A Muslim Woman Officer in the Soviet Army During the Soviet-Afghan War. A Soviet “Anti-Hero”

Abstract

This research note based on an anthropological fieldwork retraces the life of Mamura, an Uzbek woman who became a hero among her peers, Afghan war veterans. Born in the 1960s in Southern Uzbekistan, into the Muslim faith, Mamura was a Komsomol and volunteered for Afghanistan, where she served in particular as an army censor. She became a legend, albeit not for her military deeds, but thanks to her love story with a Russian officer. Mamura’s story casts a special light on several aspects of Uzbek history and society: gender and family relations, the place of Uzbek soldiers among Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, but also the situation of Afghan war veterans in Uzbekistan.