Land reform and the emergence of Mullah Farmers in Post -Soviet Central Asia

The second session of the Central Asia Study Group was held on 11 March. We were very fortunate to have Dr Habiba Fathi, Research Fellow at the AKU-ISMC present on the topic of Land reform and the emergence of Mullah Farmers in Post -Soviet Central Asia.

Dr Fathi has conducted extensive fieldwork in parts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as South Kazakhstan. She is currently interested in the expressions of Islam in post-Soviet Central Asia in relation to land reform. Please see the ISMC website for more information and publications by Dr Fathi.

Dr Fathi spoke about the political, economic and agrarian transformations in Post-Soviet Central Asia, in particular, focusing on the emergence of a new class of mullah farmers who became the principle beneficiaries of the land reforms following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Using three case studies from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Dr Fathi argued that traditional sociabilities and solidarity networks were central in the process of land reform. For a more detailed description of this paper, click here.

In response to questions following her presentation, Dr Fathi agreed that the emerging structure could be likened to a form of ‘neo-feudalism’. Lively discussion ensued which touched on a variety of topics including: the continuities between Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia , the perspective of rural dwellers (former kolkhozniki and sovkhozniki) who were mainly excluded in this process of land allocation, the conflicts between ethnic minority groups in relation to land, the role of religion in these networks, and possible spaces of civil society.