Mobile phones and self-determination among Muslim youth in Uzbekistan

Abstract

This paper examines the new ways to navigate family power dynamics among Muslim youth in contemporary Uzbekistan. Migration of labour from Uzbekistan increased rapidly in the 2000s. When young workers began to experience the freedom of making their own decisions in their everyday lives after migration, they became uncomfortable with the elders of the household making decisions on everything from daily chores to serious matters concerning their families. Youth who continued to live in Uzbekistan also expanded their areas of self-determination, such as in choosing their spouses, by securing private space through the use of mobile phones. The mobile phone can be an effective tool to improve the position of young wives, who tend to have the lowest status in the husband's family. Thus, the existing hierarchy or classical patriarchy in Muslim families can be navigated, challenged and circumvented by the use of mobile phones among the youth today.