In the post-Soviet Tajikistan rural people experience rapid and painful changes due to both the increasing political and economic inequalities and the globalization processes of political Islam, labor migration and development interventions. In such a situation state elites, religious notables and their local and international allies take joint actions to prevent another civil clash. As a part of their efforts, they highlight local people's family, communal and Islamic identities and norms. This dual job of the elites is to protect their "modern" power by "traditional" means.

Born in 1974 in Tajikistan Hafiz Boboyorov now is affiliated with the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan and doing research on socio- cultural aspects of political and economic life in Tajik society. The current publication is based on his PhD study at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany during 2006 - 2011.