ABSTRACT
From an ethnographic perspective, this chapter provides a detailed consideration of the trajectories of Gulnora and Parveena – two Tajik female traders who lived and worked in Yiwu and Dushanbe before international commercial activities from China were affected by the travel restrictions brought about by the Covid pandemic. Whilst trying to prosper as international traders who emphasised their being Muslim women, Gulnora and Parveena also pursued self-directed forms of cosmopolitan life that, despite its contradictions and tensions, they embraced as rewarding. In deciding when, how and with whom to conduct different forms of exchange in environments characterised by national, religious, political, ethnic, linguistic and aesthetic diversity, these women contributed to shaping forms of Muslim cosmopolitanism. Hence, this chapter offers a gendered perspective to the abundant scholarship on cosmopolitanism associated with long-distance commerce.
