According to an article by Interfax, wearing the hijab in Kazakhstan schools is forbidden. Apparently a student in Taraz wanted to wear one and the school administration did not allow her to, citing rules regarding the school uniform and the Taraz city education department supported this decision. Interestingly, apparently the Minster of Justice wrote on his blog that hijabs are not banned by Kazakhstan law, but the Minister of Education later confirmed that students should not wear the hijab because, “… wearing clothes stressing a student’s belonging to a certain religion is prohibited and a single school uniform is recommended.”

I have a few questions here. First of all, I had always thought that hijab meant headscarf. In that regard, many women in Kazakshtan wear scarves on their head and it isn’t clear to me how one would distinguish those wearing it for religious purposes and those wearing it because their heads are cold. In other words, it isn’t clear to me that a headscarf really does indicate one is a Muslim. Many Russian grandmothers wear scarves on their heads–hence the odd porting of the word babushka in America to refer to a head scarf itself.

Complicating this is the fact that a quick websearch indicated that hijab can also refer to a headscarf and veil or it can refer generally to proper Muslim dress. In the latter sense, men wear a hijab when they grow their beards and hair and hijab for women includes long sleeves and long skirts.

If we are talking about a veil, I can see the position of the education officials. A veil does clearly mark one as Muslim, which I don’t necessarily agree is bad (I’ll get to that later). However, a veil arguably does promote a belief system that women are inferior to men, that they should not be seen, and also a view that men cannot control their sexual thoughts when women are exposed to them and therefore women should cover themselves to protect men from sin. Not sure children should be exposed to the idea that 1) women cause men to sin and 2) therefore women should be held responsible for men’s sins.

If we are talking about long sleeves and skirts, or other modest dress, I don’t see the problem because again this is not something that only Muslims prescribe to. Every day I wear a collared shirt with long sleeves and long pants to my job at a school, the same dress I would wear to a mosque out of respect to Islam. Does that mean I am “stressing my belonging to a certain religion”? I don’t think so.

Which brings us to the fundamental issue here: Why is demonstrating that you have a religion banned in schools? Does this mean Christians cannot wear crosses? Can Jews doodle a Star of David in class? Can Muslims wear a crescent moon necklace or a medallion of Arabic script? I understand that the motivation is likely promoting religious tolerance and avoiding extremism. I believe that any sign that one is intolerant of religion should be banned–for example a T-shirt that says, “The Jews killed Christ” or, “Islam is the only true religion”. But we’re not talking about offensive messages here. We’re talking about, I believe, a girl who wants to wear a headscarf because she believes her hair should not be seen in public. I don’t agree that women should be forced to cover their heads, but I don’t see why it’s a problem if they chose to do so.

So any thoughts from you, my gentle readers?

As promised in my post on Aktau, I want to write about the road trip to Beket-Ata. In Western Kazakhstan, there were a number of Sufi teachers who came and lived in caves in the area, running medressahs, consulting on difficult matters and healing people. They say there are 365 of these cave complexes (sometimes called underground mosques though they aren’t really mosques) in Mangistau. Many of them are still functioning as holy sites.

In fact, most historians agree that this is how Islam really came to the nomads. Because nomads were hard to pin down or conquer, it was mainly these traveling wise men like Beket-Ata and Shopan-Ata who brought the message of Islam. When there was some kind of problem or difficult decision to be made, Kazakhs or Turkmen would say, “Well let’s go see that guy who lives in that cave over there. I hear he has some kind of heavenly power.” If the Sufi’s advice was wise or he performed miracles, people would listen more and more to him and gradually accepted Islam as their faith.

So having heard of these places, unique to Mangistau, we thought we should go see some. A friend who lives out there called a tourist company on our behalf, and we were told that we really should go to Beket-Ata (which is both the name of the place and the Sufi mystic who taught there), which is the most famous and the largest of these complexes. I had seen a picture of it once and it looked impressive. We agreed until we started looking stuff up in the guide book before we got to Aktau. We noticed that there were two Beket-Atas on the map (in fact there are four–he had one for each season depending on how the nomads were migrating) and one of them was extremely far away from the town. We checked with our friend, who checked with the tourist company and were told that the Beket-Ata we were going to was about five hours out of town. We tried to convey the message that we didn’t want to drive for five hours to see one place and then turn around and drive another five hours back. Unfortunately this was all frustrated by the fact that we had to go through our friend. Half a day was spent phoning our friend, him phoning the company, then phoning us back, to clarify things and ask questions. We were finally assured that 1) going to Aktau without seeing Beket-Ata would be like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower and 2) we would see lots of stuff on the way. In retrospect, I wish we had been able to convince them that we were okay with not seeing the Eiffel Tower, if it meant we got to see the Champs-Ellyesse, the Arc de Triomphe, the Parisian coffee shops and bakeries and the Louvre. (more…)

Lucky21842, an American living in Kazakhstan runs a video blog which I’ve mentioned before in these pages. His newest entry is called “Kazakh Rules!” It very cleverly and amusingly outlines some common superstitions in Kazakhstan. It’s really funny and, in my experience, accurate. However, I would point out that rarely will a crazy Kazakh grandma shrilly shout at you, “No!”, if you break these ‘rules’.

Subscribe to Lucky21842’s channel on YouTube at his profile page

Tulpan, the film by Sergey Dvortsevoy, about a young Kazakh man who returns to his village to find that it isn’t as easy as it looks to become a shepherd, is out on DVD. The film has been critically acclaimed and is supposed to be very funny and clever. Order DVDs here. No idea if they deliver to Kazakhstan or not, but presumably some DVDs will be making their way to Kazakhstan.

On a related note, I’ve been trying to watch as many Kazakh films as I can. I’ve seen Nomad, which I did quite enjoy though I thought it could be better. Racketeer was a decent film that had some great moments. The idea was great but the acting was often stilted and overall it felt like they phoned it in, an impression that was reinforced when the writer/director said he decided to make a gangster movie because that kind of movie sold well. I hear he has a new movie out now, and I would go see it on the strength of the potential I saw in Racketeer. I bought a copy of Gift for Stalin, but I haven’t been in the mood to watch a depressing film since I bought it, so I have yet to see it. Kek was disappointing. Depressing, bad acting, unclear plot and an unsatisfying ending. What else am I missing? What’s your favorite Kazakh movie? What should I watch next?

Haven’t been posting lately as I have been on summer break. Look forward to a lot of travelogue posts about my adventures in Big Almaty Lake, Korgalzhino, Burabay, and Aktau. However my vacation began with horses and dzhigits. A few of my favorite shots of the Astana Day celebrations, one of my favorite holidays because they seem to really bring out a lot of Kazakh culture that doesn’t get displayed on other holidays, like horse sports, hawks and kumys. However it would be fun if there were some equally large scale demonstrations of other cultures. Maybe a little Russian village next to the yurts in the square.

As usual, if you like any of these photos click on them to buy. Or to peruse some of my other favorite shots.

Finally got around to digging up some old photos I took several Nauryzes ago (several years ago on Nauryz). It was my first year in Kazakhstan and I went to Duman to watch them put up the yurts, having never seen this before. Watching, I got the idea to do a little photo instructable on how to put together a yurt. While I doubt anyone could use these instructions to actually build a yurt themselves, I hope it’s interesting to see the different steps involved.

The materials all laid out. Believe it or not, this is all you need (except for the outside covering). The shanyrak or roof and the wall frames.



For fancy yurts, step one is to put up the door. Simpler yurts have no door, only a doorway.

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Finally tracked down the Schedule of Events for Astana Day in English. My biggest disappointment is that it looks like they have replaced the Kazakh horse sports with a show jumping competition. Seriously, I wait all year to go to the Hippodrome and see the kokpar, the races and of course the kyz kui and dzigitovka.

Kyz kui (Catch the girl) is a traditional game where a man tries to catch a woman on horseback. If he catches her, he gets to kiss her. The fun part is that she has a riding crop to beat him off with! And sometimes they do it in reverse where the woman chases the man! Dzigitovka (Manly sport?) consists of show-riding like riding standing up on the saddle or climbing on and off the horse and full gallop. It’s really impressive and derives from hunting and war skills that all nomads had to have to survive in the olden days. The name indicates that it was also a chance for young men to show off and hopefully impress a girl or two. However, it does look like the parks will be full of interesting traditional displays so I’m looking forward to walking around the Festival of Nomad Civilization.

Normally Astana Day (which coincides with the president’s birthday) lasts for a whole week. I assume the financial crisis has forced the government to cut its budget a bit. Still it should be fun.

So what are you looking forward to on the upcoming holiday? Or do you plan to stay home and sleep late?

A great website Central Asia History, which consists of oral interviews with people from Kyrgyzstan, particularly focusing on older people and the early years of the Soviet Union, World War I, the settlement of nomadic people, World War II/the Great Patriotic War, and life now. It’s extremely interesting to read and I’d love to see something similar done in Kazakhstan.

Tulpan is supposed to be a wonderful film, very funny and clever about a young man who returns home from the Navy to try to become a “typical” Kazakh sheepherder and win the heart of a beautiful maiden. The official press release from Zeitgeist Films:

“Winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, acclaimed Kazakh documentarian Sergey Dvortsevoy’s first narrative feature is a gorgeous mélange of tender comedy, ethnographic drama and wildlife extravaganza. Following his Russian naval service, young dreamer Asa returns to his sister’s nomadic brood on the desolate Hunger Steppe to begin a hardscrabble career as a shepherd. But before he can tend a flock of his own, Asa must win the hand of the only eligible bachelorette for miles—his alluringly mysterious neighbor Tulpan. Accompanied by his girlie mag-reading sidekick Boni (and a menagerie of adorable lambs, stampeding camels, mewling kittens and mischievous children), Asa will stop at nothing to prove he is a worthy husband and herder. In the tradition of such crowd-pleasing travelogues as The Story of the Weeping Camel, Tulpan’s gentle humor and stunning photography transport audiences to this singular, harshly beautiful region and its rapidly vanishing way of life.”

It will be playing at the Film Forum in New York City from 1 April to 4 April (Showtimes: 1:00, 3:15, 5:40, 7:50, 10:00).

So check it out and let me know how it is. We poor schmuks here in Kazakhstan have not had much chance to see it. But the reviews have been extremely positive the world around, so it’s likely worth seeing.

You can also check out other play dates across the US.
For more information, contact The Film Forum or Zeitgeist Films.

I’m late to the party with this story, as I’m late with every story due to an unanticipated hiatus I was forced to take from blogging. But this is a great story nonetheless. New evidence suggests that horses were first domesticated and milked here in Kazakhstan, about 5, 500 years ago.

This follows on an earlier discovery of an ancient stone corral in northern Kazakhstan dated around 3700-3100BC, as well as horse leather products. However scientists concluded that horse domestication probably started in Russia or Ukraine.

Now they seem to have found horse teeth that show wear that only could have come from a bit, with one tooth dated to 3500 BC. In addition horse skeletons found in North Kazakhstan have slim legs that look more like domesticated horses than wild horses. Finally, they found clay pots that had remains of fat from horse milk and horse meat in them. While it isn’t surprising perhaps that people ate horses, research also suggests that milking came pretty soon after domestication. I believe that no other culture has been known to drink horse milk regularly so it would be fascinating to know why Kazakhs came up with the idea. This also might explain why kumys (fermented mare’s milk) remains such a strong part of Kazakh culture.