Praying Under Restrictions: Islam, Identity and Social Change in Azerbaijan

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan and Nelli Minasyan

Europe-Asia Studies, 2017, vol. 69, issue 5, 819-837

Abstract: This article examines a series of political changes that recently affected the levels of religiosity in Azerbaijan. Since 2009 the Azerbaijani leadership has adopted a set of laws and policy regulations designed to restrain Islamism and Islamic activism. In spite of heavy-handed state control and legal restrictions, there has been a visible increase of religiosity within Azerbaijani society, particularly amongst religious organisations and parties. The article aims to decode the underlying reasons behind the persistent upsurge of religiosity in Azerbaijan and further our understanding of the social–political implications of this trend. The article also argues that, since restrictions were imposed on religious expression in 2009, the revival of Islam in Azerbaijan has become much more visible while serving as an alternative avenue for the emergence of social movements within the country.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09668136.2017.1333086 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ceasxx:v:69:y:2017:i:5:p:819-837

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ceas20

DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2017.1333086

Access Statistics for this article

Europe-Asia Studies is currently edited by Terry Cox

More articles in Europe-Asia Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().