Central Asian states have shown both a tendency to exclude women from participating in conflict resolution processes at a formal level and an increased suppression of women's rights. Central Asia is, however, particular in the sense that religious repression of women is of a relatively recent origin and became a problem after independence in 1991. When the five Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan were under Soviet rule, women enjoyed a relativ…