Kazakhstan Rethinks Its Past As It Becomes Part of the ‘New Silk Road’

Kazakhstan is changing its relationships with two of the biggest forces in its geopolitical orbit: Russia and Islam. 

The former Soviet republic in Central Asia recently banned hijabs and similar garments that conceal the face. When signing the legislation, which permits face covering only for medical purposes and other ‘necessary’ reasons, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he wanted to promote his country’s ethnic customs over foreign traditions, reported the Independent. 

Other Muslim-majority Central Asian countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, have enacted similar bans in recent years, citing security concerns or a move toward secularism – code words for policies that oppose radical Islamic views that they believe lead to terrorism – to repress religious expression, observers say. 

For example, Tajik officials cracked down on headscarves and long beards after Russian authorities arrested Tajik jihadists for launching a terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall last year.  

Kyrgyzstan allows headscarves but not face coverings, saying officials must be able to identify individuals, Radio Free Europe explained. Kyrgyz leaders warned that face coverings protect “attackers in disguise” who are “alien” to their country’s society, according to the Daily Mail. 

Writing in the Diplomat about such rules in Uzbekistan, human rights activist Gulnoz Mamarasulova said they not only compromise civil rights but also reflect on how officials are wasting their time on bans when they should be improving public services like education. 

“Hijabs are once again bothering Uzbek officials,” she said. “Education officials seem unable to move beyond the issue of staff and student attire, when they should be obsessing over the quality of education in Uzbek schools. It seems that the debate about hijabs spikes as each school year begins and ends.” 

Kazakhstan’s relationship with Russia, on the other hand, has been more individualist and less an expression of a regional trend but similarly shows how the country is navigating the new and the old, say analysts. 

While businesses seeking to subvert Western sanctions against Russia have flocked to Uzbekistan, the number of Russian businesses in Kazakhstan has fallen to 17,600, the lowest amount in two years, reported Eurasia.net.  

Tokayev is also working closely with Turkey to explore the possibility of constructing an oil pipeline that would deliver Kazakh oil to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and the Turkish city of Ceyhan. As Pipeline Technology Journal pointed out, this route bypasses Russia, through which much of Kazakhstan’s oil now traverses before it goes to market. 

Those talks are one of many signs of closer ties between Turkey and Kazakhs, who are ethnically Turkic, added Hurriyet Daily News, an English-language Turkish newspaper. 

Tokayev has also strengthened ties with the European Union, too, added the EUReporter. 

“Kazakhstan is now a central and strategic partner for Europe, the Middle East, China, and Türkiye,” it wrote. “… it has managed to build ties with various global powers while preserving its autonomy and strategic balance. It is becoming the most vital pillar of the New Silk Road.”