2. The Time Of Dreams And Awakening

This chapter analyses the changes in the status of Central Asian women in the Soviet period, and the factors which prevented them from consolidating the freedom 'offered' them by the Soviet authorities. The way the status of the Uzbek woman changed over the course of the twentieth century may nevertheless justly be called revolutionary. To understand the contemporary problems of society, it is necessary to trace the processes which have taken place in Uzbek society and determine their influence on the status of women. Soviet policy failed to encourage the independent social activity of women, and it is impossible to say, even taking into account the high social status of women, that there was ever a feminist movement in the Soviet Union. This factor aggravated women's problems in the transitional period, but today it is the same factor which makes women fight for their rights.Keywords: Central Asian women; Soviet period; Soviet policy; Uzbek society; women's problems