| Publication |
2010.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article attempts to explain the growing popularity of private religious lessons in urban Tajikistan from a cross-generational perspective. By instilling discipline and good 'morals', religious lessons serve as a powerful tool to socialize adolescent and morally vulnerable urban youth into the established social order. The increasing demand for religious instruction on the part of Muslim parents not only reflects the growing importance of Islam in Tajikistan, but also highlights the weaknesses of state education and the constraints on family upbringing in neo-local urban households. By attending religious classes, male and female youth have found a space for negotiating religious identities and for realizing their own abilities and ambitions. Given the socio-economic hardships of everyday life in the post-Soviet city, a turn to Islam can promote integration, recognition and social mobility, and offer an alternative route for urban youth to become 'adults'.
|