Social and Political Activity of Muslim Women of Moscow in the Beginning of the 20th Century

The article focuses on the development of socio-political activities of Tatar women in Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century. This research seeks to illustrate to the academic community the status of Tatar women in early 20th-century society, and to contemplate the socio-political and public issues specifi cally faced by contemporary Tatar Muslim women and more broadly by the Muslim community in Russia. These activities became possible because, by the early 20th century, the Tatars had established the phenomena of women’s education and a female middle class. Among Muslims of Russia, these phenomena were predominantly observed among the Tatars. It was during this period that the legal, political, and social rights of Tatar women began to be consolidated as a comprehensive set of rights aimed at ensuring genuine gender equality. The novelty of this article is defi ned by the author’s attempt to analyze Muslim periodicals from the early 20th century to conduct a study on the activities of the Moscow Muslim women’s movement in protecting women’s rights, including political ones, as well as its participation in (including national) bodies and local self-governing bodies in April-May 1917.