Communist gender policies were often violent, placing many people, particularly women, in difficult and marginalized positions. Targeted individuals were rarely consulted, yet their clothing and bodily practices were consistently policed and politicized. Across Central Asia, veils, the fez, shalvari, circumcision, and even Muslim names were banned or stigmatized.

Sickle and Veil offers a comprehensive transnational history of communist gender policies by looking at how ideas about gender were crafted, travelled across borders, adapted to fit local needs, and negotiated at both community and personal levels in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. Drawing on extensive archival research across six languages and multiple countries, this book brings connectedness to the fore. By tracing internal developments, turning points, ruptures, and controversies, the book deconstructs established national historiographies. It demonstrates how Soviet policies in Central Asia significantly influenced the ways in which other communist regimes approached Muslim populations in their own contexts.

With attention to both high politics and everyday life, Sickle and Veil gives voice to those who resisted, complied with, or adapted to these interventions. It reveals how gender, religion, and power intersected in the communist imagination, and how policies directed towards religious minorities were driven not only by atheism but also by deeper anxieties about modernity, conformity, and control.

Author: Ivan Simic

I am a lecturer at Charles University in Prague, where I teach numerous courses on gender history. In addition to my role at Charles University, I am affiliated with the University of Alberta as an adjunct professor.

Before joining Charles University, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University in Canada, a research fellow at Yale University, and I have held fellowships at the University of Graz and the Center for Advanced Studies in Sofia. I worked as a research assistant at the University of Calgary in Canada and taught courses at Goldsmiths University of London and UCL, where I earned my PhD.

I have published a book on Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies. It explores Soviet influences on Yugoslav gender policies, examining how Yugoslav communists interpreted, adapted, and used Soviet ideas to change Yugoslav society.