ABSTRACT
The distinctions were expressed in a number of ways. On the most general level, the private sphere was where the villagers relaxed, carried out domestic business, wore their oldest clothes, and ate meals without excessive ceremony or strict gender segregation. Prior to the Soviet period, women had generally been excluded from the more public spheres of village life. The Obi-Safed villagers spoke a dialect of Tajik, a language closely related to Persian. Obi-Safed village culture maintained a strong distinction between the public and private spheres of life – or, to put it as they usually did, between space where one could be seen by ‘anyone’, and space where only the closest circle of kin were present. The traditional image of ‘woman’ in other words was perceived to be not simply at the ‘hearth’ of the house, but at the very heart of the most ‘traditional’, and most ‘Islamic’ side of village life.
