Lesson 2: Современный дискурс спасения женщины Востока

Lesson Description:

If this is your first time using a RAILS lesson, we recommend that you take a look at the page About the Lessons to make sure that you understand how the lessons work.

This is the second lesson in a series based on an interview with Dr. Alima Bissenova, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Nazarbayev University. You will watch four clips from the lecture and complete exercises based on those clips.

This lesson focuses on the issue of modern discourse of saving women and how it has changed over time. Alima Bissenova discusses relevant research conducted by Svetlana Shakirova, a feminist, and Aksana Ismailbekova, an anthropologist. The concept of Orientalism is also discussed.

The lesson consists of the following sections: Введение, Келiн – Невестка, Другой Взгляд, and Современное значение традиций.

You can find the Помощник and Словарь at the end of the lesson for easy reference, but they are also available in the lesson in places where you are most likely to need them.

What You Will Learn:

You will learn about Orientalism, why and how Western views on women in Central Asia are problematic. You will also learn brief information about Kazakh history, culture, and society. Rhetorical questions, abbreviations, and participles are also discussed in this lesson.

Learning Tips:

To navigate through the lesson linearly, click the red “Next” button in the bottom right whenever you are ready to move on to the next page. If you want to skip around in the lesson or access a Помощник, click “Contents” in the upper left and then the plus sign (+) to open the lesson, and then you can see the names of all of the pages in the lesson (Помощник pages are at the end of the lesson).

Think about what you already know about Kazakh traditions and society issues, which will help you understand the topics better. You could also benefit from reading about the idea of Orientalism by Edward F. Said, the notion of the eastern woman, and women’s role in Kazakh society.

	Number of pages: 19
	Estimated completion time: 2 hours