES Series Editor Marlene Laruelle, George Washington University At the crossroads of Russia, China, and the Islamic world, Central Asia re- mains one of the world’s least-understood regions, despite being a significant theater for muscle-flexing by the great powers and regional players. This series, in conjunction with George Washington University’s Central Asia Program, offers insight into Central Asia by providing readers unique access to state-of-the-art knowledge on the region. Going beyond the media clichés, the series inscribes the study of Central Asia into the social sciences and hopes to fill the dearth of works on the region for both scholarly knowledge and undergraduate and graduate student education. Titles in Series Afghanistan and Its Neighbors after the NATO Withdrawal, edited by Amin Saikal and Kirill Nourzhanov Integration in Energy and Transport: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, by Alexandros Petersen Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes, edited by Marlene Laruelle The Origins of the Civil War in Tajikistan: “For the Soul, Blood, Homeland, and Honor,” by Tim Epkenhans Rewriting the Nation in Modern Kazakh Literature: Elites and Narratives, by Diana T. Kudaibergenova The Central Asia–Afghanistan Relationship: From Soviet Intervention to the Silk Road Initiatives, edited by Marlene Laruelle Eurasia’s Shifting Geopolitical Tectonic Plates: Global Perspective, Local Theaters, by Alexandros Petersen The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus: Prospects for Regional Coop- eration and Conflict Resolution, edited by Shireen T. Hunter Constructing the Uzbek State: Narratives of Post-Soviet Years, edited by Marlene Laruelle 17_575_Laruelle.indb 2 11/14/17 2:00 PM Constructing the Uzbek State Narratives of Post-Soviet Years Edited by Marlene Laruelle LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London 17_575_Laruelle.indb 3 11/14/17 2:00 PM Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2017 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Laruelle, Marlene, editor. Title: Constructing the Uzbek state : narratives of post-Soviet years / edited by Marlene Laruelle Description: Lanham, Maryland : Published by Lexington Books, an imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2017. | Series: Contemporary Central Asia : societies, politics, and cultures | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017048357 (print) | LCCN 2017044944 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498538374 (electronic) | ISBN 9781498538367 | ISBN 9781498538367 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Uzbekistan—Politics and government—1991- | Uzbekistan—Foreign relations—1991- | Uzbekistan—Economic conditions—1991- | Uzbekistan—Religion. | Uzbekistan--Social conditions—1991- Classification: LCC DK948.865 (print) | LCC DK948.865 .C66 2017 (ebook) | DDC 958.7086—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048357 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America 17_575_Laruelle.indb 4 11/14/17 2:00 PM Contents Introduction vii Marlene Laruelle PART I: UZBEKISTAN’S POLITICAL CONSTRUCT 1 When Security Trumps Identity: Uzbekistan’s Foreign Policy under Islam Karimov 3 Matteo Fumagalli 2 The Magic of Territory: Remaking of Border Landscapes as a Spatial Manifestation of Nationalist Ideology 21 Nick Megoran 3 Grand Corruption in Uzbekistan’s Telecommunications Sector: Root Causes and Social Costs 45 Alisher Ilkhamov 4 Uzbek Political Thinking in the Third Decade of Independence 69 Morgan Y. Liu PART II: AGRICULTURE AND LABOR MIGRATION: CHANGING THE SOCIAL FABRIC 5 Government, Cotton Farms, and Labor Migration from Uzbekistan 87 Russell Zanca 6 Uzbeks in Russia: A New Diaspora or a Transnational Society? 97 Sergey Abashin v 17_575_Laruelle.indb 5 11/14/17 2:00 PM vi Contents 7 Establishing an “Uzbek Mahalla” via Smartphones and Social Media: Everyday Transnational Lives of Uzbek Labor Migrants in Russia 119 Rustamjon Urinboyev PART III: UZBEK ISLAM: STATE CONTROL, RESILIENCE, AND RESISTANCE 8 Counter-Extremism, Secularism, and the Category of Religion in the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan: Should We Be Studying Islam at All? 151 Johan Rasanayagam 9 At the Crossroads of Religion and Regime Security: Teaching Islam in Uzbekistan 169 Sebastien Peyrouse 10 Moral Exemplars and Ordinary Ethics: Sufism in Bukhara 195 Maria Louw 11 The Evolving Uzbek Jihad: Islamist Militant Recruiting and State Responses 215 Noah Tucker PART IV: RENEGOTIATING IDENTITIES AND CULTURAL LEGACIES 12 Be(com)ing Uzbek: Patterns of Identification and Processes of Assimilation 239 Peter Finke 13 The Nation Narrated: Uzbekistan’s Political and Cultural Nationalism 261 Marlene Laruelle 14 Public Life in Private Spaces in Uzbekistan: Women, Religion, and Politics 283 Svetlana Peshkova 15 Gender and Changing Women’s Roles in Uzbekistan: From Soviet Workers to Post-Soviet Entrepreneurs 303 Rano Turaeva Bibliography 319 Acronyms 349 Index 351 About the Editor and Contributors 363 17_575_Laruelle.indb 6 11/14/17 2:00 PM Introduction Marlene Laruelle Over the past few decades, Uzbekistan has attracted the attention of the academic and policy communities for several reasons. First, its geostrategic importance—the country is located between Russia and China, borders Af- ghanistan, and has the largest army in Central Asia (although Kazakhstan is rapidly gaining on it). Second, it plays a critical role in shaping or unshaping Central Asia as a region, as Uzbekistan borders all other Central Asian states and has an ethnic diaspora in each of them. Tashkent’s views on regional integration and its choice of isolationism have impacted the whole region. Third, it hosts the largest population in Central Asia: every other Central Asian is Uzbek (thirty million inhabitants of the region’s sixty million), there- fore Uzbekistan’s political, social, and cultural evolutions largely exemplify the transformations of the region as a whole. Moreover, Uzbekistan is rich, at least potentially, in terms of energy, minerals, and agriculture; it has main- tained some industrial production and has important trade potential. More than twenty-five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, evaluating Uzbekistan’s post-Soviet transformation remains complicated. Practitioners and scholars have seen access to sources, data, and fieldwork progressively restricted since the early 2000s. On the one hand, the country shows signs of progress in terms of infrastructure development and integra- tion into international systems. Uzbekistan is now part of major international organizations, through which it demonstrates its capacity for independent decision-making in the face of various influences and pressures. However, its system of governance seems to have reached its limit and now faces serious challenges in terms of “inventing” a new economic future, reformulating the state–society social contract, and integrating social and cultural changes into the state-centric grand narrative. vii 17_575_Laruelle.indb 7 11/14/17 2:00 PM viii Introduction This volume analyzes the transformations of post-Soviet Uzbekistan using a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on political science, international relations, political economy, anthropology, geography, and cultural stud- ies. This collective discussion is neither final nor nondebatable. Rather, it represents an attempt to engage in an analysis of the empirical evidence and theoretical assumptions in an academic setting. A POST-KARIMOV UZBEKISTAN From 1989 to 2016, Islam Karimov presided over Uzbekistan and its destiny. His death, announced on September 2, 2016, reopened the future of the coun- try and multiple possible paths of development. One year after the death of the “father of the nation,” there have been modest yet enlightening changes, more significant than those that occurred in Turkmenistan after the sudden death of President Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006. The new Uzbek president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, is a member of the coun- try’s political elite. He became prime minister in 2003 and held that post until he assumed the presidency in 2016. He is emphasizing continuity and has issued a decree to immortalize Islam Karimov’s memory by proclaiming his birthday, September 30, as National Commemoration Day and his death, September 2, as First President’s Commemoration Day. Twenty-five roads, factories, airports, and universities have been renamed in Karimov’s honor, including the Tashkent Airport and the capital’s Technical University, as well as the General Motors plant located in the small city of Asaka in the Fergana Valley. In addition, Mirziyoyev also ordered a memorial complex built around Karimov’s tomb in his native town of Samarkand. As expected, the new president’s political