Project:
“Political Repressions against Muslim Women during the Communist Regime: Female Resistance Networks and Civil Rehabilitation”
Program “Values” 2024, Bulgarian Fund for Women
Contract No. 24-PROP-000610
Politically Repressed by the Totalitarian Regime in Bulgaria (1944–1989)
Muslim women living in the Pirin region and the Rhodopes were subjected to the most prolonged and brutal pressure from the totalitarian communist regime, aimed at forcing them to change their identity — to accept new names, abandon traditional clothing, and cease religious practices. The regime saw girls and women as a major obstacle to these assimilation goals. Women were considered a key group to be targeted — their appearance, dress, and participation in religious life were subject to intense control and forced change.
Young women were of particular interest to the authorities, as they played a crucial role in family and community life. Despite being born in the 1950s and 1960s and receiving primary education, many of these women became factory workers and entered the labor market. Nonetheless, they remained central agents in preserving the crypto-religious identity of the Bulgarian Muslim communities in the Rhodopes. In this regard, the regime’s goals were never fully achieved, and the state remained in constant conflict with them. One of the most heavily prosecuted practices was the circumcision of boys — for which many women were arrested, tried, and imprisoned. Because these acts were prosecuted as “bodily injury” rather than political offenses, these women were not recognized as victims of political repression and thus were excluded from receiving compensation after 1989.
Research Gaps and the Importance of the Project
Academic research on Muslim women and the specific repressive policies they faced remains extremely limited. There is a notable lack of analysis regarding attempts by the regime to destroy their religious identity and suppress their personal and civil dignity.
Muslim women are among the most silenced and marginalized groups in Bulgarian society — once as women, and again as Muslims. Their resistance to totalitarian nationalism has remained largely unexamined, despite their significant role in it. Through this resistance, networks of female communication and solidarity emerged — sharing collective memory, trauma, and acts of resistance. Both individual and collective efforts by women remain poorly documented and undervalued.
Project Activities
The project collects and disseminates personal narratives — both oral and published — of Muslim women across generations, particularly those who, or whose relatives, were politically repressed, sentenced, or imprisoned. The aim is to highlight women’s memory of violence and their experiences of solidarity and mutual aid (neighborly, kin-based, and others), as well as their resistance to various forms of pressure and repression.
A dedicated digital archive is created to store and document materials such as court sentences, photographs, letters, artifacts, and other evidence related to women’s experiences of repression and resistance.
Visual memory is also analyzed — with a focus on the photographic moments captured, the historical context of the images, how they are preserved, and their meaning in personal and family histories.
Outcomes and Dissemination
- A traveling exhibition entitled
“ASSIMILATION AND RESISTANCE OF MUSLIM WOMEN”
was organized and presented in multiple localities. - An international conference was held:
“NO / FREEDOM AND NO / SUBMISSION”
on April 25–26, 2025, at the Historical Museum – Razlog. - Academic papers were published in the journal
BALKANISTIC WORLDS,
Volume I • Issue 2 • June 2025.
Public Relevance
By highlighting the lived experiences of these women, the project aims to affirm their place not only in the collective memory of their communities, but also in the broader historical narrative of resistance against the communist regime in Bulgaria. Their stories — of faith, defiance, solidarity, and survival — reclaim a space for the female perspective in national historical and cultural memory.