Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

Social gender stereotypes and their implications in Hindi

This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India.

Cultural adaptation of websites: a comparative study of portuguese and dutch corporate websites

Master Thesis Presented at Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto for obtaining the Master’s degree in Digital Marketing under the supervision of Professor José de Freitas Santos

Viver sem Medo - Projeto de Intervenção com um Grupo de Mulheres em situação de Vulnerabilidade Social

O presente relatório, fundamentado teoricamente, surge do desenvolvimento de um projeto de Educação e Intervenção Social com um grupo de Mulheres, denominado “Mais Valentes”, participantes no Projeto EntrEscolhas – Geração D’Ouro, com base na metodologia de investigaçãoação participativa, inserida no paradigma socio-crítico. O Projeto “Viver sem medo” foi desenvolvido a partir da finalidade de capacitar as mulheres do Grupo Mais Valentes para a tomada de decisão sobre os seus percursos de vida, tendo em conta o seu papel nas diferentes esferas da sociedade e, essencialmente, na família. Neste sentido, recorreram-se a técnicas e métodos de investigação que permitiram a construção do conhecimento sobre o grupo e cada uma das suas participantes, identificando-se problemas, necessidades, potencialidades e objetivos que pudessem responder aos anteriores. Ao longo do relatório é apresentada a construção do conhecimento sobre a realidade e o desenho e desenvolvimento do projeto concretizado conjuntamente com as participantes e, ainda, com contributos do e das Profissionais do Projeto EntrEscolhas – Geração D’Ouro. Neste sentido, foram realizados Encontros semanais com o grupo “Mais Valentes” e, posteriormente, ações com o objetivo de proporcionar a reflexão sobre os papéis sociais e familiares de género, o desenvolvimento de competências de literacia escolar e social e com vista à promoção de um melhor relacionamento interpessoal que permita a partilha e o diálogo. Por forma a avaliar todo o processo, recorreu-se ao modelo de avaliação CIPP, no sentido de se obter uma visão integral de todo o Projeto “Viver sem medo” e, assim, conseguir concretizar uma avaliação sistemática e contínua do mesmo, com base nas vivências de participação no projeto e opiniões das Mulheres e, assim, se possibilitar as mudanças desejadas, num clima de confiança e apoio mútuo.

Heading east this time: critical readings on gender in southeast Asia

This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macrolevel by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

Which “place and non-place” do women occupy in social economy organisations?

Scientific literature has strengthened the perpetuation of inequality factors in the labour market based on gender, despite the on-going endeavour of various political bodies and legal norms against the vertical and horizontal segregation of women. National and European statistical data shows the relevance and timeless features of theories of market segmentation associated with the labour market dating back to the 70’s of the 20th century. Hence, the European Community considers as a priority in the Europe 2020 strategy, the definition of “policies to promote gender equality […] to increase labour force participation thus adding to growth and social cohesion”. If we consider that on the one hand, social economy is fairly recognised to be equated with market actors and the State for its economic and social role in tackling the current crisis, and on the other hand, that the ideals of the sector, systematised in the “Framework Law of Social Economy” (Law no. 30/2013 8th of May), particularly in article 5 proposing “the respect for the values […] of equality and non-discrimination […], justice and equity […]”, we aim to reflect on indicators that uncover a vertical and horizontal segregation in the labour market. Departing from a mixed methodological approach (extensive and intensive), subject to the topic of "Social Entrepreneurship in Portugal" in social economy organisations, we detect very high rates of employment feminisation, with a ratio of 1 man (23%) for every 3 women (77%). Women are mainly earmarked for technical and operational activities, arising from the privileged intervention areas, namely education, training, health, elderly, families, poverty, ultimately being underrepresented in statutory boards and, as such, far removed from deliberations and strategic resolutions. This is particularly visible in the existing hierarchy of functions and management practices of the responsibility of male members. Thus, it seems easily verified that the sector is travelling away from the ideals of justice and social equity, which can crystallise the "non-place" of women in the definition of a strategic direction of social economy and in the most invisible/private “place” of the organisational setting.

Culture, politics and identity: critical readings on gender in southeast Asia

Indian Journal of Gender Studies October 2012 vol. 19 no. 3 437-467

Boas práticas de igualdade de género e sua relação nos domínios da satisfação laboral e clima organizacional

A Igualdade entre Homens e Mulheres e a não discriminação constituem princípios fundamentais da Constituição da Republica Portuguesa e do Tratado que institui a União Europeia – Tratado de Lisboa. A desigualdade entre Homens e Mulheres constitui uma violação dos direitos fundamentais, e impõe um pesado custo à economia na medida em que se desaproveitam talentos em função do género. A promoção de uma efetiva igualdade entre Homens e Mulheres constitui um dever fundamental do Estado. A promoção da participação ativa de Homens e Mulheres na vida política, ao nível da administração central, regional e local, é também um forte indicador da qualidade da democracia de um estado. Tomando por base a temática da Igualdade de Género, o Roteiro para a Igualdade entre Homens e Mulheres (2006-2010), o pacto Europeu para a Igualdade entre os Sexos (2006), a Estratégia para a Igualdade entre Homens e Mulheres 2010-2015 que elencam ações consideradas prioritárias – igualdade na independência económica; igualdade na remuneração por trabalho igual e por trabalho de igual valor; igualdade na tomada de decisões; promoção da dignidade e a integridade, pôr fim à violência de género; e questões horizontais – papéis desempenhados por Homens e Mulheres, legislação, governação e instrumentos no domínio da igualdade entre Homens e Mulheres, o objeto deste estudo centra-se na atividade do Estado Português, mais concretamente ao nível local. Procurou-se enquadrar esta temática na Gestão dos Recursos Humanos, na busca de um conhecimento mais aprofundado sobre a implementação de Boas Práticas de Igualdade de Género e a sua relação nos domínios da Satisfação Laboral assim como no Clima Organizacional. O presente estudo expõe uma abordagem quantitativa, de carácter descritivo, exploratório, correlacional e preditivo. O tratamento estatístico realizou-se com recurso ao programa IBM SPSS Statistics, versão 21. Os resultados encontrados apontam para uma associação positiva entre a existência de boas práticas de igualdade de género e a satisfação laboral dos trabalhadores, assim como do clima organizacional. São apresentadas pistas para a intervenção no domínio da função da gestão e desenvolvimento dos recursos humanos.

Representations of gender in the writings of St. Francis Xavier: an interdisciplinary approach

Francis Xavier’s Letters and Writings are eloquent narratives of a journey that absorbed the Saint’s entire life. His experiences and idiosyncrasies, values and categorizations are presented in a clear literate discourse. The missionary is rarely neutral in his opinions as he sustains his unmistakable and omnipresent objective: the conversion of peoples and the expansion of the Society of Jesus. Parallel with this objective, the reader is introduced to the individuals that Xavier meets or that he summons in his epistolary discourse. Letters and Writings presents us with a structured narrative peopled by all those who are subject to and objects of Xavier’s apostolic mission, by helpful and unhelpful persons of influence, and by leading and secondary actors. What is then the position of women, in the collective sense as well as in the individual sense, in the travels and goals that are the centre of Xavier’s Letters and Writings? What is the role of women, that secondary and suppressed term in the man/woman binomial, a dichotomy similar to the civilized/savage and European/native binomials that punctuate Xavier’s narratives and the historic context of his letters? Women are not absent from his writings, but it would be naïve to argue in favour of the author’s misogyny as much as of his “profound knowledge of the female heart”, to quote from Paulo Durão in "Women in the Letters of Saint Francis Xavier" (1952), the only paper on this subject published so far. We denote four great categories of women in the Letters and Writings: European Women, Converted Women, Women Who Profess another Religion, and Women as the Agents and Objects of Sin, the latter of which traverses the other three categories. They all depend on the context, circumstances and judgements of value that the author chooses to highlight and articulate.

Folk culture and political power: practices and representations of moliceiro culture in Portugal, cultural sociology

This article analyses the painted panels of the moliceiro boat, a traditional working boat of the Ria de Aveiro region of Portugal. The article examines how the painted panels have been invented and reinvented over time. The boat and its panels are contextualized both within the changing socio-economic conditions of the Ria de Aveiro region, and the changing socio-political conditions of Portugal throughout the 20th century and until the present day. The article historically analyses the social significance of ‘moliceiro culture’, examining in particular the power relations it expresses and its ambiguous past and present relationships with the political and the economic powers of the Portuguese state. The article unpacks some of the complexity of the relations that have pertained between public and private, local and national, folk culture and ‘art’, and popular and institutional in the Ria de Aveiro region in particular, and Portugal more generally.

The Greatest lover: a post-colonial rewriting of My Fair Lady

INTRODUCTION The popular Hong Kong comedy, The Greatest Lover, re-incarnates one of the most popular western musicals, My Fair Lady. OBJECTIVES 1. To find out in what major ways My Fair Lady was rewritten as the Hong Kong Cantonese movie, Gungzi Docing (The Greatest Lover). 2. To find out the socio-political, socio-linguistic, and gender ideology behind the rewriting. METHODOLOGY 1. To note the similarity of the themes for both works – a creator falling in love with his/her creation, and class prejudice and cross-class romance. 2. To note how the times of The Greatest Lover differ from that of My Fair Lady. 3. To note how the main characters in The Greatest Lover differ from My Fair Lady in terms of profession, gender, etc. 4. To note how the plot of The Greatest Lover differs from that of My Fair Lady. 5. To note how focus on language in The Greatest Lover compares with that in My Fair Lady. 6. To discuss the ideological implications of the differences noted above, e.g. women in Hong Kong today have much higher status than women in Victorian England; the conflict between local Hong Kong people and both legal and illegal immigrants from Mainland China is even more serious than that between the British upper middle class and the lower class during the Victorian period. 7. Andre Lefevere (1992) argues that translation and adaptation are rewriting informed and influenced by the rewriter’s ideology, among other things. 8. Both Aline Remael (1995) and Patrick Cattrysse (1992) think that film adaptation is a kind of translation. 9. Sirkkus Aaltonen (2000) argues that drama translation mirrors the ideologies of the target society. CONCLUSION 1. The Greatest Lover projects local cultural significance onto My Fair Lady by helping us to appreciate an important Western work of art through the Hong Kong Cantonese perspective. 2. Broader issues in translation and intercultural studies are also considered.

Motivations and management factors of volunteer work in nonprofit organisations: a literature review

The objective of this paper is to review and discuss the literature about volunteers’ motivations to donate their time to NPOs and the management factors that can influence volunteer work. Firstly, the paper illustrates and compares the different types of motivation followed by a presentation of a typology that organises the volunteers’ motivations into four types: (i) altruism, (ii) belonging, (iii) ego and social recognition and (iv) development and learning. Secondly we discuss the key management factors in volunteering: recruitment, training and rewarding. Finally, we present four gaps in the literature that justify the scope for further research: (i) omission of differences between motivations related to volunteers’ "Attraction" versus "Retention"; (ii) focus of the research on the USA, UK and Australia context; (iii) absence of comparative analyses that relate motivations by NPO types and (iv) comprehension of how management factors (recruitment, training and rewarding) influence volunteers’ satisfaction and retention.

Volunteers and management factors in nonprofit organisations: a brief literature review

The objective of this paper is to review and discuss the literature about the management factors that can influence volunteer work. First we present the different management factors. This discussion is followed by the identification of the key management factors in volunteering: recruitment, training and rewarding. Finally, we present two main gaps in the literature that justify the scope for further research: (i) how management factors (recruitment, training and rewarding) influence volunteers’ satisfaction and retention; and (ii) predominance of the investigations in the North American context, followed by English and Australian context.

Corporate brand identity management – proposal of a new framework

The term “corporate brand” has been widely used in literature since the eighties. According to Balmer (1998) this concept tends to be used as an alternative to the concept of corporate identity. The author argues that the use of branding principles to discuss corporate identity has tended to align the area more closely with marketing. However, the literature on brand management (Aaker, 1991; Kapferer, 1991 and de Chernatony and McDonald, 1992), gives little attention to the corporate brand” (p. 985). Based on the concepts of corporate brand, brand identity and B2B relationship, the authors are interested in eliminating this gap in literature by designing a framework of corporate brand identity management. The aim of this investigation is to investigate the impact of B2B relationships in corporate brand identity management. The methodology used is quantitative analysis of surveys and scale development. The originality of this paper is to investigate the influence of the relationship between brands in corporate brand identity. This investigation is very important to help the decisions of the corporate brand managers and academics. According to literature, namely on corporate brands (Balmer 2002b, Hatch and Schultz, 2001, 2003) and on brand identity (Kapferer, 1991, 2008, Aaker, 1996, de Chernatony, 1999) the authors developed a corporate brand identity management framework considering relationships between brands a context variable with definite impact on identity management as stated by Hakansson and Snehota (1989, 1995). These authors consider that organisations´ identity management is pursued under a relational perspective with impact on identity management. Most researchers on identity and corporate brand emphasise the importance of external influences (Kennedy, 1977; King, 1991; de Chernatony, 1999; Balmer and Gray, 2000; Balmer, 2002a). Those influences concern legislation, concurrence, political issues... and stakeholders’ perceptions and reputations (due to the holistic approach demanded by corporate brands). In this context the authors claim the importance of another influence: B2B relationships. This decision is inspired in sociological studies (Mannheim, 1950; and Tajfel and Turner, 1979) regarding individual identity. These authors claim that individuals form their personality by interacting in the social field. The authors argue that corporate brand identity also develops itself under a relational approach. The relationships selected to pursue this investigation are the ones that are developed by Portuguese universities and investigation centres that cooperate by developing investigation. Those centres are administrative and financially autonomous

The rebirth of an old language: issues of gender equality in Kazakhsstan

The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful.