Uyat and the Culture of Shame in Central Asia

Hélène Thibault is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations (Nazarbayev University) and author of Transforming Tajikistan: State-Building and Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia (2018). Jean-François Caron is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations (Nazarbayev University) and Director of the book series entitled Steppe and Beyond: Studies on Central Asia at Palgrave MacMillan.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Conceptualizing Shame.- Chapter 3: Purity vs. Safety: How Uyat Undermines Youth’s Sexual Literacy in Kazakhstan.- Chapter 4: ‘Uyat emes’ or the process of de-shaming in Kazakhstan.- Chapter 5: Ashamed to mother: The practice of ‘nebere aluu’ in Kyrgyzstan.- Chapter 6: The role of uyat or the culture of shame in the regulation of queer subjectivities in Kazakhstan, and forms of resistance against it.- Chapter 7: Public shaming as a form of accountability in Kazakhstani politics.