A Muslim woman and the public movement in Astrakhan in the early 20th century

In the early 20th century a public movement starts its activity in the Astrakhan province. The emergence and development of the public Muslim movement became one of its key elements. Within this movement the first charitable and educational communities as well as secular public schools and periodicals had been established by the most powerful representatives of the Muslim bourgeoisie, their wives, daughters and sisters. So called awakening of Muslim women became part of the public movement's idea. This implies that the Muslim women take their first shy steps towards secular education, charity, healthcare, and so on. In the described period, a Tatar woman in Astrakhan finally finds a way to overcome former borders, and at the turn of 19-20th centuries, she willingly participates in all highly mentioned activities. During the first decade of the 20th century, Muslim women in the region had mass character, every Muslim ward of the city on the eve of the First World war acts female Mektebi. Moreover, there was a growing number of students not only in religious primary schools, but also in state secondary schools - high schools. Muslim women take an active part in various charity events of national character. They raise money for various needs of charitable organizations and participate in sweepstakes and performances, etc. Moreover, they are eager to establish contacts with foreign and other confessions of Russian Orthodox environment, to study the Russian language and even arrange their own public meetings, speeches about the need to expand the public Muslim movement. The peak of the social activity of the Astrakhan Muslim women was marked at the elections to the City Duma in summer of 1917, when the fifth, Muslim electoral list passed in two Astrakhan Tatars.