Ramadan in Kyrgyzstan An Ethnographer's Gaze on Fasting

Abstract

Who of you is fasting?', I asked the thirteen students who took my course 'Introduction to Islam'. One single hand at the back of the classroom was raised. This course was part of an exchange programme that sends European teachers to post-Soviet republics, and I had come to Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, in order to teach some courses in social anthropology for one semester. This particular course was attended by students of sociology, political science, and ethnology, who referred to themselves as Muslims. And yet, their formal knowledge of Islam was minimal. I suppose nobody can blame them for this, as they have grown up in a society that has previously been declared 'atheist' and is nowadays considered to be secular. For me, as their teacher - from Europe and a Christian - realizing that I knew a lot more about 'their' religion than they did was extremely awkward.