The Great Gender Divergence

The Great Gender Divergence

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The Great Gender Divergence
The Great Gender Divergence
Battles for Ideological Supremacy in Western China
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Battles for Ideological Supremacy in Western China

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Alice Evans
Nov 07, 2024
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The Great Gender Divergence
The Great Gender Divergence
Battles for Ideological Supremacy in Western China
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“Men think dealing with the outside world is their domain. Women’s responsibility is household tasks - if men did chores, they would become a laughing stock”, explained a housewife in Ürümqi. Her words capture a world on the brink of transformation - one where religious ideals would soon be crushed by unprecedented totalitarianism.

Throughout their history, the Uyghurs have experienced wave after wave of conquest, with each new power seeking not just territorial dominance but ideological domination. From Buddhist temples to Islamic courts, from imperial bureaucracies to Communist re-education, rulers have always understood that controlling beliefs was as crucial as controlling territory.

Drawing on 900 surveys and 230 interviews from 2005-2008, Xiaowei Zang provides crucial insights into gender relations in Xinjiang's Muslim communities. This research also serves as a crucial historical document, capturing the last moments of relative cultural autonomy before Beijing stepped up its campaign of religious repression. While empires have always tried to reshape conquered peoples, China's current campaign represents something new in human history - a system of control operating with unprecedented scale.

Muslim ethnic Uighur women pass a Chinese paramilatary police on patrol on a street in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang region on July 3, 2010 ahead of the first anniversary of bloody violence that erupted between the region's Muslim ethnic Uighurs and members of China's majority Han ethnicity. The government says nearly 200 people were killed and about 1,700 injured in the unrest, China's worst ethnic violence in decades, with Han making up most of the victims. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKS (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)
Chinese troops pass Uighur women on the streets of Urumqi in Xinjiang. Beijing says mass detentions are part of the global fight against terrorism © AFP

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